Hello,

I am from California, so I am unsure as to whether this could be applied to the rest of the states.

When I had come to the social security office to apply for disability checks, I found out that my case worker was nice enough to put a "flag" onto my case folder, so that they would speed up my process. The end result that my checks started coming to me 3 months quicker than their standard 6 to 9 month procedure.

She flagged my case, just because I have breast cancer. She offered without my knowing about their flag system.

Try with your case worker, and I hope your application acts fast enough! You know how social security can be quite slow at times.....

Good luck!

I'm from In. and when I went to appy on line and they ask if this illness would result in death and I said yes. A box popped up and said to call them on the phone to make it quicker. Patty H

I'm in IL and I was forced to apply so SSD through my company, as I was on long term disability with them, I was approved in 2 weeks and they said my case would not be evaluated for at least 5 years, or until I finish Herceptin considering my diagnosis. My checks started arriving in 2 months, and they even back payed me. I don't like being on it, I would rather be working, but then there are days that I know I couldn't put in 8 hours! I just wonder how many on this board are on SSD or disability?
Hugs
Sheila

I didn't realize I could get SSD until recently. I thought long and hard about it. Then I decided I had paid into it for 30 years and I probably won't be here to draw SS when I am 62. So I talked to my benifit guy about it and hr recommended it. So I just started the paper work a few weeks ago. Patty H

What am I doing wrong? I applied in 2003 for disability and just recently got a request for more paperwork inclucing the original surgery in 1999! I've had 4 more surgeries since then plus......
I feel demoralized and assumed they were waiting for me to die or reach 62 - I'll be 60 in April.
anyway, any advice, help, names of who to contact??? I worked mainly in California.

Help and advice will be greatly appreciated.
sarah

A word of caution--
 

Sarah,

It is the norm for Social Security to decline deserving seriously ill people three or four times before they get accepted--perhaps they are hoping for the poor people to become despondent and commit suicide to save some money!

I had heard in California that they flagged the charts to avoid that happening to breast cancer patients.

A patient with cavernous sinus thrombosis (blood clot of the main venous draining of the brain) was turned down about 4 times over many years for Social Security Disability.
Websites for attorneys who specialize in trying to help people get their social security disabiility, describe multiple declines as the "norm" even in well- deserving cases with excellent justification documented by physicians.

One word of caution, however. Some health insurance policies have in their tiny printing that one becomes ineligible for their insurance if one even becomes eligible for (let alone accepts) Medicare whether because of disability or age!


Medicare doesn't pay for physical therapy and a lot of other things that private health insurance does, so be sure to read all the tiny print and discuss this with knowledgeable persons before proceeding.

Of course you have to do what you have to do. Just do it with your eyes wide open and looking out for yourself-- when it comes to government-run programs, no one else will, unfortunately.

That said, best of luck!

I, too, am on disability. And I felt sort of funny getting on it. But I did, and I'm so glad. After you apply, you have 6 months to complete the process, or you have to start over. Learned that the hard way. My case, once started anew, was also "flagged" and I started receiving checks within 3 months, I THINK.

On worker tried to get mine grandfathered from my original diagnosis date, which didn't seem right to me. And it was changed to my metastasis date. But everyone was very nice.

After being on it 2 years now, I've qualifed for Medicare. Now THAT feels weird. You have to accept the Hospitalization part, but you can turn down the other part that includes co-pays, etc. I did, because as of 2006, it would have meant $88/month taken out of my Disability check.

Remember this is not a state process, but federal. I can't imagine it being any different in any state. You've worked for years for this money. Don't feel quilty.

Love and light,

Lisa

Stage IV cancer speeds it up
 

Whether on line or at your local office, they WILL flag you and prioritize your claim.
I started getting my disability benefit last year. I had to pick a date to say when I became "disabled" and chose Jan.3 since that was the day that my brain MRI showed the two tumors. This was an agreeable day with my oncologist.
I could have said much earlier as I have been stage IV and on continuous treament since Jan 2002, but this seemed fine with me as I had been able to work some in the intervening years.
By the way, you CAN still work to some extent and get your benefit.
It is standard practice to have a review after 5 years - bet most of us will HAVE this review!!

