The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced its latest updates to the Compassionate Allowances List (CAL) program, with nine new conditions added and two revisions to existing CAL conditions. To date, more than one million individuals with severe disabilities have benefited from the CAL program, which aims to quickly identify diseases or conditions that meet the strictest definition of disability so those applicants can potentially receive their disability determinations sooner.
Currently, the CAL program has 287 conditions, and the list is updated each year. New conditions are considered based on suggestions submitted by the public, input from the Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities, National Institutes for Health (NIH) research findings, medical and scientific expert counsel and information received from past public outreach hearings.
The new conditions and revisions for the CAL are below; the complete list can be found here.
Adult Heart Transplant Wait List – Status Levels 1-4
Requires a life-saving surgical procedure to replace a diseased heart. A transplant is typically required when an individual has “end-stage” heart failure.
Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome
This is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the ASXL3 gene.
Child Heart Transplant Wait List – Status Levels 1A/1B (revised)
This listing was updated to reflect the addition of a new CAL condition. Of note: pediatric Status Level 2 is not considered a CAL condition.
Costello Syndrome
This rare condition belongs to the RASopathies, a group of conditions resulting from germline-derived point mutations affecting the RAS-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway.
Histiocytic Malignancies (revised)
These extremely rare cancers arise from histiocytes, dendritic cells and Langerhans cells, which produce highly malignant and rapidly progressive tumors.
Histiocytosis Syndromes
This is a general name for a group of rare disorders that occur when histiocytes proliferate.
Neonatal Marfan Syndrome
This is a rare, severe and life-threatening form of Marfan syndrome that becomes evident in early infancy and progresses rapidly during early childhood.
PACS1 syndrome
This is a rare genetic disorder caused by changes in the PACS1 gene. It leads to neurodevelopmental delays, with language skills being more affected than motor skills.
Plasmablastic Lymphoma
This condition is uncommon but is an aggressive subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Renal Medullary Carcinoma
This is a very rare subclass of renal cancer, mainly affecting patients who carry the sickle cell trait, sickle cell disease or other sickle hemoglobinopathies that can cause sickling of the red blood cells.
Snijders Blok-Campeau Syndrome
A genetic disorder caused by mutations in the CHD3 gene that is characterized by global developmental delay, impaired intellectual development, delayed speech acquisition, hypotonia, behavioral disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and distinctive facial features.
Importance of the CAL Program for Disability Determinations
Disability application processing times have been increasing since 2020, among other issues. The average time to a disability determination increased even more over the past year, with the SSA prioritizing claim reviews for those who have waited the longest for a disability determination.
Given the increasing wait times, the CAL program is even more important for individuals with a severe disability who might otherwise be caught in a lengthy and frustrating process. While these wait times in the early 2010s might have been, the average wait time in fiscal year 2024 is reported to be 230 days, or more than seven and a half months.
Those with severe disabilities are not immune from the impacts of the backlog, but a Compassionate Allowance will still help to reduce the otherwise lengthy wait time. SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley says, “I am steadfastly committed to reducing the time people wait to receive a decision on their disability claim, and we are making progress.”
The SSA has been increasing its use of leading technology to accelerate applications for those with CAL conditions, aiming to improve the processing time for those with the most severe disabilities. As part of their Health IT initiative, the SSA has begun using electronic medical records in the disability determination process, aiming to reduce the time spent gathering important information for review.
How we can help with SSDI applicants with CAL conditions
If you are a Brown & Brown Absence Services Group customer, we take an active part in the disability application process. Our team can contact Social Security on your behalf to ensure the proper processing of your claim. You may contact our office anytime if you have questions about how this might impact your claim.
