CurePSP Press Release 10-14-2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bruce Janele, 800-457-4777
janele@curepsp.org
TIMONIUM, Maryland, October 14, 2011 – The Social Security Administration (SSA) has just approved four new rare diseases to now qualify for Compassionate Allowance (CAL):
• Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)
• Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD)
• Multiple System Atrophy (MSA)
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Parkinsonism-Dementia Complex (ALS/PDC)
Social Security has an obligation to provide benefits quickly to applicants whose medical conditions are so serious that their conditions obviously meet disability standards.
Compassionate Allowances (CAL) are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other medical conditions 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.
CAL conditions are developed as a result of information received at public outreach hearings, comments received from the Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities, counsel of medical and scientific experts, and our research with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Also, SSA considered which conditions are most likely to meet current definitions of disability.
Commissioner Astrue has held seven Compassionate Allowances public outreach hearings. The hearings were on rare diseases, cancers, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke, early-onset Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, schizophrenia, cardiovascular disease and multiple organ transplants and autoimmune diseases.
The SSA's decision to include these neurodegenerative disorders was based on the clinical information which CurePSP and its medical experts have provided over the past couple of years, as well as the active advocacy of CurePSP on behalf of patients and caregivers.
PSP, CBD, MSA, and ALS/PDC will not become an active part of SSA's Compassionate Allowance until December 2011, at which point Social Security plans to begin accepting applications.
To learn more about CAL and what you need to know when applying for disability under the Compassionate Allowances program, please click here.
CurePSP is the foremost organization dedicated to curing PSP, CBD, and related brain diseases. Since 1997, the Foundation has awarded over 125 PSP-related research grants totaling more than $9 million.
CurePSP’s mission is to increase awareness of progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, and related brain diseases; fund research toward cure and prevention; educate healthcare professionals; and provide support, information, and hope for affected persons and their families.