As for the timing, I did not apply until June and I got my first direct deposit the first part of August. It included a couple of back months. They start the payment at 6 months after the date of disability, so watch that as you may be able to get a few more months by using an earlier date.
It IS nice to have this money as I have been paying the medical insurance stoploss, deductible and co-pays for almost 6 years now and this adds up to a few thousand every year (could have had my whole kitchen redone with that amount of $$!). I figure most of the disability benefit will go to pay for those expenses so I can save a little again or have money to travel, improve my surroundings, etc.

Many thanks for all of your helpful advice. I feel more hopeful. Like many of you, I could then use the money for medical costs not covered by insurance or not fully covered. Today my husband and I have been putting together all the paperwork again. When I first received this new request, I was extremely upset and thought of giving up. You are all so encouraging about everything, it's appreciated and after all this is just silly bureaucratic stuff not health related. thanks.
sarah

Sarah, you are living in France and collect SSDI from CA? I didn't know that.

If you are having problems applying for SSD, get your congressman involved. They can cut through the tape.

Regards
Joe

So just saying I will die from this DX is enough to get SS income? I am still working full-time right now. I don't know when I will not be able to work FT anymore. When should I start thinking about SS income?

The social security disability as well as health insurance are very confusing for me. Admittedly, I have a low grade breast cancer and in most days I can perform my job as a pharmacist. I got disability insurance from my health coverage at work when I had mastectomy. I had to go back to work since my hospital has very strict policy of not allowing excessive absence, else the employee is terminated. If terminated, I would have no health insurance coverage. I am 61 now. For me to get COBRA coverage, I understand that I must keep on working until I am 63.5 years old. Is my understanding correct? My hospital benefit staff is of no help at all. They said that for benefits outside the hospital plans, they will not and cannot help me. For those of you on social security disability now, how do you get health insurance coverage? I believe there is no insurance company which is willing to accept a breast cancer patient as a new insured. Is there a mechanism there that Medicare can be activated before one is 65 years old? Thanks for any who is knowledgeable in this confusing mess.

Ann

It's not a matter of "going to die." After all, we're all "going to die." I believe it's more a matter of having a chronic disease that keeps you from working. In my case, it just happens to be Stage IV bc.

As far as health insurance, SS disability and health insurance are two different animals. One does not affect the other. I collect SSID and am also part of my husband's health insurance plan.

And as for COBRA, you have the right to this (expensive) insurance for 18 months after you leave a job, whether voluntarily or not. Age is not a factor.

Love and light,

Lisa

CLTann, if your husband is under the income limit for Medicaid, you can get insurance from the state. If you are single, and you can manage a way to live off of SS income, I would consider it. But in order to be disabled, what are the guidelines? I am still physically able right now.

I have been getting diability for 3 years and just did my review papers this month. I got a letter the first year telling me I would be up for review this year! My husband's letter said he would be up for review in 8 years and he doesn't have cancer or a life threatening disease. He does have multiple medical problems. It was a hard one for me to swallow but I did work many years and didn't think I would live to 65. I thought I might be lucky to draw it for a year. Well its been three now and I even get Medicare. We didn't ask to have this disease and so I feel we deserve what little we get from this. Most if not all of it will go toward our medical bills and for me it will be for supplements. Its not like we are doing big things this money. It does help. hugs, Sandy

Don't have enough credits
 

I was a stay at home mom for most of the past 22 years so I do not have enough credits to file for disability benefits. A friend of mine was in the same situation. She does not have breast cancer, but has an allergy to artificial light and sunlight. She lives in the dark, only going out for church on Sunday, medical appts., and special occasions. Imagine having to live like that. She became a widow and was eligable to apply for widows benefits. She was denied the first time she applied. The second time she won and was awarded a monthly check, health benefits, and retroactive payment for all but the first 6 month waiting period. This could not have come at a better time as she depleted all her husbands life insurance and was living off of credit cards. She was also paying 500.00 per month for Kaiser medical insurance. If there is anyone out there who is in the above situation, you might be entitled benefits. The only way I can get disability benefits is if my husband dies. He is 3 1/2 years older then me and he will have to continue working for health insurance until I am eligable for medicare. Many Blessings to all of you. Lu Ann

Stage IV or "terminal"
 

AS for who is really disabled and who is not - that is NOT the criteria in the case of our cancer.
They want to know if we CAN die of this disease and if the doctor says "yes, no cure" then we are eligible. Once it is determined that the applicant has a disease progression and must be under continual treatment, we are eligible.
Some may be considered StageIIIb, with skin mets, but they have to stay in treatment off and on, so also get the benefits if there are enough points for the last 10 years.

