Overview and objective
Section 5.01 is the category heading that tells you which digestive listings apply at Step 3. Use it to confirm you are in the correct listing family before you brief a “meets or equals” argument.
Exact text
- 5.01 Category of Impairments, Digestive Disorders.
- 5.02 Gastrointestinal hemorrhaging from any cause
- 5.03–5.04 [Reserved]
- 5.05 Chronic liver disease
- 5.06 Inflammatory bowel disease
- 5.07 Intestinal failure
- 5.08 Weight loss due to any digestive disorder
- 5.09 Liver transplantation
- 5.10 [Reserved]
- 5.11 Small intestine transplantation
- 5.12 Pancreas transplantation
Checklist
- Confirm the claimant’s primary theory fits one of 5.02, 5.05, 5.06, 5.07, 5.08, 5.09, 5.11, or 5.12.
- If not a clean fit, consider medical equivalence across 5.02–5.08 using the same “severity” markers.
Tips
- Start with the listing that best matches the dominant complication (e.g., bleeding → 5.02; ascites/encephalopathy → 5.05; severe IBD with fistulas → 5.06; parenteral nutrition → 5.07; cachexia → 5.08).
- Keep a one-page “labs & studies” grid for each client so you can plug values directly into the elements below.
Under Listing 5.01, a Social Security Disability Lawyer can help identify the digestive disorder listing that best matches the claimant’s condition and organize supporting records to build a strong Step 3 argument. Treatment notes, laboratory findings, imaging studies, hospitalization records, nutritional documentation, and transplant evidence may all be critical to showing that a condition meets or medically equals Listings 5.02 through 5.12. Clear alignment between the claimant’s dominant complications and SSA criteria is essential to establishing listing-level severity and obtaining a disability finding without vocational analysis.