The additions include illnesses related to conditions such as genetic mutations and neuromuscular disorders.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has updated its Compassionate Allowances (CAL) list of severe disabilities to include 13 new medical conditions, allowing people with these illnesses to secure disability benefits faster, the agency said in an Aug. 11 statement.
When an applicant’s condition is mentioned on the list, SSA flags the application to expedite the review process. In certain cases, medical records may be obtained electronically, cutting down processing times even further.
The medical conditions added to the CAL list are Au-Kline Syndrome, Bilateral Anophthalmia, Carey-Fineman-Ziter Syndrome, Harlequin Ichthyosis—Child, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, LMNA-related Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, Progressive Muscular Atrophy, Pulmonary Amyloidosis—AL Type, Rasmussen Encephalitis, Thymic Carcinoma, Turnpenny-Fry Syndrome, WHO Grade III Meningiomas, and Zhu-Tokita-Takenouchi-Kim Syndrome.
“By adding these 13 conditions to the Compassionate Allowances list, we are helping more people with devastating diagnoses to quickly receive the support they need,” SSA Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said.
Bisignano said the updates were part of a broader commitment to make the disability determination process more responsive and improve the disability programs.
According to an August 2024 post by LaPorte Law Firm, which specializes in Social Security disability law, individuals who apply for disability benefits under CAL can get a decision in a matter of weeks rather than months or years.
With the 13 added conditions, CAL now includes 300 disabilities in total, the SSA said in the statement.
Since CAL’s establishment in 2008, more than 1.1 million Americans with severe disabilities have been approved through this fast-track process, the SSA said.
Improving Disability Processes
According to the SSA, the agency uses the same rules to evaluate CAL conditions as it uses to assess Social Security disability insurance and supplemental security income programs.
SSA identifies new conditions to be added to the CAL list after taking into account factors such as comments from the public, input from medical experts, and research from the National Institutes of Health.