SH-h-h-h-h! I think these rules are based on old stats - we all know about those, huh? - that when cancer progresses it is only a matter of a short while before death follows.
Guess we had better keep our 'secret' to ourselves!

I applied for SSDA in June 05 and was approved and received my first check in July 05. Don't know how that happened so fast but I suspect my family doctor's letter to them had something to do with it.

My doc knew that I had worked every day thru my first treatment for bc, my husbands illness and death from cancer, and even after masts, recon and chemo. In fact he was the one that said I needed to slow down and tend to my body for a change.

Best of luck to you. If you don't get it, try one of those disability specialist lawyers.

Ginagce

What if I go back to work?
 

I'm Stage IV - was diagnosed about a year ago - and I am still working full-time.

I think I may wan't to stop - I just can't do this - I'm tired all the time.

SO let's say I apply for disability - get it - and then one day decide to work again. I assume I can notify them - but I wonder if that will make it harder to go back on again.

Anyone know if you can "un-disable" yourself?

I have been on disability for about a year now. Dx Stage IV bc. I think you can make about $825 a month gross, and still receive benefits. Sally

Thank you Sally -

that's not a bad amount to add to SSD money

They have a "ticket to work" program where you go back to work and you have, I believe 9 months, to see if you're gonna be able to do it. If you can great, your disability stops and if you can't then you continue to collect.

Ginagce

Is anyone collecting SS disability who is not stage IV?

Just one more thing to consider...
 

If you are very young when you are dx or have been mostly self -employed and have only been working a few years as I was when I first got BC at the age of 33, your monthy disability amount will be based on some percentage of what you have paid into the social security system. In my case, when I was DX in 1997 and mets in 1999, my employer applied for my social security benefits as they did not want to pay for me. After 3 years of trying, I was eventually approved, but as I had only worked 12 years outside of owning my company, my monthly amount was barely $1,100.00. I am a single mother head of household living in a very high cost of living area (about 10 minutes from Washington, DC) with no other means of support.

I tried and tried to budget to live within this amount, but as my private insurance was about $285 a month and my mortgage was about $1,500 and my co-pays were running easily several hundred a month, not to mention what I paid out in prescriptions and natural remedies, and acupuncture, which at the time was NOT tax deductible as it is now, not to mention food, gas, and essentials, it was very difficult....so, naturally, I had no choice but to keep trying to work. At first, I went back to my very nice Smithsonian job as Artworks and Database Coordinator for the Resident Associate Program...but try as I might, given the rigid 9 to 5 Monday through Friday structure of the quasi-governmental institution, it was impossible. Plus, I no longer had the energy to organize and attend the late night art receptions, or do the often required travel for training or chaperone the fabulous Smithsonian travel programs or monitor the Campus on the Mall evening classes, which though NOT absolutely written into the job description, were nevertheless expected "DUTIES AS ASSIGNED". Plus, the stress of the database mining part of the job which required me to interface with every division of the institution was simply too much to juggle in between CT and muga scans, herceptin infusions, blood draws, and doc and onc appointments, etc....

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had also co- owned a rather successful S corp-a major exterior construction company in the DC Metro area-- before my dx with my business partner (who later died of cancer mets to liver also), and even though my illness and his death bankrupted the Corporation, I decided, since I had my license and knew something of owning one's own company, I would set up myself as a sole proprietor to supplement the $1,100 of social security disability benefits because-- very quickly -- it became PAINFULLY evident that there would be few companies that would want to hire an employee who would, by nature of her illness, be absent a good bit of the time. Remember these are the late 90's and early 2000--flex time was NOT nearly as widespread as it is now.

