Federal Register: October 30, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 209)
DOCID: fr30oc09-23 FR Doc E9-26194
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Social Security Administration
CFR Citation: 20 CFR Parts 404, 405, and 416
Docket ID: [Docket No. SSA-2007-0053]
NOTICE: PROPOSED RULES
DOCID: fr30oc09-23
DOCUMENT ACTION: Announcement of public hearing.
SUBJECT CATEGORY:
Compassionate Allowances for Schizophrenia; Office of the Commissioner, Hearing
DATES: This hearing will be held on November 18, 2009, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Pacific Standard Time (PST), in San Francisco, CA. The hearing will be held at the Parc 55 Hotel in the Cyril Magnin Room. The hotel's address is 55 Cyril Magnin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102. While the public is welcome to attend the hearing, only invited witnesses will present testimony. You may also watch the proceedings live via Webcast beginning at 9 a.m., Pacific Standard Time (PST). You may access the Webcast line for the hearing on the Social Security Administration Web site at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionate allowances/hearings.htm.
DOCUMENT SUMMARY:
We are considering ways to quickly identify diseases and other
serious medical conditions that obviously meet the definition of
disability under the Social Security Act (Act) and can be identified with
[[Page 56141]]
minimal objective medical information. We are calling this method
``Compassionate Allowances.'' In December 2007, April 2008, November
2008, and July 2009, we held Compassionate Allowance public hearings.
These hearings concerned rare diseases, cancers, traumatic brain injury and stroke, earlyonset alzheimer's and related dementias,
respectively. This hearing is the fifth in the series. The purpose of
this hearing is to obtain your views about the advisability and
possible methods of identifying and implementing compassionate
allowances for young adults with Schizophrenia. We plan to address
other medical conditions at subsequent hearings.
SUMMARY:
Compassionate Allowances for Schizophrenia; Hearing
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
Background
Under titles II and XVI of the Act, we pay benefits to individuals who meet our rules for entitlement and have medically determinable physical or mental impairments that are severe enough to meet the definition of disability in the Act. The rules for determining disability can be very complicated, but some individuals have such serious medical conditions that their conditions obviously meet our disability standards. To better address the needs of these individuals, we are implementing the Compassionate Allowance initiative to quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that invariably qualify under the Listing of Impairments based on minimal objective medical information.
Will We Respond to Your Comments?
We will carefully consider your comments, although we will not respond directly to comments sent in response to this notice or the hearing.
Additional Hearings
We have held four hearings since December 2007. The hearings were
on rare diseases, cancers, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke,
earlyonset alzheimer's and related dementias. You may access the
transcripts of the hearings at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/
compassionateallowances. We plan to hold additional hearings on other
conditions and will announce those hearings later with notices in the Federal Register.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Nos. 96.001, Social
SecurityDisability Insurance; 96.006, Supplemental Security Income. (72 FR at 62608).
Dated: October 26, 2009.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. E926194 Filed 102909; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 419102P
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Compassionate.Allowances@ssa.gov. You may also mail inquiries about this meeting to Nancy Schoenberg, Acting Director, Office of Compassionate Allowances and Disability Outreach, ODP, ORDP, Social Security Administration, 4671 Annex, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 212356401. For information on eligibility or filing for benefits, call our national tollfree number 18007721213 or TTY 18003250778, or visit Social Security online, at http:// www.socialsecurity.gov.