SFC/EM Investigación

[t]New Ruling Should Improve Disabled CFIDS Patients' Access to Benefits[/t]

In April 1999, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued a ruling clarifying that persons with medically documented CFS can be found to have a "medically determinable impairment." The ruling provides guidance to disability claims processors for applying SSA policy to applications for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) benefits that result from disability due to CFS. While this ruling hardly "opened the floodgates" for CFS patients to garner disability benefits, it does make it easier for CFS patients to acquire benefits at an earlier stage in the SSA appeals process.

The ruling had been in development for over a year. A unique aspect of this ruling was that SSA's Office of Disability appropriately involved the CFIDS Association of America from the earliest stages in drafting and refining the ruling. SSA became convinced of the need for the ruling when an internal survey of CFS-related applications revealed that numerous awards made at the hearing level could have been approved earlier in the review process. The inappropriate delays not only posed serious problems for the applicant, but created unnecessary expense for the agency. The POMS manual, the "bible" of SSA adjudicators, was revised to reflect the policy stated in the ruling. SSA began training its personnel in July 1999 to ensure that the ruling was used correctly at all stages of the disability process.

Overall the Social Security Ruling improves CFS patients' outcomes in the SSDI process. It is binding on adjudicators at all levels -- initial application, reconsideration, and administrative law hearings -- and it applies when SSDI recipients are periodically reviewed (for Continuing Disability Reviews or CDRs). "Social Security Ruling, SSR 99-2p.; Titles II and XVI: Evaluating Cases Involving Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)" has become a critical reference in any CFS patient's application for federal disability benefits.

fuente: http://www.cfids.org/advocacy/ssa-ruling.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(hay una copia de los artículos de la reglamentación, por si alguien quiere leerlos)

No es un tema nuevo, quiero decir que el reconocimiento se produjo en el año 2000. Sin embargo, al leerlo me he dado cuenta de un argumento interesante: llegaron a la conclusión de que, puesto que en los tribunales -caso por caso- se solían conceder las invalideces, era absurdo y peligroso retrasar la concesión de la paga por invalidez (poniendo en peligro la vida y el bienestar del enfermo) cuando al final el juez se la iba a conceder igual.

Comprendieron que era más seguro para el enfermo y más barato para el Estado conceder la invalidez a los que aportaran la documentación médica necesaria para justificar padecer Síndrome de Fatiga Crónica, que alargar el proceso y llevar el tema ante los tribunales, que a la larga resulta más caro.

A veces me asombra el pensamiento lógico de los americanos... siempre dispuestos a cambiar las leyes o normas que no funcionan. Ellos tienen muy claro que las leyes no son inamovibles, sino que se adaptan a la vida a medida que hace falta.