Cancer Claims For Social Security Disability
Last updated on September 20, 2023
If you or a loved one has a terminal cancer diagnosis, or cannot work because of the complications of the disease or treatment, you can trust the law firm of Rogers, Hofrichter & Karrh, LLC, to fight for your disability benefits.
The Social Security Administration has specific eligibility criteria for granting long term disability. A confirmed cancer diagnosis is just one part of the equation. Our attorneys have long experience in Social Security Disability (SSDI) claims, and have represented many cancer patients who have nowhere else to turn after other disability benefits have run out.
We take cases in the Metro Atlanta area and throughout Georgia. Contact us today for a free consultation — even if you have been turned down — to discuss how we can help and what more is needed to get you approved for SSDI benefits.
Beyond the Diagnosis: Proving Cancer Disability
Claims for inoperable tumors in the brain, spinal cord or lungs, and other deadly cancers such as mesothelioma, are almost automatically approved. Other cancers that are usually approved quickly upon a diagnosis include metastasized lung or breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and liver cancer.
But the SSA anticipates that patients with survivable cancers will continue to work or return to work within 12 months after treatment — thus making them ineligible for long term disability and putting the burden on the patient to prove otherwise.
The claim examiner or disability judge considers specific criteria in awarding SSDI for malignant neoplastic diseases (cancer):
- The type of cancer
- Involvement (localized, or spread to lymph nodes or other organs)
- Response to and side effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and other treatments
- Remission or lasting complications
We work hard to show that our client cannot work because of the cumulative physical and psychological impact: chronic fatigue or fatigue from minimal exertion, chronic pain and soreness, impaired mobility, difficulty breathing, organ damage, radiation sickness, and the depression and anxiety that often come with a traumatic diagnosis.
By working closely with our clients and their doctors, we are confident we can win benefits, and our lawyers will exhaust all administrative or court appeals to do so. We have secured eligibility for breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, leukemia and virtually every type of carcinoma. We have also preserved benefits for clients whose cases were reopened by the SSA after surviving cancer for a certain period of time.
Please call us at CALL to find out where you stand in a free case evaluation.