Legal Nurses Consultants Can Help One Through the Maze of the Social Security Disability Program
Legal Nurses! The Social Security Disability program is operated by the Social Security Disability Administration that caters to provide financial assistance to those people who are physically or mentally disabled. General tax revenues fund this program and it is so designed that both the disabled person as well as their family members get its benefit. In simpler term the Social Security Disability service can be defined as an insurance program that provides benefits to the insured disabled person if he has been paying his social security taxes. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants can be of a great service in understanding the complexity of this system and in some cases even help someone who is being unjustly denied a claim.
A very important criteria for this insurance claim to be accepted is that the aggrieved party, who is the person asking for the claim, has to be totally disabled, i.e., he should be unable to do any of the works he had been doing earlier. Also a person with a short term disability or a partial disability will not be qualified to claim the insurance money. Another criterion is that the disability should have lasted for more than one year and that it must have resulted in death. Only if these criterions are met with, only in that condition the claim can be made.
There is a five step procedure that is needed to be met up with first. The applicant has to face a question at each level. He will be asked about certain areas that include his current employment status, the severity of his condition, whether he meets with the criteria presented by the Social Security Disability system and whether the applicant is in a position to do the work he had been doing previously.
The Social Security Disability benefit is a struggle in its own right since all the criteria of the system needs to meet up in order to claim the benefits. Though the Social Security Disability administration claims that they receive applications from among ten to twelve million people every year, more than half of them are rejected in the first step. The entire process takes a lot of time and is full of hassles. Although it takes less than four months for a strong claim to get accepted, for the others you will need to reapply and then it will again start from process one, thereby taking most of your time and actually taking more than one or two years to finally settle down either in your favor or the administration’s. Before claiming the insurance money, it is always better to go through the Social Security Disability website and see what all criteria’s are needed to be provided. You need to prepare yourself beforehand for this. Make a list of whatever you need and ensure that you take all the necessary documents along with you to their office. You really need to file the Social Security Disability claim as soon as possible.
As already mentioned, the process actually takes a lot of time and hence it is absolutely necessary to work in advance. Be extremely cautious while filing up the form since a majority of the claims are denied by just looking at incomplete forms. Therefore check the form twice and is needed thrice to ensure that no place is left blank, all the spaces are filled correctly and that nowhere in the forms do the claims disparage with one another. Again this where the service of a legal nurse consultant or other health and legal professional can be invaluable.
While checking on the form your updated medical reports are keenly examined since that is the place where you can be denied of your claim. Therefore make sure that you keep visiting the doctor regularly and do not forget to collect medical reports from them since they are the evidences on which your case will stay. Also during the entire process if you get a respond mail from them, immediately reply to it. Also remember that in case of any query or assistance during the trial period, do not call the Social Security Disability center since they would not answer any of your query. Instead call the Disability Determination Services who are the most appropriate people to answer them.
If somehow the claim gets denied, ensure that you are appealing with the Social Security Administration within sixty days of getting the denial letter. You can then take the matter up to the tribunal court through an attorney and your case will get decided then. Also remember that there are no limits to the number of times you can apply for the claim. Therefore if being denied previously, if after five years you feel that your case is more stronger, you can definitely apply then. The Social Security Disability is after all, programmed to help the needs of those who cannot help themselves.
Legal Nurse Consultants can help one through this difficult gauntlet. Doing it by oneself can lead one to waisted time and lost funds. The aide of Legal Nurse is extremely important and should be considered by the elderly and those who have little understanding of the system.
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