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 Michael
J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced the national rollout of
the agency's Compassionate Allowances initiative, a way to expedite the
processing of disability claims for applicants whose medical conditions are so
severe that their conditions obviously meet Social Security's standards.
 "Getting
benefits quickly to people with the most severe medical conditions is both the
right and the compassionate thing to do,"
Commissioner Astrue said. "This initiative will allow us to make decisions on
these cases in a matter of days, rather than months or years."
Social
Security is launching this expedited decision process with a total of 50
conditions. Over time, more diseases and conditions will be added. A list of
the first 50 impairments -- 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers -- can be found
below
Compassionate Allowances Program
Compassionate Allowances Social Security has an obligation to provide benefits
quickly to applicants whose medical conditions are so serious that their
conditions obviously meet disability standards.
Compassionate allowances are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other
medical conditions that invariably qualify under the Listing of Impairments
based on minimal objective medical information. Compassionate allowances will
allow Social Security to quickly target the most obviously disabled individuals
for allowances based on objective medical information that we can obtain
quickly.
Commissioner Astrue has held two Compassionate Allowance public outreach
hearings. The first was on rare diseases and the second was on cancers. A third
hearing on brain injuries was held on November 18, 2008.
The
initial list of Compassionate Allowance conditions was developed as a result of
information received at public outreach hearings, public comment on an Advance
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, comments received from the Social Security and
Disability Determination Service communities, and the counsel of medical and
scientific experts. Also, we considered which conditions are most likely to meet
our current definition of disability.
A modest
50 conditions have been selected for the initiative's rollout. The list which
follows may expand over time.
Initial List of Compassionate Allowance Conditions
Additional information about how compassionate allowances are processed |
