The Social Security Administration has added 52 new conditions to its Compassionate Allowances Program, primarily involving neurological disorders, cancers and rare diseases.

The Compassionate Allowances program is designed to fast-track disability decisions so that claimants with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days, instead of months or years.

According to Social Security, the Compassionate Allowances program has quickly approved disability benefits for nearly 61,000 people with severe disabilities in the past fiscal year, and nearly 173,000 applications since the program began.

Social Security launched the Compassionate Allowances program in 2008 with a list of 50 diseases and conditions. These 52 new conditions, effective in August 2012, will increase the total number of Compassionate Allowances conditions to 165. The conditions include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, a number of rare genetic disorders of children, early-onset Alzheimer's disease, immune system conditions, and other disorders.

New Compassionate Allowances Conditions:

Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome

Alobar Holoprosencephaly

Alpers Disease

Alpha Mannosidosis

Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Site

Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis

Child Neuroblastoma

Child Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Chondrosarcoma with multimodal therapy

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome-Classic Form

Ewings Sarcoma

Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma with metastases

Fucosidosis - Type 1

Galactosialidosis - Early Infantile Type

Glioma Grade III and IV

Hallervorden-Spatz Disease

Hepatoblastoma

Histiocytosis

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

Hydranencephaly

Hypocomplementemic Urticarial Vasculitis

Hypophosphatasia Perinatal lethal Form

I Cell disease

Infantile Free Sialic Acid Storage Disease

Juvenile Onset Huntington Disease

Kufs Disease Type A and B

Lissencephaly

Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis Grade III

Malignant Brain Stem Gliomas-Childhood

Malignant Melanoma with metastases

Mastocytosis Type IV

Medulloblastoma with metastasis

Merkel Cell Carcinoma with metastases

Myocolonic Epilepsy

Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis 

Obliterative Bronchiolitis

Ohtahara Syndrome

Orthochromatic Leukodystrophy with Pigmented Glia

Pearson Syndrome

Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease Classic Form

Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease Connatal Form

Peripheral Nerve Cancer metastatic or recurrent

Perry Syndrome

Ragged Red Fibers Syndrome

Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhizomelic Chondrodysplasia Punctata

Schindler Disease Type 1

Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome

Spinal Nerve Root Cancer- metastatic or recurrent

Stiff Person Syndrome

Tabes Dorsalis

Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome

Xeroderma Pigmentosum

For more information on the Compassionate Allowances

please click here.  

  

Applying for Social Security disability benefits just became a little easier.

When a person applies for Social Security disability benefits, the agency conducts a disability review to determine if the applicant is actually "disabled" as defined by federal law. As part of this review, the Social Security Administration (SSA) contacts the applicant's doctors and other medical providers to discuss the applicant's medical history and to obtain important medical records that can be used throughout the disability determination process.