This worked well for a few years until one year, I earned about $250 over the strictly enforced MAXIMUM earnings with disability limit which that year was about $8,000, I think, so I was fined over $33,000..and essentially had to pay back every cent of social security that I had received the two and half or so years prior. You can not imagine how shocked I was. I tried to explain that I was a single mother with no other means to support me and my small son with no family in the area--that I was head of household, living in a very expensive city. They knew I had a terminal illness, but they informed me that I had basically been "terminally ill too long" and although I was still, BY LAW, disabled under the terminally ill clause, I would have to return the money or go to jail...this is no joke. The social security representative I met with was very serious. I was so sick at the time, my mets had come back again (I think that was about the 4th of 7 bouts)...anyway, I was crying and crying. I went into shock. I could not believe that they legally could do this.

As at that time, I was pretty poor and I barely had enough money to cover the essentials and didn't have money for a really good lawyer to take up the appeal process, which though long and dreary, probably could have obtained me the hallowed "waiver", I tried going with the supposedly "FREE" disability attorneys but no one seemed terribly interested in my case, and I am just that type of overly PROUD person who SERIOUSLY HATES.. above ALL THINGS... to ask for any kind of help--even when I really need it...so I just accepted the "verdict" and signed the papers shoved at me then and there, admittedly under undue distress....sighhhh...and wondered out to my car completely dazed and cried for hours before I could even drive out of the parking lot.

It has taken me over two years to pay it all back. If I live until the end of February of this year, I won't owe them anything any more and I truly HOPE and PRAY that no matter what happens to me and my son, I will not have to apply again for any reason, prefering seriously, to just die...I am not kidding--so painful was my experience with the whole ordeal that I found her-2 neu cancer to be easier to deal with than the SS disability system. I kid you not. Hopefully, things are greatly improved these days and that all of you who are applying will reap only the benefits and suffer none of the pitfalls.

But another word of caution, keep in mind that herceptin may soon be classed as a bio-technical "invention" which in many cases under Social Disability law "re-enables" a person for work of some type--even though admitedly it may not be the level or pay scale of work you used to do, and unless, as Steph very accurately points out, you are considered stage 4 under the "terminally ill" clause, in many cases, you may --in the very near future-- no longer be able to get approved, merely by being her-2 positive. So for those of you BRAVE souls who even after reading this still want to apply and should, especially if you have worked enough years to make the monthly amount significant, get those applicatations in ASAP so you can slip in UNDER the wire.

Also, I was "LUCKY" enough to have the insurance some one mentioned above with the "fine print" that once you were even just approved for medicare, the private insurer would automatically switch from your primary insurer to your secondary insurer, so in 2004, Blue Cross Blue Shield over -turned $96,000 of payments to 25 of my providers over a 3- year period retroactive back to 2001--in other words, bills that had already been paid with co-pays by me and funds from Blue Cross years back...were suddenly "UNPAID" and it became MY responsability (ill though I was) to re-process the paperwork back through Medicare and it has taken me nearly 2 years to force Medicare to REPAY all $96,000 of them. Oh, and as for my co-pays...well, that money was never returned to me by 24 providers--although Medicare did eventually pay them all except for one -- and one honest clerk in one provider's office did refund some to me. There is still one surgery outstanding for around $3, 500 which get this..smile...both MEDICARE and Blue Cross are denying for guess what...smile.."UNTIMELY FILING" hee hee heeee when it was Blue Cross themselves which took the money back retroactively to 2001 in the first place...it is REALLY good that I have always been blessed with a TREMENDOUS sense of humor....otherwise, the paperwork alone that I have lived through would have killed me faster than the her-2. But laugh as I try to, the provider that has not been paid is unfortunately my OB-GYN, and until some agreement on payment with him can be provided by either Blue Cross or Medicare --we are appealing for the 6th time to both agencies, his office is unwilling to "see me". I am at this point about a year over due for my Pap smear and mamagram and given my history of Pelvic mets, desperately would benefit from a sonogram, but because I am with an HMO, he is the designated doctor who must write the scripts and perform the Pap. Yes, having her-2 and being less that RICH...is not fun...smile....

