Were Your Denied Long Term Disability Benefits on a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) Disability Insurance Claim?
Specific obstacles must be overcome in chronic fatigue disability cases. We have helped many clients receive the CFS disability compensation they desperately need, and we can help you.
Chronic fatigue is difficult to measure. Although abnormal results on brain MRI and white blood cell count have been reported in CFS patients, no specific tests exist that medically confirm the diagnosis of chronic fatigue.
Physicians must base diagnoses on specific symptoms and physical signs, after ruling out other possible causes. This is one reason claims for chronic fatigue disability benefits are difficult to win for many patients without experienced legal representation.
The specific causes of CFS disability are unknown. However many medical theories attribute the syndrome to Epstein-Barr virus or herpes virus-6, inflammation in the nervous system, as well as prior illnesses, stress, genetics, environmental factors and age.
The disease is characterized by incapacitating fatigue that lasts a minimum of 6 months and cannot be relieved by bed rest. The fatigue is so extreme that patients are unable to work or do most normal daily activities. Additional symptoms include concentration and memory problems, confusion, headaches, joint pain, low fever, muscle weakness, and painful lymph nodes of the neck and under the arms.
For a free legal consultation, call 800-562-9830
Chronic Fatigue Disability Claims for Long Term Disability Insurance Benefits
Successfully challenging billion dollar insurance companies where chronic fatigue is diagnosed requires knowledge and experience.
If your claim for chronic fatigue disability is wrongly denied, as many are, we will aggressively represent your case every step of the way. Marc Whitehead & Associates is committed to helping people across the United States in their efforts to appeal denied disability claims.
Many insurance companies will attempt to reroute your claim into the mental illness category (for which they have a limiting clause) claiming that symptoms are due to depression. Others will deny claims on the basis of symptoms being subjective and without irrefutable objective evidence of disability. The list goes on.
Our disability attorneys have extensive experience dealing with insurance companies and their tactics for denying insurance payments. In cases of chronic fatigue disability claims, we know what must be done to avoid mistakes and how to take the upper hand by establishing both medical and vocational records and opinion evidence. We routinely consult with vocational experts, and are able to effectively rebut the insurer’s denial though appeals and court representation.
Having experienced lawyers working on your behalf – as early in the process as possible – is in your best interest. We understand the methods that long-term disability insurance companies often use to deny the rights of disabled individuals. Call us today for a free consultation with a lawyer about your claim.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Social Security Disability Benefits
Unless you know what Social Security is looking for in a claim, chronic fatigue disability is a challenging condition on which to base a claim.
Social Security does not include diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome in their Listing of Impairments. However, Social Security does allow for CFS patients to obtain disability when medical signs and laboratory findings meets or equals a medical impairment they can define and measure.
Social Security ultimately awards disability benefits for chronic fatigue based on your ability to function in the workplace, with age and education as contributing factors, provided that:
- CFS fatigue limits your residual functional capacity to the point you can no longer do the basic work activities of your past jobs;
- CFS restricts your functional capacity to the point you can no longer do the work of other jobs.
If you were denied on your initial application for chronic fatigue disability under Social Security, do not abandon your claim.
Social security claim denials happen to the majority of initial claims for countless medical conditions. This is most often because most applications lack sufficient and necessary documentation needed by the examiner as conclusive and evidentiary support the claim.
Applications for Social Security benefits for CFS disability must be presented with an emphasis on symptoms that affect your ability to work. Our Board Certified Social Security lawyers are ready to discuss all of this and more with you. Call 800-562-9830 to find out exactly how we can help.
Click to contact our disability lawyers today
Veterans Disability Benefits for Chronic Fatigue
It should be straightforward task to file a claim for disability benefits. Yet for the men and women who have served our country and now are in dire need of disability compensation, the process is distorted by delays and denials.
If you have been unfairly denied VA disability compensation for chronic fatigue, or you are not satisfied with the disability pay you were awarded, we can help. Marc Whitehead & Associates are Accredited Veterans Claims attorneys representing U.S. veterans throughout the United States who have been denied their rightful compensation by the VA disability program.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is listed in the VA schedule for rating disabilities under Infectious Diseases, Immune Disorders and Nutritional Deficiencies. The VA diagnosis of chronic fatigue disability requires the following:
- New onset of debilitating fatigue severe enough to reduce daily activity to less than 50 percent of the usual level for at least six months; and
- The exclusion, by history, physical examination, and laboratory tests, of all other clinical conditions that may produce similar symptoms; and
- Six or more of the following:
- Acute onset of the condition
- Low grade fever
- Nonexudative pharyngitis
- Palpable or tender cervical or axillary lymph nodes
- Generalized muscle aches or weakness
- Fatigue lasting 24 hours or longer after exercise
- Headaches (of a type, severity, or pattern that is different from headaches in the pre-morbid state)
- Migratory joint pains
- Neuropsychologic symptoms
- Sleep disturbance
For veterans who served in the Gulf War, the VA considers chronic fatigue syndrome disability as a presumptive illness. The VA will make the assumption that CFS lasting for 6 months or more is related to Gulf War service without regard to cause. The illness must have appeared during active duty in the Southwest Asia theater of military operations and be at least 10 percent disabling by Dec. 31, 2011.
For Gulf War veterans and many other servicemen and women, running into denials or serious delays of disability claims founded on chronic fatigue are all too common. This is due to the difficulty in diagnosis and insufficient presentation of the claim, as well as an inadequate system faced with thousands of backlogged disability claims.
Hundreds of veterans who have been denied their rightful benefits have sought and won disability claim approvals from Marc Whitehead & Associates, and it would be our honor to assist you.
Do not delay. Call our law firm at 800-562-9830 about your disability denial or request a free consultation with a lawyer here.
Call or text 800-562-9830 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form