Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, anemia, nausea, vomiting, arthralgia, abdominal tenderness, perianal disease, and fatigue. Obstruction, stenosis, fistulization, perineal involvement, and extraintestinal manifestations are common.
These symptoms can be both painful and debilitating and even result in life-threatening complications. In many instances, they leave an individual unable to perform many activities, including holding down a job.
While there is currently no cure for Crohn’s disease, there are treatments to slow its progress. These include anti-inflammatory drugs, immune system suppressors, biologics, antibiotics, nutrition therapy, and surgery.
Social Security Disability Benefits for Crohn’s Disease
If you cannot work due to your Crohn’s disease symptoms, you may qualify for disability benefits through the Social Security Administration.
The SSA uses a medical guide called the Blue Book to determine whether an individual qualifies for disability benefits. Crohn’s disease appears under section 5.06, which pertains to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
How a Disability Benefits Lawyer Can Help
Applying for these benefits can sometimes present a challenge since most people have little or no experience when it comes to filing a claim for disability benefits. You may want to consider doing what many successful claimants do — hire an experienced Social Security disability attorney to represent your claim.
Why? It’s not uncommon for people who file for disability benefits to have their claims rejected by the Social Security Administration. In many cases, their claims were not dismissed because the applicant didn’t qualify for benefits, but simply because the applicant didn’t supply the SSA with the necessary information needed to approve their claim.
You can benefit from an attorney’s representation at all stages of the process.
To begin with, they can help you prepare your claim. For a condition like Crohn’s disease, the SSA requires specific medical evidence to support a claim for benefits, including a biopsy, medically acceptable imaging, or operative findings. Your attorney will gather all the documentation (medical reports, fossilization records, the results of lab tests and medical imaging, etc.) from your doctors and other care-providers necessary to support your claim.
If you’ve filed a SSDI claim for Crohn’s disease and it’s been denied, a disability benefits lawyer can help you appeal the SSA’s decision. They’ll be able to determine where you went wrong the first time and correct the mistakes and omissions that caused your claim to be rejected the first time.
Your attorney will also represent you in front of a judge in the event you have to appear at an administrative hearing. Administrative judges rely on the opinions of medical, psychological, and vocational experts to make their decisions. Your attorney will have the opportunity to cross-examine these experts and respond to any assertions that you are not disabled enough to qualify for Crohn’s disease disability benefits.
For a condition like Crohn’s disease, you’ll have to provide specific medical evidence to support your claim, including a biopsy, medically acceptable imaging, or operative findings.
Get Help with your Crohn’s Disease Disability Claim
It’s a fact that your chances of winning your Crohn’s disease disability claim are greatly increased by having an attorney who is Board Certified in Social Security Disability law represent you.
Attorney Marc Whitehead of Marc Whitehead & Associates is Board Certified in Social Security Disability Law by the National Board of Social Security Disability Advocacy who has helped clients all over the U.S. obtain the benefits they deserve for Crohn’s disease and other disabling conditions. He has also represented individuals with Crohn’s disease in long term disability insurance claims and Veterans Administration claims.
Don’t tell yourself that you can’t afford to hire a board-certified Social Security disability attorney. Legal fees are set by the SSA and are the same for both attorney and non-attorney SSDI advocates — 25% of your back benefits up to a $6,000 cap. And like other Social Security disability lawyers, Marc Whitehead & Associates handles their cases on a contingency basis, which means they get paid only if you receive your benefits.
Get the help you need to get the disability benefits you deserve. Contact the offices of Marc Whitehead & Associates online or call them at 1-800-562-9830 to schedule a free, no-obligation, initial consultation to discuss your case. We are headquartered in Houston, TX but serve clients all over the U.S.