When faced with the option of wasting the little energy I have left litigating the social security system, getting my congressman or Access Watch involved, etc. though I have genuinely considered it MANY TIMES, I decided, FOR ME, it would simply be better to just put any energy I have left over towards finding what the first and underlying cause of her-2 over-expression is and snip this whole problem in the bud, and I have been HAPPILY "employed" at that task in my free time while continuing to run my company as my "DAY JOB" all these years since and guess what? Even though the ONE thing I would agree with Social Security on is that I have indeed been "terminally" ill for WAY too long, I still am....here...smile.

Godspeed to all,
Gina

Gina's post above is essential reading for all
 

I think I was the one who warned people with private insurance to "read the fine print" for fear of losing your private insurance just because you become "Medicare eligible" even if you DO NOT UTILIZE Medicare insurance. Fortunately I did not have personal experience in this matter.

Gina, your post brought this point home in a way no one else could have

I am so sorry that you had to find this out yourself in such a horrific way


I hope people on this website get this word out to others so that people can
take all these nuances and implications into consideration before making irreversible decisions regarding insurance and disability.

Insurance and the government have this way of writing their policies to get those in true need stuck between a rock and a hard place so that they can weasel out.

It seems insurance is the one venue that even Ralph Nader would never dare to venture into.

About a month ago a lawyer posted on this her2group board and asked all of us to join her in finding a way to utilize her/our talents to help the breast cancer community. There are many already who lobby for research, making drugs available earlier, etc. but the area of insurance and disability is an area which truly affects each and every breast cancer patient no matter their level of support from family and friends. Perhaps some on this board could put their efforts into organizing help with insurance problems, lobbying states to change their regulation of these insurance practices(unfortunately insurance is the ONLY type of interstate commerce which is NOT regulated by the federal government!), and generally trying to make sure that each and every breast cancer patient does not have to fear utilizing one type of help for losing another!

Gina, I wish you only the best!

Thanks, LANI, YOU are ABSOLUTELY
 

the FIRST person that I have shared this insurance story with who "GETS iT"...my non BC friends think that I am just out in left field. I am so grateful that you understand exactly HOW the system is "by design" arranged to wedge many of our sickest and poorest citizens right in the middle of that rock and very hard place. You are a connoisseur of Aristotle's aporiahs, no doubt as am I. I applaud you!!! smile smile smile. This law needs to be changed. You are right. I believe it was actually Cynthia from Alexandria (my area) who is a lawyer and offered to do something to make a difference. The first thing that needs to be addressed is exactly what you have just SO WELL STATED ABOVE: Insurance and Disability for her-2 mediated disease sufferers.

Again, thank you for HEARING me. I hesitated to besmear these hallowed pages with my personal skeletons as I did not want to deter any one who really NEEDS to apply, but if they do, I want to them to move forward with their EYES wide open. If someone would have even explained the intricacies of the disability law to me, BEFORE, I signed on, or had I had an insurance or social security advocate (or an ENRON-type accounting agency "re-allocate" about $250 of my uh VAST hee hee assets to the Cayman Islands..hee hee hee), perhaps I would have faired better. As it was, like many ordinary Americans, all I had was H.& R. Block and we merely dutifully reported my 1099's for the amounts that...get this?? ...smile they actually were...also, folks SHOULD keep in mind, that self-employed DISABILITY folks fall under a completely DIFFERENT set of rules than others who have an employer...also, my case, was "unusual" for many reasons..not the least of which it was very hard for my social security reviewer to look at this tall, well-dressed, energetic, fair, and somewhat intelligent woman he saw before him and be very swayed that I was "DISABLED" physically. No manner of argument on my part or even 3 of my at that time 5 binders could convince him that I really was terminally ill--he had no concept of bio-technology and herceptin. He did not know what "HER-2" was ... He harrassed me at my home endlessly sending me what amounted to dunning letters and even left scary messages on my voice mail to the effect: "Ms. Popp, we KNOW you are working and that you are intentionally exceeding your work limit as set by law...blah blah blah" and many other messages. It was so disturbing. It made me feel like I was the worst crimminal in the world...a girl from West Virginia who had been raised in church and attended 3 times a week and who had read the whole Bible at least 3 times...and the commandments...many more than that..smile..a girl who never took anything from anybody--a girl, more than any other who lived by the principle of "MAKING HER OWN LONELY WAY."

