The Associated Press has just put out a story saying that Social Security has expanded its compassionate allowance program to allow more disabled people to get on disability benefits with less delay. There's just one problem. As best I can tell, Social Security issued a press release to this effect in July but has done nothing since on compassionate allowances. Maybe, Social Security has done something recently and just told the AP but that seems unlikely. More likely the AP has gotten confused and thinks the July press release was just issued.
Update: Social Security must have told the AP but forgot to issue the press release. It's hard to see Social Security intentionally giving the AP an "exclusive" on something like this. Social Security just issued the press release. Thirty-five conditions were added to the compassionate allowance list:
Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Adult Onset Huntington Disease
Allan-Herndon-Dudley Syndrome
Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma
Aplastic Anemia
Beta Thalassemia Major
Bilateral Optic Atrophy- Infantile
Caudal Regression Syndrome - Types III and IV
Child T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma
DeSanctis Cacchione Syndrome
Dravet Syndrome
Congenital Lymphedema
Endometrial Stromal Sarcoma
Erdheim Chester Disease
Fryns Syndrome
Fulminant Giant Cell Myocarditis
Hepatopulmonary Syndrome
Hepatorenal Syndrome
Jervell and Lange-Nielsen Syndrome
Leiomyosarcoma
Malignant Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor
Malignant Germ Cell Tumor
MECP2 Duplication Syndrome
Menkes Disease - Classic or Infantile Onset Form
NFU-1 Mitochondrial Disease
Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia
Peritoneal Mucinous Carcinomatosis
Phelan-McDermid Syndrome
Retinopathy of Prematurity - Stage V
Severe Combined Immunodeficiency - Childhood
Sinonasal Cancer
Transplant Coronary Artery Vasculopathy
Usher Syndrome - Type I
Update: Social Security must have told the AP but forgot to issue the press release. It's hard to see Social Security intentionally giving the AP an "exclusive" on something like this. Social Security just issued the press release. Thirty-five conditions were added to the compassionate allowance list:
Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Adult Onset Huntington Disease
Allan-Herndon-Dudley Syndrome
Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma
Aplastic Anemia
Beta Thalassemia Major
Bilateral Optic Atrophy- Infantile
Caudal Regression Syndrome - Types III and IV
Child T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma
DeSanctis Cacchione Syndrome
Dravet Syndrome
Congenital Lymphedema
Endometrial Stromal Sarcoma
Erdheim Chester Disease
Fryns Syndrome
Fulminant Giant Cell Myocarditis
Hepatopulmonary Syndrome
Hepatorenal Syndrome
Jervell and Lange-Nielsen Syndrome
Leiomyosarcoma
Malignant Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor
Malignant Germ Cell Tumor
MECP2 Duplication Syndrome
Menkes Disease - Classic or Infantile Onset Form
NFU-1 Mitochondrial Disease
Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia
Peritoneal Mucinous Carcinomatosis
Phelan-McDermid Syndrome
Retinopathy of Prematurity - Stage V
Severe Combined Immunodeficiency - Childhood
Sinonasal Cancer
Transplant Coronary Artery Vasculopathy
Usher Syndrome - Type I
7 comments:
On Thursday, December 6, 2012, Commissioner Astrue will hold an event at the Hart Senate Building, room 902, at 10:00 a.m. in Washington D.C. to commemorate the milestone of reaching 200 Compassionate Allowances conditions. These conditions involve cancers, neurological, and other rare diseases affecting adults and children. The event is open to the public, advocacy organizations, and Congressional members and staff.
CAL is great but I haven't seen any statistics on how many people are approved under CAL. That I've never seen a CAL case myself could be indicitive of a few things:
CAL is working and does a good job screening, CAL cases already get paid early, and/or some of the conditions under CAL are so rare there might not be a single person with the condition in my entire state. That said, I'm glad there's a system we can look to in case one of these cases comes in door. Justin
What was announced in July may be the new conditions that were released to production this past weekend to make 200 total conditions.
There is no Compassionate Allowance "Program." There is a list of CAL impairments that are expedited because they are severe and frequently result in death. Many of these are rare diseases that are seldom seen. The info in July was about some additions to the list effective in August. The recent announcement was about some additions to the list. The COSS's goal was to have 200 CAL impairments on the list before his term was up. To state that SSA has "done nothing since July" regarding processing these impairments is incorrect.
CAL is nothing more than a list of listing level illnesses and rare diseases. In personally adjudicating over 1500 cases at a southern state DDS as a SDM and reviewing thousands more cases at a law office, I can tell you that non-listing CAL cases are extremely rare. Those rare cases were almost always approved at the DDS anyways since they were disabling in some way. So to state the obvious...CAL is nothing more than a way SSA can say they are doing more to approve cases quickly.
CAL is pure propaganda. Its a cheap easy way for SSA to make news that makes it look like they are improving the system when in fact it is just restating conditions that would result in allowances anyway. Nothing much compassionate about saying we are going to pay cases we would pay anyway.
In some ways, the view above is correct. But some of the CAL conditions are so rare, DDS employees were googling them to find out more about them. If you don't know anything about a rare condition, and one that frequently results in death, it is less likely that you will be awarded benefits or get them on time. CAL is a good thing.
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