Lupus can be severe enough to force you out of work. When it does, you may qualify for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration, or a disability insurance policy.
Unfortunately, winning a lupus disability claim isn’t easy. Claims based on this debilitating disease are frequently denied on the initial filing and at the appeal level. If this has happened to you, do not lose hope. Our Texas lupus disability lawyer can help you overcome obstacles and get a positive outcome.
As disability lawyers in Texas, we see the difficulties faced by people living with lupus and the ensuing hardship when benefits are denied. Our team at Marc Whitehead & Associates will work hard to secure your deserved benefits and help you sustain financial independence. We have 120 years of combined experience and are prepared to fight for you.
Our Texas Lupus Disability Lawyers Have a Deep Understanding of Your Condition
Lupus is a disease where a person’s immune system attacks and destroys the good, healthy tissue of the body. People develop lupus in the prime of life, usually between the ages of 15 and 44, and the disease is two to three times more common among women of color than among white women.
Lupus can attack any part of your body: skin, joints, or internal organs such as kidneys, lungs, heart, mucous membranes, and the nervous system. Symptoms vary widely, and many are hard to pin down. Our lupus disability attorney in Texas can help you document these elusive symptoms and tie them to the medical evidence your claim needs.
Symptoms of Lupus
Symptoms include fever, rashes, painful and swollen joints, excessive fatigue, headaches, and weight loss. Both cognitive and physical impairments can affect every facet of life, from “lupus fog” and memory problems to pleurisy, heart attack, or stroke.
The most common form of lupus is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). No single test can diagnose SLE. With such a variety of symptoms, getting a true diagnosis can take several years of targeted medical testing, careful review of your signs and symptoms, and medical and family histories.
For a free legal consultationwith a lupus disability claim lawyer serving Texas, call (800) 562-9830
Lupus and Social Security Disability Benefits
Social Security acknowledges that lupus can cause a person to become affected to the point they can no longer work and earn a gainful living. But a diagnosis of lupus is not enough to qualify for and receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits or SSDI.
Social Security offers two ways to qualify for SSDI. The first way is by proving you meet or equal the medical listing for lupus in SSA’s Listing of Impairments. Systemic lupus erythematosus
(SLE) appears in the Immune System Disorders section 14.00.
Two Paths to Prove Your Condition
The SSA’s medical listing gives you two paths. The first requires you to show that lupus involves two or more organs or body systems, with one of them affected to at least a moderate level of severity, and you have at least two of these constitutional symptoms: fatigue, fever, malaise, or involuntary weight loss.
The second path requires you to show repeated evidence of SLE with at least two of the constitutional symptoms (severe fatigue, fever, malaise, or involuntary weight loss) plus marked limitation of one of the following:
- Activities of daily living
- Ability to function socially
- Ability to complete tasks in a timely fashion due to deficits in concentration, stamina, or keeping pace.
Our Texas lupus disability attorney can offer further information on these paths and assist you throughout the entire claims process.
Proof Through an RFC Evaluation
If you do not meet or equal the above medical listings, Social Security also has rules that apply to every kind of disability. You may still be able to prove you are disabled through a residual functional capacity (RFC) evaluation.
This is known as a medical-vocational allowance. The SSA needs to find that your condition causes enough functional problems that you cannot do your past work or any other work.
Proving you are unable to work is perhaps the most important piece of the Social Security Disability puzzle. Most SSDI cases are ultimately resolved in this way. Our lupus disability lawyers in Texas will work hard to show how your condition impacts your ability to work and earn a living.
Texas Lupus Disability Claim Lawyer Near Me (800) 562-9830
Insurance Companies Will Challenge Your Lupus Disability Claim
Insurance carriers do not make it easy for those who have lupus to get the benefits that they deserve. Lupus is a prime example of disability denials based on the grounds that you are not “disabled enough” and should be able to work.
Some insurers even earmark legitimate claims based on lupus as targets of denial to minimize the payout. By its very nature, the disease is unpredictable, with periods of flare-ups and remissions. Lupus does not follow a typical course of development. Many insurers will pounce on these and other features of lupus to manipulate them into grounds for denial.
You must be prepared for these and other tactics by insurers who would rather not pay. Our Texas pups disability law firm will gather proof and testimony of how lupus affects your everyday activities, and build a strong narrative showing the lack of functional capacity to work.
How Our Team Can Help
We urge that you consult with us as soon as possible to maximize your chances for a successful initial claim, to appeal a denied claim, or if a lawsuit becomes necessary.
Our attorneys understand the complicated medical facts surrounding lupus. We work in close collaboration with treating doctors and experts. We will develop the evidence necessary to support your claim and challenge insurance companies’ physicians and other experts who would attempt to deny your rightful benefits.
Here’s what our lupus disability lawyers in Texas will do to help:
- Gather the medical evidence that proves how severely lupus limits you, including detailed medical records, test results, and statements from your treating physicians.
- Build a clear picture of how the symptoms of lupus keep you from maintaining substantial gainful activity and prevent you from doing your past work.
- Document your work history to support your claim for Social Security Disability benefits and other disability programs.
- Handle all communication with the Social Security Administration so nothing you say gets used against you.
- Pursue every available avenue of benefits, whether it’s Social Security Disability, Long Term Disability through an insurance policy, or VA compensation.
- Represent you at your disability hearing and argue your case before an Administrative Law Judge if your claim reaches the appeal stage.
- Take your case to court if an insurance company wrongfully denies your Long Term Disability benefits.
We will handle your case from start to finish and won’t be afraid to take matters to an ALJ hearing if that’s what must be done. Schedule a consultation with our team today to get the help you deserve.
Obtaining VA Benefits for Lupus
Getting fair veterans’ disability compensation for lupus can be a tough fight, but our lupus disability law firm in Texas can help. This process is difficult because the VA system is always grinding out thousands of unpaid and overdue disability claims.
Even with its complicated nature as an autoimmune disease, the VA recognizes that military service connection creates a higher risk for veterans to develop lupus. Many times, the VA rates lupus disability claims too low. The amount of service-connected compensation awarded for lupus is based on how severely you are disabled by the condition.
The ratings vary widely, from 10% to 100%. In VA’s Schedule for Rating Disabilities, lupus is bundled together with Infectious diseases, immune disorders, and nutritional deficiencies.
How the VA Rates Lupus
The rating schedule lists both Systemic Lupus and Cutaneous Lupus. Both forms cannot be used in a claim, but if both internal tissues and the skin are affected, the VA assigns the code for the type of lupus that gives the higher rating.
Likewise, if lupus harms tissues that have created other impairments, such as arthritis affecting mobility in your knee, disability may be rated under a single symptom when that rating is higher.
Establishing your rights as a veteran to service-connected disability benefits tied to lupus while securing a satisfactory rating can be a complicated and frustrating endeavor on your own. Our attorneys can assist through all phases of the VA disability claim and appeal process.
Your Best Option for Success
A condition like lupus comes with particular challenges in convincing a claims examiner that your health problems are severe enough to warrant benefits. At Marc Whitehead & Associates, our Texas lupus disability lawyer can assist you in securing the benefits you deserve.
For help with your initial lupus disability claim application, or if you have recently been denied disability benefits for lupus, please contact us today to schedule a free legal consultation. We can assist you wherever you live in the United States.
Call or text (800) 562-9830 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
