Meeting a Social Security Listing

According to the National Kidney Foundation, dialysis is needed when your kidneys are only functioning at 10-15% of capacity. Dialysis removes the waste, excess fluid, and toxins from the blood, which the kidneys can no longer do. Side effects from dialysis include: nausea and vomiting, muscle cramps, itching, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, anemia and fatigue, and dizziness. 

One way to establish entitlement to Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits when you are on dialysis is by showing you meet the “listing” criteria for chronic kidney disease. I represent a former police detective who had contacted me when he was looking for a Social Security Disability attorney. His SSD application was approved less than a month after we filed it. The application emphasized that besides meeting the listing, the claimant’s vocational factors also favored a finding of disability. 

Especially now that the SSA requires reconsideration in New York, the trend over recent years has been for an increased amount of time to obtain a decision. Tailoring the application to the claimant’s unique medical and vocational attributes avoided that protracted process.

Help for SS?

Maybe, just maybe, there is some hope for people applying for Social Security Disability benefits. We have long maintained that the system is fraught with fraud, an example of which is the doctors that they hire to review claims. U.S. Rep John Larson from Connecticut, who is the chair the Social Security Subcommittee is trying to launch an investigation into these doctors. The doctors are paid by the amount of claims they review, so one can only imagine their incentive to speed through the claim files to make as much money as possible. We can only hope that something good comes out of this, and that this problem is rectified giving applicants a greater chance of being approved at the initial application.