There's no test for back pain.

“I have been having severe back pain and it’s been effecting me working and even duties around the house. I’m trying to receive disability and keep getting turned down. I want to work but it’s hard when you have back problems”—Ms. R.

There’s so much we can say in response to Ms. R. After all, it is a story we hear much too often, and it doesn’t get easier to hear with time. Granted, everyone has experienced a bout with back pain once or twice in his or her life. But, to live with it on a constant, daily basis is a whole different story.

The biggest concern when it comes to back pain revolves around subjective pain. To clarify, back impairments are often objective; MRI scan and x-rays may easily indicate the culprit of pain. However, back pain is subjective. Regardless if tests and scans come back with or without evidence to indicate the cause of the pain, no one knows what you are going through, because there is no test for pain.

You might wonder what to do about your pain when it comes to applying for disability, especially knowing there is no specific test to measure your level of pain. Quite possibly, the most important thing you can do is to make sure you’re telling your doctor each time you visit. Most doctor’s offices record pain on a comparative pain scale, giving you a scale from one to ten (with ten being the worst pain ever) and asking you where you would place your own pain level along the scale. Additionally, it’s in your best interest to be as specific as you can with your pain. Is it sharp? Shooting? Burning? Whatever you’re feeling, it’s best to let your doctors know.

If you feel as though your pain has reached a level that has begun to interfere with not only your ability to maintain employment, but also your ability to maintain your activities of daily living, there are options for you. We won’t try to tell you we understand, because we know only you know the pain you are living with. But, we will try to help you in anyway we can; it’s just a part of the way we do things Better and Nicer at Binder & Binder®. 

Compassionate Allowances

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has an obligation. What is that obligation we are hinting towards, you may wonder? Well, it’s quite simple. If an applicant’s condition is so serious that they obviously meet disability standards, the SSA has the obligation to provide benefits…quickly.

According to the SSA, “compassionate allowances are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other medical conditions and that invariably qualify under the Listing of Impairments based on minimal objective medical information. Compassionate allowances allow Social Security to quickly target the most obviously disabled individuals for allowances based on objective medical information that we can obtain quickly.”

The Commissioner of Social Security, Michael J. Astrue, has held numerous Compassionate Allowance public outreach meetings over the past few years. Discussions have been held regarding disabilities such as rare diseases, cancer, traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, schizophrenia, and cardiovascular disease. The most recent public outreach meeting, held on March 16, 2011, opened the discussion of compassionate allowances with regard to autoimmune diseases.

Compassionate allowance cases are very similar in nature to terminal illness claims—however, not all compassionate allowance claims will involve a terminal illness. For example, an individual with a spinal cord injury may qualify as a compassionate allowance, even if they are expected to live a long life.

While their obligation may be quite simple, it doesn’t necessarily mean the process is also simple. In fact, the criterion to have a claim designated as compassionate allowance is strict. That’s where we come in. We’ll deal with the government; you have enough to worry about. Currently, the SSA’s list of compassionate allowance conditions holds just under 100 listings. We don’t expect you to know if you meet one of those listing, that’s our job. And, since we’re here to do things Better and Nicer, you can be assured we’ll help your case get on the right track to a compassionate allowance listing, if the criteria are met.

If you have any questions or concerns regard compassionate allowances, please feel free to leave a comment!

Stepping Up Our Game

It’s been over a year since our first blog post. But, quite frankly, our opening words there still ring true. Things change fast in the legal world. In fact, things change daily. So, we’re going to step up our game, and bring you daily updates; we know how important it is to stay current with legal issues, especially those related to Social Security Disability. It’s our duty to our clients, and to our company, to follow the changing laws and regulations—what better a place to obtain updates than right here?

We will be keeping up with the latest Social Security News, answering the tough questions, and sharing stories that will warm your heart (even if you aren’t a client!). But, the only way to be a part of it is to check in. We’ll help make it easier on you by updating our Binder & Binder® Facebook and Twitter pages daily, as well. Feel free to head on over and check them out soon—they’ll be up and running before you know it!

The bottom line is, as the bottom line always has been and always will be, we’re here to do things better and nicer. We can only blog better if we do it frequently enough to keep you up to date. And we can only blog nicer by providing you, our readers, followers, and friends, with the information you need to succeed and stay informed. As we said nearly a year ago in our first blog post: we’ll keep you updated, so please return often. Your feedback is important to us, so let us know how we’re doing.