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Friday, January 25, 2008

Migraines and a Hole in the Heart

I recently came across an interesting article written by Kathryn Grim that discusses a possible link between migraines and a hole in the heart.

Technically, a hole in the heart is known as a patent foramen ovule, or PFO, and it can best be described as an unsealed flap in the wall between the between the left and right atriums of the heart, which has the potential to cause a stroke.

PFO may allow blood clots to travel from the heart to the brain. Although PFO has the potential to be deadly, most individuals with the condition never know they have it. It has been estimated that about twenty five percent of the adult population has PFO, and never experience any complications.

The article described a gentleman who has suffered from migraines since he was in high school and who is among the twenty percent of migraine sufferers who experience an aura before the onset of a migraine. This gentleman experienced a pinprick in his vision that would expand like "snow on an old TV". After the aura, his migraine would begin. He experienced these migraine headaches two or three times per year. He had a stroke at the age of forty-one, and it was at that time that he was tested for PFO (most individuals are not tested until they have a stroke). Once it was determined that the gentleman had PFO, the defect was surgically repaired.

The interesting part of this article is that once he had the repair to correct the "hole in his heart", he no longer experienced migraine headaches. He still experienced the aura that preceded his migraines, but it did not progress into his usual migraine.

Currently, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare is one of three sites in the Midwest that are participating in a study in which two thirds of the volunteers (migraine sufferers who have not had a stroke) are given the corrective procedure and one third receive a placebo procedure, in an effort to ascertain if there is truly a link between migraines and a hole in the heart. If the study establishes a link between migraines and PFO, there could be many benefits for migraine suffers including the potential prevention of strokes.

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Additional Entries
Are headaches caused by psychological factors or issues ?
Are some people more subject to having migraines or headaches because of their personality ?
Has a drug free approach to treating headaches and migraines ever been advocated ?
Does migraine pain begin in the brain?
If you have migraines or headaches is there a chance you have a brain tumor ?
Does headache pain start inside the brain?
How many migraine sufferers are women - what percentage ?
What is a mixed headache ?

Requirements for Disability Benefits

Both SSI and SSDI (social security disability insurance) require that a disabled individual must be a citizen of the United States or a qualified legal alien in order to receive disability benefits.

Social Security disability (SSDI) also requires an individual have earned insured status through their work activity between the ages of twenty-one and the onset of their disability.

Now, you may be wondering how insured status is gained? You are entitled to earn four quarters of coverage per year based upon your earnings. Each year, Social Security sets a new amount of earnings that will entitle you to one quarter of coverage. The minimum number of quarters necessary to be insured for Social Security disability benefits is six and the maximum number of quarters required for insured status is forty.

The number of quarters of coverage needed depends on the age of the individual filing for disability. If you do not have insured status, your Social Security disability claim will be denied prior to making any kind of medical determination. This is known as a technical denial.

Supplemental Security Income, or SSI disability, is a need based disability program. Consequently, the principle non-disability requirements involve income and resource limits. Resources (meaning assets) and income are reviewed during your initial disability interview, and if your resources and income are below the levels established by the Social Security administration, a claim is taken and then sent to a state agency for a determination to be made on your claim.

If your Supplemental Security Income disability claim is an allowance (an approval), your claim will be sent back to your local Social Security office for another review of your income and resources, before you will actually be considered eligible to receive SSI disability benefits.

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Eligibility for disability benefits from SSA

According to statistics gathered by the Social Security Administration, three out of every ten Americans will become disabled prior to retirement age. If you are one of the unfortunate individuals who find themselves disabled prior to retirement, you will need to know what criteria will make you eligible to receive disability benefits from the Social Security Administration.

You must meet certain medical and non-medical criteria to be entitled to disability from the Social Security administration. What establishes an individual as disabled according to Social Security? Social Security defines disability as a mental and/or medical condition, or set of conditions, that has prevented you from working for a year, or is expected to prevent from working for a year, or is expected to end in death.

The Social Security Administration takes into consideration the severity of an individual's medical and/or mental condition (s) and how your condition, or conditions, limit your daily activity (including work activity). Additionally, Social Security will determine if your condition prevents you from doing your past work, or your ability to engage in other work.

If Social Security determines that you are unable to perform your past work or other work, then you have met the disability requirements of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security disability (SSDI), which are the two disability programs offered by the Social Security Administration.

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Should one doctor fill out both the physical and mental RFC forms?
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Reducing the Backlog for the disabled

New York Congressman, Joseph Crowley, questioned SSA about the need to eliminate the backlogs in the social security disability and SSI disability system. Crowley is one of a group of elected representatives who have special jurisdiction over matters relating to the social security administration (specifically, the House Ways and Means committee) and he seems to be focusing on elimination of the five month waiting period.

However, this really has very very very little to do with the backlog situation. Should the social security administration even have a five month waiting period, allowing them to effectively steal five months of the first benefits for every social security disability claim that has been approved? Of course not. There is no justification for it whatsoever.

However, the backlog situation has to do with congressional funding. Increase to the social security administration's budget so that they can properly man the system and the backlogs will come down. Fail to do this, and the problem will continue to get worse.

Why are they focusing on the five month waiting period? Because it has political weight to it at the moment, particularly when cast in the the light of claimants dying before they receive their disability benefits.

No doubt, the five month waiting period should go. And no family should be in the position of seeing a loved one die while their SSD or SSI claim is still being worked on. However, congress is simply using the current focus on the waiting period to hide the real problem in the social security administration: the budget is not large enough to replace workers who quit and retire and is certainly not large enough to staff the SSA workforce at the level it needs to be.

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Sending the wrong forms can be costly

Everyone screws up at one point or another. And that holds true for groups, businesses, and governmental entities as well. However, screw-ups that cost a lot of money can be particularly bad for government agencies that have few resources, relative to the depth and breadth of their mission responsibilities.

Recently, the social security administration sent out the wrong tax information to a number of people. How many people? Oh, about two million, seven hundred thousand individuals. Obviously, you can't goof that bad without a consequent cost. And it looks as though the cost of this administrative error will play to the tune of roughly one million dollars.

That type of error and cost wouldn't dent one working day for Microsoft or any other blue chip private company. But for an agency operating on a relative shoe-string budget, the reality is--as an sports commentator has been apt to remark--"that's gotta hurt".

Attorney Charles Hall commented that the effect of this will be fewer new employees hired at the social security adminitration. I had no idea that any hiring was going on. However, if there is, or was to be, I'm sure that number has been effectively reduced.

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