POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Insurance, Benefits Programs & HIV => Topic started by: Ptrk3 on March 19, 2017, 03:36:19 pm
-
Effective March 1, 2017, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) case officers have been instructed not to screen out a Continuing Disability Review (CDR) for SSDI recipients because of a HIV infection. Disability recipients who qualified because they have HIV will now be subject to routine reviews of their eligibility status every one to seven years.
The story appears in the March 15, 2017, edition of "The Body."
link to story:
http://www.thebody.com/content/79529/yes-ssa-disability-just-made-a-slight-change-for-h.html?ic=wnhp
reference link:
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference.nsf/links/02282017105458AM
From the story in "The Body," referring to SSDI recipients:
"..you should NOT be freaking out, according to HIV benefits expert Justin Hayford, a legal advocate at Legal Council for Health Justice (formerly AIDS Legal Council of Chicago). He told TheBody.com that this change has been years in the making.
"I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner," he said, given that, since at least 2000, Social Security has no longer considered HIV diagnosis alone to be a stand-alone cause for ongoing inability to work.
All the change means, he said, is that people who get SSA disability because of their HIV will have their case reviewed every few years along with everyone else on SSA. (Only people living with HIV who have certain other conditions, such as certain lymphomas or sarcomas, will be excluded from the need for review).
But, even when or if your review happens, it's likely your SSA won't be taken away because you may have other diagnoses that qualify you for disability, such as chronic neuropathy, diarrhea, fatigue, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, heart disease, diabetes -- or any other number of conditions that often go hand in hand with an HIV diagnosis (especially among HIV long-timers).
The most important thing to know and do? Be meticulous in documenting all your health issues with your doctor, even if they include things such as neuropathy, fatigue or gastrointestinal problems that you've lived with so long that you no longer bring them up at doctor visits. Having them on the record will be crucial when and if your disability benefits do come up for review. (And even that may depend on how much staff SSA has.)
This cannot be stressed enough. "Make sure your doctor is putting these things in your medical record if SSA does a review!" insisted John Peller, president/CEO of AIDS Foundation of Chicago, to TheBody.com)."
-
I read that ones own doctor will not be involved in the CDR but a MD chosen by SS.
That does not make sense but it's on the government's website that announced the change in CDR for HIV+.
-
I'M not sure if i am in the correct forum to ask this or not but here goes.I get a social security check and i also get a permanent disability check from the company i use to work for(almost 25 yrs.).MY question is at the age of 65 will anything change.I never really thought about it but someone asked me and now i am worried!!!!The company i worked for was a private gas and electric company and finally they gave me a permanent disability status.I am now 63 yrs old.
-
You would have to check with your company about its disability check to you, but your social security check, if it is SSDI (disability), will continue until your Full Retirement Age (FRA)--a sliding scale depending on the year you were born--and then it simply converts to your regular social security (the same amount and then given Cost-of-Living-Adjustments yearly as determined).
If your social security is simply social security (non-SSDI), and you started drawing it early (i.e., after you turned 62 but before your FRA), it will simply continue, of course, with Cost-of-Living-Adjustments yearly as determined.
-
THANKS FOR THE QUICK RESPONSE,IT IS simply a social security check and NOT SSDI
-
Then it will continue as is, with Cost-of-Living-Adjustments.
Again, you will need to check with your company about that disability. If you are eligible for a company pension at a certain age, your disability may stop and you just take your pension (perhaps, adjusted upward for the years you were on the company disability). It depends on the individual company, so no one on this forum can likely help you with this one, not knowing your company policy. Check with your company's Human Resources department.