While going from working full time to joining the ranks of the permanently disabled was probably one of the hardest years of my life since there's so many different physical and emotional changes taking place all at once, I can say that when it comes down to getting the ball rolling as far as SSD, I think it call comes down to proper documentation from your doctors. From the day I first applied for disability at the Social Security Office to the day I received my first check was a total of 90 days. No glitches, no hassles, no problems. The reason is simple - my doctors had all my paperwork in perfect order.

As long as your doctors have documented each and every step of your injury, damage and prognosis along the way, there's no reason for Social Security to deny you, meanwhile we must be understanding about why the government has become more cautious than ever. If there were not so many people applying for disability over every conceivable health problem under the stars along with all the fraud that accompanies it, then they wouldn't have to be so darn careful about who they award SSD too. The dishonest individuals have made it ten times harder for the honestly disabled to get disability - it's not Social Securities fault.

Meanwhile, even after you do get your SSD approved, you still will have to wait an additional 2 years before Medicare will kick in, and once it does you will have the part B premiums plus whatever supplement you choose as new additional health care costs to contend with. There are LIS (low income subsidies) available that can help cover part or all of these costs but once again it's another hoop you just have to jump through. During this two year hold you'll need to just stick with whatever health care coverage you've got now.

Look at this as the ultimate irony. The worse the damage and the more medical documentation and proof/history you've got, the easier the entire process is. Here's hoping you find this a whole lot less painful than the way other things turned out. Bob.

The only reason I am preparing to file for SSD is because if I were to retire w/disability is I'm required to file for SSD at the same time. There is still the possibility that they will offer me some sort of part-time position, if I can get to the place where I can manage my symptoms. Everything on this path is new to me. I was thinking this morning about how I've come to this point from I didn't know what was going on at all, to figuring out what was going on and what my options were, to where do I go from here. So many here have had a much more difficult journey, and I am blessed to have a neurologist who is dotting the i's and crossing the t's because he knows I have legal issues before me.
And if I am able to retire, I will be able to keep my bc/bs insurance.
My husband and I so appreciate all the advice and encouragement we have received here. The road ahead is not quite as dark because of those who've offered a little guidance to our way.
God bless you all.
pat e

Hello, and I am glad you joined this site. There will be other responses, a alot of people are also in the process of applying for dissability. Your idea of getting a lawyer is a good one. I had a SSD attourney assistant that helped me with my case. It took a long time, and it is a pain in the butt to do it. By the time I was in front of a judge I was extremely gratefull just to be in front of him. I was granted my dissability right at that hearing. That is the end part of the process. You will be asked to see one of SSD's doctors, maybe a psych evaluation also. You doctor writing a letter to the SSD office is a real good idea, as well as any of your other doctors. These letters were use in my court hearing. I was also denied the first two tries, which I found out later is quite common. I wish you all the best as you go through this process. All I really had to do, was tell the truth. Ginnie

You can use a WC lawyer for the WC part and still do the SSDI part on your own (so you don't have to pay the $6000 max SSDI lawyer fee out of your backpay)

Hi All,

Wow, the more I here about the differences in SSD it just amazes me. Bob said he had to wait 2 years for his medicare and when I was approved mine was set back 2 years from my onset date, but my claim took 2 years???

Gabbycakes

Yes, and my husband and I have heard many, many stories at both ends of the spectrum. I hoping that most are in the middle and as with the non-squeaky wheels are never heard from!

I think the way if works is, lets say for example you file Jan 2008 and was approved on Jan 2010. You waited two years so you'll receive medicare. If you filed in Jan 2008 and was approved May 2008 you'll have to wait 20 months or 2 years minus 4 months=20 months.

Pat and Jim -

Based on what I recall from my experience, Medicare kicks in two years from the date of disability, unless the date of disability predates the time the application is first opened by more than one year, in which case the two year period begins to run one year before the application is first commenced.

And for those filing online - which although time consuming is the best way of getting all of your information before the the examiners in your state who are assigned by federal law to review the application and make the initial determination of disability without it being filtered by whomever at the local SSA field office is conducting your interview - the time begins to run the moment you open the application, which you then have 180 days to complete, along with the lengthy questionnaires that are part of the process.

In my case, the guy who interviewed me at the SSA, once I submitted my online application and supporting questionnaires and then showed up to deliver all of the documentation in my possession, including my tax returns, took one look at the documentation and told me that not only had it clearly established my disability on the last day I had worked (many years earlier) but then and there entered that information into SSA's system, so the years in which I hadn't been working wouldn't be counted against me when it came time for me to seek SSI, disabled or not!

If my waiting so long seems strange, please understand that I had a private disability policy that I had purchased on my own, many years earlier, so there was no issues of ERISA pre-emption, etc. Moreover, the standards under which I would receive payments were based solely upon my ability to perform my stated occupation at the time I purchased the policy. This at a time when the last administration was taking an unreasonably hard line on all SSD applications - you lost if anywhere in the U.S. there was any possible job you could do you could do even if no openings for the position were available - that it didn't seem worth the candle to go through the stress of the process. And no one seemed to qualify without going through at least one appeal, sometimes many more.

By the time I filed, a new administration was in office, which took the position that if the record clearly showed I had CRPS, all that was required was a showing that it significantly hindered my ability to work or words to that effect.

So as it turned out, I wound up getting Medicare twelve months after I filed, or six weeks after I found out that I had been accepted on my first try. All thanks to my treating physicians and their meticulous records!

Mike