With the current backlog, a Fort Wayne area resident applying for Social Security disability benefits will wait, on average, 604 days for a hearing before an administrative law judge who decides whether the person qualifies for disability benefits.

As of Oct. 31, 18,843 Hoosiers were waiting for disability determination hearings, including 5,414 in Fort Wayne, said Doug Nguyen, project manager for the public affairs office of the Chicago office of the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astruesaid at a December 2007 hearing, “People have died waiting for a hearing. This is America, and it is simply not acceptable for Americans to wait years for a final decision on a claim.”

That is why SSA recently initiated Compassionate Allowances, a fast-track benefit-approval program for people with certain medical conditions. Initially, 25 rare diseases and 25 forms of cancer are on the list, and more conditions will be added later. For individuals who meet one of the Compassionate Allowances criteria, disability determination could change from years to as short as a week, SSA officials say.

Among the 50 conditions on the Compassionate Allowances initial list are: breast cancer with distant metastases, meaning it has spread to other organs or parts of the body, and inflammatory breast cancer; acute leukemia; inoperable kidney cancer; gallbladder cancer; two types of spinal muscular atrophy; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig'sdisease); and Farber's disease, a metabolic disorder.

Mary Dunkle, public information officer with the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), says the organization and its member groups representing thousands of diseases or genetic conditions applaud the SSA for developing the program and hope to see the Compassionate Allowances list grow in the near future.

“There are almost 7,000 rare diseases or disorders,” Dunkle said, many that the SSA should accept as “no-brainers” for approval for benefits. “What (the SSA) told us is that this is definitely a work in progress,” Dunkle said of the new program.

Compassionate Allowances is the second fast-track program SSA has started. Quick Disability Determination (QDD) went into effect in the fall of 2007. QDD uses a “predictive model” that analyzes criteria to identify claims where there is high potential that the claimant is disabled and where evidence of the disability allegations can be quickly and easily obtained, Nguyen said. Compassionate Allowances, on the other hand, does not use predictive model and focuses on specific diagnoses.

“All that is needed is confirmation from the medical source,” he said.

SSA has also started video hearings and has changed from paper files to electronic files; and last year, “We cleared out all cases that were at least 900 days old,” Nguyen said.

It's too early for SSA to have data on the Compassionate Allowances program, but other efforts to expedite hearings and approvals have shown results. Nearly 1,000 people in Indiana had their cases heard or were approved under QDD between Aug. 31 and Oct. 31.

The Fort Wayne-based disability advocacy group Fifth Freedom has been informing people about Compassionate Allowances.

“Unfortunately, the conditions on the list are fairly rare. We haven't had anyone with the conditions who is on the program contact us,” said Doug Schmidt, coordinator for the ACT (Advocacy Coordination Team) at Fifth Freedom. “I think as the program expands, we'll probably get more feedback.”

Bob Walsh, public information officer for the SSA's South Bend office, which oversees the Fort Wayne SSA office, said the backlog in hearings is two-sided: “The number of administrative law judges has not been increased, while the number of disability claims (has) almost tripled since back in the 1990s.” The SSA has been waiting for the authority and funding to hire more administrative law judges.

Meanwhile, NORD is receiving calls from people whose medical conditions are not now on the list and who are inquiring when they might be, Dunkle said.

On Nov. 18, the SSA held hearings involving advocacy groups, patients and medical experts to gather information on brain injuries and stroke, which will likely be among the next conditions included in Compassionate Allowances.

“The Social Security Administration has always done a good job in getting extreme disability cases awarded quickly. Although there are still huge SSDI backlog problems around the country, the Compassionate Allowances initiative is a serious effort to expedite the most severe disability claims,” said Dan Allsup. His company, Allsup, is the nation's largest non-attorney Social Security Disability Insurance representation organization.

“This initiative includes disabled veterans returning home from war with traumatic brain injuries. The SSA has been making these cases a priority, and Allsup recognizes the agency's efforts,” he said.