If you have HIV/AIDS and cannot work, you may qualify for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. Your disability must be expected to last at least a year or end in death, and must be serious enough to prevent you from doing substantial gainful work. The amount of earnings Social Security considers substantial and gainful changes each year.
The amount of your monthly benefits depends on how much you earned while you were working. You also will qualify for Medicare after you have been getting disability benefits for 24 months. Medicare helps pay for hospital and hospice care, lab tests, home health care other medical services.
If you have not worked long enough to get Social Security or your Social Security benefits are low, you may qualify for SSI payments if your total income and resources are low enough. Social Security can pay you SSI benefits right away for up to six months before they make a final decision on your claim if:
- You are not working;
- You meet the SSI rules about income and resources; and
- Your doctor or other medical source certifies that your HIV infection is severe enough to meet our medical eligibility.
If you get SSI, you most likely will be eligible for food stamps and Medicaid. Medicaid takes care of your medical bills while you are in the hospital or receiving outpatient care. In some states, Medicaid pays for hospice care, a private nurse and prescription drugs used to fight HIV.
- You can help speed up the processing of your claim by providing information about the names and addresses of any doctors, hospitals or clinics you have been to for treatment
- How HIV-AIDS has affected your daily activities, and
- The kinds of jobs you have had during the past 15 years.
Additionally, we’ll ask your doctor to complete a form telling us how your HIV infection has affected you.
A Jacoby & Meyers professional can help you at all levels of the administrative process to:
- Assist you with your initial SSI & SSDI application, with filing your request with the Social Security Administration for reconsideration, requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge or filing an appeal with the Appeals Council
- Analyze your case under federal Social Security Disability regulations. Obtain a copy of your file from the Office of Hearings & Appeals to ensure that it reflects all your past medical treatment and that all records and documents contained therein are admissible as evidence
- Ask that any prior SSI & SSDI applications for benefits be reopened
- Protect your right to a fair hearing
- Make any necessary Social Security appeals
We are not retained until the contract is countersigned.
Please contact our SSDI lawyers today to schedule your free initial consultation. Jacoby & Meyers has offices nationwide.