Thanks, Lani Just getting that off my chest has erased 10 years off one of my 9 cat lives..smile...

My best to you and to us all,
Gina

Gina and Lani,

Thank you for sharing your stories. I am the person who posted about wanting to get involved to try to make a difference. What a great issue to tackle.

Since last I posted, I have been meeting with a variety of folks to learn the lay of the land and to figure out how best to proceed. I have met with lobbyists and folks who work on Capitol Hill. I have also applied to attend a program called Project Lead hosted by the National Breast Cancer Coalition. It teaches women how to be breast cancer lobbyists. (Gina, since you are local, I want to talk with you about the organization to see if you too would like to become involved.) The insurance/social security system are disasters. We can't change the world, but we sure as hell can fight this fight. So while I have been quiet, please know that I am plodding away and doing my homework, so that we can strike with knowledge and a sound strategy in place.

I am glad that there are so many of us who can mobilize on the issue. (FYI, organizations like the NBCC love breast cancer survivors to participate on lobbying efforts because a lawmaker has a rough time turning away a cancer patient who is in his or her office.) Gina's story is bone chilling and needs to be told. Thanks for sharing it. My blood is boiling.

Now I have to go check out the Super Bowl and for the sake of my hubby from Pittsburgh, I am saying prayers for the Steelers.

Stay well,

Cynthia

We are off to a good start!
 

Perhaps a good lawmaker to start with would be Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania. I believe it is his wife's (mother's?) name on the only Breast Cancer Center outside Walter Reed giving the her2neu vaccine both to metastatic patients and to early breast cancer patients. Also, I believe he got a lot of publicity recently as a Vietnam vet, so I am sure he understands disability.

Another word of warning,however. The country's biggest nongovernmental disability insurance provider (selling 80% of ALL individual and group/employers disability policies) is a company called Provident/Unum which has been sued so often in the past that they have been on 60 Minutes (for denying disability to an opthalmologic surgeon with Parkinson's disease, no less), sued by their own stockholders(for having too many cases against them when the two companies merged), and put on "probation" with all cases denied since 1997 being reopened by order of the State of California. This has all been well-covered by the LA Times.

I understand they were also sued for denying disability to a breast cancer patient, who won an ENORMOUS MULTIMILLION DOLLAR decision against them--they later tried to appeal, figuring they could OUTLAST HER!( I do not believe they did!)

So there are problems with both the private and governmental sector and how they interface.

A section/link on this website on disability laws might be helpful.


Yes indeed the ERISA laws only cover group employer provider disability insurance, private policies are not covered by those laws.

I am not an attorney--just recording what I have gleened over the years.

I hope this info helps someone and that Cynthia can make the right contacts to battle this. Tommy Thompson's wife and daughter both were diagnosed and treated for breast cancer while he served in the Cabinet. John Edward's wife, an attorney herself I believe was diagnosed just as the campaign was lost. Again, there are, thank God, many raising money and awareness regarding the need to fund breast cancer research. This bread and butter (and psyche) issue has not.

Off my soapbox for now!

Lani

PS Also tell your friends who are self-employed and who are in good health NOT to deduct their disability insurance premiums from their tax returns when they itemize--IF THEY DO, their monthly insurance payments will be taxed, IF THEY DO NOT, it will not. Most people find this out once it is too late.

Also consider Senator Diane Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer both of California. They have created laws that protect breast cancer patients and the right of women to yearly mammograms and pap smears paid for by insurance companies.

Re: social security disability
 

I live in the state of tn stage iiA and grade 2 I have been trying not approved yet. It is hard to gett SSDI I don't know why my oncologist wrote a letter to them stating he does not want me to work because I have been very tired, weak, migranes and more. They still have not approved me.

Re: social security disability
 

After working for 50 corporations in my lifetime my check is $596.00 after 90.00 for ssi excuse me where is one to live on that for a month............in illinois hud housing lockdown from cook country.

Thank you corporate leaders of america
i pay all the taxes and do all work.

