Author: Geri Kahn

Social Security field offices closed but you may still apply for disability

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SSA closed

I drove by the Vallejo field office the other day and saw this sign that the field office is closed.  It is closed just like all of the field offices across the United States.  Nevertheless, you may still apply for disability online.  While applications may not be processed as quickly as we would like, they are only going to get slower if the pandemic becomes worse and/or the economy collapses.  I urge you to apply now if your are disabled.   If you would like assistance, please feel free to call my office.

The hearing offices are also closed to the public, but nevertheless, they are proceeding with hearings.  Hearings are now telephonic.  It is likely to be this way for some time.  While it is still possible to object to a telephonic hearing, you are unlikely to have an “in-person” hearing for a long time.  I have long objected to video hearings or telephonic hearings but now it is matter of having the case heard .  We all have to accept this reality, for now.

Listing 12.05 requires onset prior to age 22, not diagnostic testing prior to age 22

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Writing federal court briefs is hard work.  It takes a lot of time and I do not know if I am going to win (and collect fees).  The upside though is that I learn a lot and by having to write about it, I understand and learn the law much better.   This is true of a case I am currently working on in which my client has “intellectual disability” (mental retardation).

Social Security has what they call “Listings” – a list of impairments which if you meet one of them, you are considered disabled.  One of them is 12.05, Intellectual Disability.  Listing 12.05 provides:

12.05 Intellectual disability: intellectual disability refers to significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive functioning initially manifested during the developmental period; i.e., the evidence demonstrates or supports onset of the impairment before age 22.

The required level of severity for this disorder is met when the requirements in A, B, C, or D are satisfied.

A. Mental incapacity evidenced by dependence upon others for personal needs (e.g., toileting, eating, dressing, or bathing) and inability to follow directions, such that the use of standardized measures of intellectual functioning is precluded;

OR

B. A valid verbal, performance, or full scale IQ of 59 or less;

OR

C. A valid verbal, performance, or full scale IQ of 60 through 70 and a physical or other mental impairment imposing an additional and significant work-related limitation of function;

OR

D. A valid verbal, performance, or full scale IQ of 60 through 70, resulting in at least two of the following:

1. Marked restriction of activities of daily living; or

2. Marked difficulties in maintaining social functioning; or

3. Marked difficulties in maintaining concentration, persistence, or pace; or

4. Repeated episodes of decompensation, each of extended duration.

In order to win disability with the listing, a claimant has to meet the criteria contained in the introductory paragraph and one of the criteria set forth in parts A through D.  I had always thought that IQ testing or a diagnosis was required prior to the age of 22 to meet the requirement set forth in the introductory paragraph.  It turns out that I was wrong, and that a diagnosis of intellectual disability is not required to have been made prior to the age of 22.  Instead, the submission of other evidence of early onset of intellectual disability is acceptable.

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Solano County Public Health Department Starts Hepatitis C Rapid Testing Program

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Solano County Department of Public Health is now offering rapid Hepatitis C testing at its HIV clinic in Vallejo, 365 Tuolumne Street. The test is confidential and free to anyone at risk for infection. Results are available in 20-40 minutes.  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 75 percent of people infected with Hepatitis C do not know they have it because there are often no symptoms for several years.

Hepatitis C is not a listed impairment for disability.  I.e, you cannot win disability for simply having it.  In order to win disability for hepatitis, it is best to argue that you meet listing 5.o5, chronic liver disease.

It is diagnosed by the detection of hepatitis C viral RNA in the blood for at least 6 months. Documentation of the therapeutic response to treatment is also monitored by the quantitative assay of serum HCV RNA (“HCV viral load”). Treatment usually includes a combination of interferon injections and oral ribavirin; whether a therapeutic response has occurred is usually assessed after 12 weeks of treatment by checking the HCV viral load.

Hepatitis C is a virus that affects the liver and can cause serious health problems including liver damage, cirrhosis, liver cancer and even death.  It is most commonly passed from person to person through infected blood. Currently, most people become infected with Hepatitis C by sharing needles and other injection drug equipment.

Testing is available on a drop-in basis on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month from 5-7 p.m. at the Solano County Family Health Services Clinic, 365 Tuolumne St., Vallejo. For more information call 707-553-5552.