US Social Security to Fast Track Disability Claims

Americans with cancers and other severe medical conditions will get quicker action on disability claims under a new Social Security program.

The time needed to decide claims could change from 100 days or more to as few as two. The Compassionate Allowances initiative will apply to 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers, and may be expanded on later.

The program focuses on diseases where the conditions are so severe or the treatment so difficult that that the person making the claim obviously cannot continue working. Astrue said the agency can approve many claims solely on confirmation of the diagnosis. Those include acute leukemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and pancreatic cancer. Others diseases on the Social Security list are inoperable forms of breast, bladder, kidney and bone cancer like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gaucher disease, and Rett Syndrome.

Social Security estimates the new two track system will result in a decision for 6 percent to 9 percent of disability cases, for as many as 250,000 people, in a matter of days. However even with the speedier processing, there will be no change in the law under which claimants must wait five months before getting benefits. Those receiving approval may have shorter periods to wait because the five-month period begins from the onset of their disability.

In Other U.S. Health and Disability News

An on-campus staff of 10 researchers housed in Kimball Tower on South Campus has been producing inventions to assist disabled and elderly people that can also benefit the general public. After receiving a $4.7 million donation from the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research in 2004, the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Transfer (T2RERC) at UB is at the end of a research term, and they have numerous products to show for it. http://spectrum.buffalo.edu/article.php?id=37774

For obese patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, stretching exercises can't beat the pain relieving power of Tai Chi's graceful movements and peaceful frame of mind, researchers found.

The ancient Chinese martial art-turned-exercise improved pain scores three-fold better than stretching plus wellness education (P=0.0004), Chenchen Wang, M.D., of Tufts University in Boston, and colleagues reported here at the American College of Rheumatology meeting.

Osteoarthritis involves a catch-22 of interlinked pain, muscle weakness, structural damage, and lack of self-efficacy that leads to disability, Dr. Wang said. Other types of exercise can also be effective in knee osteoarthritis, but "there's a lot going on in Tai Chi that could be something unique," said Dr. Fox, who was a moderator at the plenary session where the results were presented. Traditional Chinese Exercise Beats Stretching for Arthritic Knees