Social
Security expands compassionate allowances conditions
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[January 18, 2012]
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security, today announced 13 new
Compassionate Allowances conditions involving the immune system and
neurological disorders. The Compassionate Allowances program
fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the
most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within
days instead of months or years. Commissioner Astrue made the
announcement during his remarks at the U.S. Conference on Rare
Diseases and Orphan Products in Washington, D.C.
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“Social Security handles more than three million disability
applications each year and we need to keep innovating and making our
work more efficient,” Commissioner Astrue said. “With our
Compassionate Allowances program, we quickly approved disability
benefits for more than 60,000 people with severe disabilities in the
past fiscal year. We have made significant improvements, but we can
always do more.”
The Compassionate Allowances initiative identifies claims where the
nature of the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets the
statutory standard for disability. With the help of sophisticated
new information technology, the agency can quickly identify
potential Compassionate Allowances and then quickly make decisions.
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Social Security launched the Compassionate Allowances program in
2008 with a list of 50 diseases and conditions. The announcement of
13 new conditions, effective in December, will increase the total
number of Compassionate Allowances conditions to 113. The conditions
include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, a number of rare
genetic disorders of children, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease,
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and other disorders.
The agency announced a small grant program for graduate students
that will help Social Security improve its list and has recently
awarded an approximately $1.8 million grant over a five-year period
to Policy Research, Incorporated (PRI) through the Disability
Determination Process Small Grant Program. This new program aims to
improve the disability process through innovative research by
graduate students who will receive small stipends for their work. In
addition, the agency recently streamlined its online disability
application for people who have a condition on the Compassionate
Allowances list.
For more information on the Compassionate Allowances initiative,
please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.
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New Compassionate Allowances Conditions
Malignant Multiple Sclerosis
Paraneoplastic Pemphigus
Multicentric Castleman Disease
Pulmonary Kaposi Sarcoma
Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma
Primary Effusion Lymphoma
Angelman Syndrome
Lewy Body Dementia
Lowe Syndrome
Corticobasal Degeneration
Multiple System Atrophy
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
The ALS/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex
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