Traumatic Brain Injuries and Stroke the Subject of Social Security’s Third Compassionate Allowances Hearing

Social Security held its third public hearing on Compassionate Allowances on November 18 at Ft. Myer in Arlington, VA.

Senior executives from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health joined Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, to hear testimony from some of the nation’s leading experts on traumatic brain injury (the most common injury of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan) and stroke.

Compassionate Allowances are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other medical conditions that invariably qualify under Social Security’s disability standards based on minimal objective medical information. This hearing was the third of four public hearings the agency plans to hold. Previous hearings dealt with cancers and rare diseases and resulted in the nationwide launch of the Compassionate Allowances initiative in October 2008.

For more information about Compassionate Allowances and the most recent hearing, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.

Any questions may be directed to: rsi5@srt.com