Social Security Disability Blog

Food as Medicine is a free produce distribution program through the Greater Cleveland Food Bank in collaboration with health care facilities to improve health and wellbeing by giving access to healthy food. NEON (Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services) has six different locations where produce is distributed. For times and locations of distributions see below. NEON Food as Medicine 2020 Schedule Flyer To learn more about the program, visit the Greater Cleveland Food Bank website: https://www.greaterclevelandfoodbank.org/programs/food-as-medicine More...

Congratulations to Andrew Margolius and Marcia Margolius for their selection by Super Lawyers in 2020. Andrew Margolius has been recognized in the area of employment law, and Marcia Margolius has been recognized in the area of Social Security. Super Lawyers identifies the top five percent of lawyers in each state “to create a credible, comprehensive, and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel.” Super Lawyers uses a multiphase process in order to select attorneys, which includes nomination, independent research, peer evaluation, and final selection. More information about Super Lawyers is available in their regional newsletter. More...

The Social Security Administration allows for quick hearings or an on-the-record decision without a hearing for what is vaguely described as a compassionate allowance. These cases are often difficult to identify and prove. The regulation states: Compassionate Allowances (CAL)The CAL process identifies diseases and other medical conditions that invariably qualify under the Listing of Impairments (20 CFR Appendix 1 to Subpart P of Part 404-Listing of Impairments). For more information about the CAL initiative, see POMS DI 11005.604. Most CAL cases are identified at the initial level of adjudication, but a new condition that develops later can also qualify for CAL processing. Subsequent identification, including More...

There is also a way to get a quicker hearing date if a claimant has a critical illness. This occurs when a claimant’s illness is terminal and referred to as a “TERI case” (short for Terminally ill). In this instances the inevitably the claimant will end up passing away. Due to their sensitive time frame TERI cases are given evaluation priority for as soon as possible. Critical illness case claims will still be subject to the regular evaluation process. The regulation states: I-2-1-40. Critical Cases A. General The Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) determines a case is “critical” and requires special processing in the following More...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is well aware of how incredibly long it takes to schedule a hearing for someone asserting disability. Disability applicants often have to wait a year and a half for this hearing, even while their funds are disappearing, they are hurting, and bills are stacking up. There is no doubt in our mind that SSA needs more of a budget to employ more judges and staff to reduce the terribly long wait time for these hearings. Many applicants will win, showing that the SSA was in error for denying these people disability benefits and unnecessarily causing these hardships. Social Security has More...

Recent articles indicate that the Trump Administration is expanding Social Security’s ability and funding to look at a disability applicant’s Facebook or social media accounts. This, however, is nothing new as Social Security has always been able to investigate issues like this. However, there is now more of a focus on this “evidence.” If, for example, a picture on Facebook shows you walking around a mall when you have stated you have problems ambulating, it will be evidence that you can ambulate. It might even negate another picture which shows, for example, you using a four pronged cane at a birthday party. It might also More...

The wait for a hearing with the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) can be a long one. We hope for quick hearing dates but often must wait until the judge sets it up on his or her calendar and that can take months. Presently, in the Cleveland ODAR office, claimants can expect a hearing approximately sixteen months after a hearing is requested. Columbus, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis wait times are similar. In certain cases, however, ODAR identifies claims as “critical” so that they are expedited. Critical cases are those where: •    a claimant’s illness is alleged or identified as terminal (i.e., untreatable, irreversible, More...

If your initial application for Social Security disability benefits is denied, you will typically file an appeal (called a Request for Reconsideration).  If that appeal is denied, you must then attend a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, who will then decide if you are disabled. Currently, it takes anywhere from 12-19 months to obtain a hearing date from the Social Security Administration.  However, the hearing is arguably the best opportunity you will have to prove to Social Security that you are disabled. It is the one time in the disability process that you will have the opportunity to be in a room and speak More...

In May of 2015 a national publication of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR) published the MM&A case involving a District Court’s reversal for violating the “Treating Physician Rule”: The district court remanded the case because the ALJ failed to follow the treating physician rule by not providing “clearly sufficient reasons for only affording ‘some weight’ to the treating physicians’ opinions….” The ALJ did not provide good reasons “or in fact any reason for the weight he assigns” the opinions. In his decision, the ALJ only stated that he “gave consideration” and “some weight” to the opinions. The error was not harmless More...

Blood disorders frequently require blood transfusions and or hospitalization and often cause crippling fatigue. The following blood disorders may be disabling: chronic anemia, sickle cell disease, chronic thrombocytopenia, hereditary telangiectasia, hemophilia and similar coagulation defects, polycythemia, myelofibrosis, chronic granulocytopenia, and aplastic anemias with bone marrow or stem cell transplantation. Simply being diagnosed with one of these conditions will be insufficient to prove that your condition disables you. The condition must also be severe enough to prevent you from working. In addition, you must meet certain additional criteria based on the condition diagnosed. Chronic Anemia In order to establish entitlement to disability benefits as a result More...