Social Security Adds 14 Diseases To Its Disability List

The Social Security Administration is expanding a program designed to get disability decisions to some of the nation’s most seriously ill patients faster, adding 14 medical conditions to its expedited processing list.

The agency announced Tuesday that the conditions have been added to its Compassionate Allowances program, bringing the total number of qualifying conditions to 314. The program is designed to identify applicants whose diseases or disorders are so severe that they clearly meet Social Security’s disability standards, allowing their cases to move through the system much faster than a typical disability claim.

The latest additions include a mix of rare genetic disorders, severe neurological conditions and aggressive cancers. Several affect infants and young children, while others are forms of cancer that can carry particularly serious prognoses.

The 14 newly added conditions are:

• Adenylosuccinate Lyase Deficiency – Neonatal Form and Type 1
• Aicardi Syndrome
• Baraitser-Winter Syndrome
• Beare-Stevenson Cutis Gyrata Syndrome
• Bohring-Opitz Syndrome
• CASK-Related Gene Disorders
• Hepatosplenic T-Cell Lymphoma
• Lafora Disease
• Malignant Migrating Partial Seizures of Infancy (MMPSI)
• OPHN1 Syndrome
• Primary Cardiac Sarcoma
• Primary Intracranial Malignant Melanoma
• Uveal Melanoma – with Metastases
• Warburg Micro Syndrome

“The Compassionate Allowances initiative cuts through red tape and allows us to deliver support to individuals who experience life-changing diagnoses and need help fast,” Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in announcing the expansion.

The Compassionate Allowances initiative dates back to 2008, when Social Security launched the program nationwide with 50 qualifying conditions. Its purpose was to dramatically shorten the time required to make disability determinations for people suffering from cancers, rare diseases and other severe conditions that clearly satisfy federal disability standards.

Since then, the program has steadily expanded. Social Security says more than 1.2 million people with severe disabilities have received approvals through the expedited process.

Getting onto the Compassionate Allowances list does not create a separate Social Security benefit. Instead, it changes how quickly an applicant’s existing disability claim can be identified and evaluated. The agency uses technology to flag applications that may involve a qualifying condition, while medical records are used to confirm the diagnosis and determine eligibility.

That distinction can make an enormous difference for seriously ill applicants. The standard disability determination process can take months, while Compassionate Allowances cases are designed to receive significantly faster decisions. When the program was originally rolled out, Social Security said qualifying cases could be decided in a matter of days rather than months or years.

One of the newly listed diseases, Adenylosuccinate Lyase Deficiency in its neonatal and Type 1 forms, illustrates the severity of the conditions targeted by the program. Social Security describes it as a rare inherited metabolic disorder that can cause developmental problems and seizures. The agency says the neonatal form can result in severe encephalopathy, respiratory problems and seizures, with affected infants generally surviving only a matter of weeks.

The expansion follows a similar move last year, when Social Security added 13 conditions to the Compassionate Allowances list. Those additions brought the total to 300 at the time.

With this week’s additions, the program has now grown from just 50 conditions at its nationwide launch to 314, giving more Americans facing devastating diagnoses a path toward a quicker decision on their disability benefits.

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