No lol here. Wi told me i should never have been denied 2x in illinois-bageovich political interference

tami

Re: social security disability
 

Cynthia,

Joe had mentioned (posted) several times that we should contact our local congressman on the SSDI application. I retained an attorney before I saw his advice when I was fed up with the bureaucracy. Part of the reason I think might be that I applied for it by myself - thus they don't think I'm disabled. The funniest part was that they said "according to your work history..." I had been fired from every one of my jobs just about since my brain surgery in 1990. 'A spotty work history' is the description used by the psychologist who had reviewed my case for Texas Rehabilitation Commission.

Our local law firm was very happy to accept my case pro bono last fall since I'd had numerous job losses resulted from multiple cancer treatments (brain tumor and breast cancer - both with recurrences). I'm scheduled to attend a hearing December 8, exactly about a year after the lawyer had taken my case. Part of the back pay will go to the attorney (not exceeding $5000.00) if my case gets approved.

If you are currently working, perhaps they wanted you to go on the company's disability program first. I don't really know the details of the whole mechanism. My PhD Sister-in-law processed the application for her mechanic husband after his heart procedure, but my husband is not capable of handling this type of stuff for me...

Re: social security disability
 

I don't know all the laws, but here's what I do know about metastatic breast cancer and short-term disability, long-term disability, Social Security Disability, accelerated death benefits and COBRA.

Some companies offer STD and LTD. After the STD period is exhausted (usually 180 days, but in my case it was 90 days), LTD kicks in. STD is usually an earned benefit. That is, the longer you work at a company the longer you will be paid your full salary or part of your salary during the STD period.

LTD is most likely 50% of your salary. Usually, there's an opt-in plan in which you pay a few dollars (like around $5.00) out of each pay check to get a higher percentage, like 70%, for example.

Most insurance companies (that is, your employer's insurance carrier, as they're paying STD and LTD) require a bc patient to apply for SSD when they apply for LTD.

It seems the Social Security Administration pretty much automatically approves patients with advanced cancer. SSD starts usually starts six months after you first went on STD(although I've heard not to be surprised if you get a retroactive check, even though the SSA's brochure said the benefit is not retroactive).

When SSD starts, LTD, which starts immediately when you're approved for LTD and is retroactive to the first day of your LTD, will subtract out your SSD benefits (that is, LTD - SSD = your income. There's no double-dipping here). However, private pensions, 401(k) distributions, annuity distributions, etc. are not subtracted.

An accelerated death benefit is a percentage of the life insurance your company has on you which can be advanced to you if your oncologist says you're terminally ill. Terminally ill is defined by how long you have to live, such as 6, 12 or 24 months. Of course, your company pays a higher premium for 24 months (in my case it was only 6 months, and it seems likely I'll be around longer than that in terms of my cancer -- thank goodness). However, your company may have a longer definition of terminally ill.

COBRA, or continuation health benefits, are available if you're laid off from your job. Howerver, here's the specific limitations, from the DOL:

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML

Also, if it applies to you, COBRA payments are considered a medical expense for 401(k) distributions prior to age 59 1/2. That is, you pay the tax on distributions because your contributions were on tax-deferred money, but you're exempt from paying the 10% penalty to the IRS.

You have to be on SSD for two years before being eligible for Medicare, and your age is not a factor in this. Also, if you're declared disabled COBRA is extended to 29 months, which bridges the gap in medical coverage.

Hope this helps.

Joan

Re: social security disability
 

Thanks for the explanation, Joan. I see now why my former employers couldn't wait to send me out of the door. It's a strange system that I have to be 'physically capable' of working to collect my unemployment insurance and at the same time I'm going to attend the court hearing to prove that I am disabled.

Haven't slept whole night, guess I could add 'insomnia' to the list of my disabilities... :(

Re: social security disability
 

Joe

I tried your remarks called the congressman office they can not do anything unless you are a stage IV so what can a person do if they don't have a stage IV I am a stage 2a grade 2 and applied in May got denied in September, September got an attorney we applied for reconsideration in September and my onc sent a letter stating he do not want me to work. What they want people to do die before we receive the money we deserve.