Aug. 11 (UPI) — The Social Security Administration announced Tuesday that it has added 14 health conditions to the compassionate allowances list
This list speeds up the process of applying for disability benefits for those with certain serious illnesses and medical conditions. It now includes 314 conditions, and more than 1.2 million people with those conditions have been approved through the process, the SSA said
Conditions on the list primarily include certain cancers, adult brain disorders and rare disorders that affect children
The conditions added to the list Tuesday include:
· Adenylosuccinate lyase deficiency — neonatal form and type 1
· Aicardi syndrome
· Baraitser-Winter syndrome
· Beare-Stevenson Cutis Gyrata syndrome
· Bohring-Opitz syndrome
· CASK-related gene disorders
· Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma
· Lafora disease
· Malignant migrating partial seizures of infancy
· OPHN1 syndrome
· Primary cardiac sarcoma
· Primary intercranial malignant melanoma
· Uveal melanoma — with metastases
· Warburg micro syndrome
“Social Security is strengthening our disability programsand making the disability determination process better, faster and higher quality to serve the American public,said SSA Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano in a statement. “The compassionate allowances initiative cuts through red tape and allows us to deliver support to individuals who experience life-changing diagnoses and need help fast.”
The SSA created the program in 2008. The agency uses technology to scan applications for included conditions and fast-tracks those applications, it said. Other disability applications can take six to eight months for approval
Conditions for inclusion on the list can be submitted by the public online and suggested by medical and scientific experts, the National Institutes of Health and the Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities, the SSA said. Information is also obtained through past public outreach hearings about potential conditions
