SSDRC

Filing an Application for Disability Benefits

Social Security Disability List of Impairments

Social Security Disability and SSI Back pay

Social Security Disability Status

SSI Disability Benefits

Social Security Disability and SSI Requirements

Social Security, SSI, and Mental Disability

How Long Does It Take To Get Disability Benefits?

Qualifying: What do you Need to Prove to Qualify for Disability?

Facts about Basal Cell Carcinoma and Filing for Disability

1. Basal cell carcinoma is a type of skin cancer, most common outside of melanoma skin cancers. It is easily treated and is not likely to spread, although it is likely to reoccur elsewhere on the skin within five years.

2. Basal cell carcinomas result from long-term ultraviolet radiation exposure, which is part of sunlight. Sunblock does not prevent basal cell carcinomas from forming; staying out of the sun is the only sure prevention method.

3. Most basal cell carcinomas occur on the head, neck back and chest. All skin cancers are characterized by sores that do not heal, but bleed and scab over for a period of time before opening again.

4. Basal cell carcinoma in particular on the face, ears and neck usually looks like a white or waxy bump that may bleed, crust over, or has a depression in the center.

5. On the chest and back basal cell carcinoma is usually a flat and scaly patch of skin that can be either flesh colored or brown. It can grow up to 6 inches across.

6. Morpheaform basal cell carcinoma is a rare but more serious type, that generally looks like a white waxy scar.

7. Aside from exposure to sun, there are other factors that increase the risk of developing basal cell carcinoma. Medical treatment such as immunosuppressant drugs for a transplant, or radiation treatments for psoriasis, acne and ringworm combined with other factors such as skin pigmentation increase the risk. Arsenic consumption also increases this risk.

8. Generally, men over the age of 50, with fair skin and a family history of skin cancer, especially those who spend a lot of time in the sun throughout their lives, are the most likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.

9. When treated in a timely manner basal cell carcinomas rarely cause problems. When left untreated, especially if the carcinoma is morpheaform, it can destroy muscles, nerves and even bone, so early treatment is important.

Can you qualify for disability benefits with this condition?

Whether or not you qualify for disability and, as a result, are approved for disability benefits will depend entirely on the information obtained from your medical records. This includes whatever statements may have been obtained from your treating physician (a doctor who has a history of treating your condition and is, therefore, qualified to comment as to your condition and prognosis).

It will also depend on the information obtained from your vocational, or work, history if you are an adult, or academic records if you are a minor-age child. The important thing to keep in mind is that the social security administration does not award benefits based on simply having a condition, but, instead, will base an approval or denial on the extent to which a condition causes functional limitations. Functional limitations can be great enough to make work activity not possible (or, for a child, make it impossible to engage in age-appropriate activities).

Why are so many disability cases lost at the disability application and reconsideration appeal levels?

Speaking as a former Disability Claims Examiner, I can state that there are several reasons:

1) Social Security makes no attempt to obtain a statement from a claimant's treating physician. By contrast, at the hearing level, a claimant and his or her disability attorney will generally obtain and present this type of statement to a judge;

2) Prior to the hearing level, a claimant will not have the opportunity to explain how their condition limits them, nor will their attorney or representative have the opportunity to make a presentation based on the evidence of the case. At the hearing level, of course, this is exactly what happens. And a number of disability representatives will also take such steps even earlier, at the reconsideration appeal level;

3) Disability judges, unlike disability examiners who decides cases at the first two levels of the system, can make independent decisions without being overturned by immediate supervisors--which happens frequently.