Is Pulmonary Hypertension a Disability?

Pulmonary hypertension is the medical term used to describe high blood pressure that affects the blood vessels (arteries) in the lungs and right side of the heart (right ventricle). Pulmonary hypertension means that the heart has to work harder to get blood into the lungs, resulting in respiratory difficulties that can make even slight exertion difficult.

Currently, there's no cure for pulmonary hypertension, but medical treatment can often help manage symptoms in mild to moderate cases. But if your symptoms don't respond to treatment or significantly interfere with your ability to work, you may qualify for Social Security disability benefits—if you have the right medical evidence to support your claim. Knowing what type of records the Social Security Administration (SSA) is looking for will greatly increase your chances of getting disability for pulmonary hypertension.

When Does Pulmonary Hypertension Qualify for Disability?

The SSA awards disability benefits to people with a medically determinable impairment that keeps them from working at the level of substantial gainful activity for twelve months or more. That means you'll need to have at least one year of medical records showing treatment for symptoms or complications from pulmonary hypertension, as well as evidence of functional limitations from the disorder that prevent you from doing any full-time job on a regular basis.

Symptoms of Pulmonary Hypertension

The first noticeable symptom of pulmonary hypertension is typically shortness of breath with basic exertional activities, such as climbing stairs. Other symptoms include:

• fatigue
• dizziness
• fainting spells
• chest pain or pressure
• swelling of the ankles, legs, or abdomen
• heart palpitations or racing pulse, and
• difficulty breathing, even when resting.

Pulmonary hypertension symptoms develop slowly—you may not know you have the condition until it's become more advanced. Earlier stages of pulmonary hypertension are less likely to qualify for benefits since they aren't usually associated with disabling limitations.

Causes and Complications of Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension is a rare disorder, occurring in about 1% of all people worldwide. While pulmonary hypertension can affect people of all ages, it's more common in women between the ages of 30-60. Known causes include congenital heart disease, use of certain medications or street drugs, lung diseases (such as COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, or obstructive sleep apnea), and connective tissue disorders like scleroderma or lupus.

If left untreated, pulmonary hypertension may cause potentially life-threatening complications, including blood clots, arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), hemoptysis (coughing up blood), and cor pulmonale (right-sided heart failure).

Getting Social Security Disability Benefits for Pulmonary Hypertension

Having a diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension alone isn't enough to qualify for disability. But when your symptoms become severe enough to get in the way of your ability to work on a consistent basis, you may be eligible for Social Security benefits. The SSA can award benefits in two ways—either by finding that you "meet a listing" or by determining that your functional limitations rule out all full-time employment.

Meeting a Respiratory Listing

Social Security has a disability evaluation handbook (the "Blue Book") that contains a list of medical impairments that the agency has determined are serious enough to be automatically disabling, provided certain medical criteria are present in the records. The SSA calls these rules "listings." The agency may assess your condition under listing 3.09 for chronic pulmonary hypertension.

In order to meet the requirements of listing 3.09, your medical records must show you have chronic pulmonary hypertension documented by a mean pulmonary artery pressure of 40 mmHg or higher while "medically stable." Medically stable means that you:

• haven't changed your prescribed respiratory medication in the past two weeks
• haven't had a lower respiratory tract infection in the past 30 days
• haven't had an acute exacerbation (temporary worsening) of a chronic respiratory disorder in the past 30 days, and
• haven't been hospitalized for a heart attack in the past 30 days.

If you think you may qualify for benefits under listing 3.09, ask your doctor to order a pulmonary artery catheterization—also called a cardiac catheterization—during a period of medical stability. The results will confirm whether you meet the listing. Don't worry if your results indicate that your blood pressure isn't high enough to satisfy the requirements of 3.09 (for example, your mean artery pressure is 35 mmHg). You can still get disability if you can show that you're unable to work full-time.

Being Unable to Work Due to Pulmonary Hypertension

Most disability claims that are approved for benefits don't actually meet the criteria of a listing in the Blue Book. Instead, these claims are awarded because the applicants' functional limitations keep them from returning to their past work and no other jobs exist in the national economy that they can perform. The process by which Social Security decides what you can and can't do at work is called assessing your residual functional capacity, or RFC.

Your RFC is a set of restrictions that reflects the most you're able to do, physically and mentally, at work. Social Security reviews your medical history and self-reported daily activities to see what exertional and non-exertional limitations should be included in your RFC. For example, your doctor might limit the amount of time you can be on your feet (standing or walking) per day or how much weight you can safely lift and carry before you get out of breath. Here's what an RFC for a claimant suffering from chronic pulmonary hypertension might look like:

Social Security compares your current RFC with the demands of your past work to see whether you could still do that type of work today. If you can't, then the agency needs to determine if any less demanding jobs exist that you can perform given your age, education, and skills. For claimants younger than 50, this usually means needing to show that you can't do any sit-down jobs, while claimants 50 and older may qualify for benefits even when they can physically perform an easier job if they don't have transferable skills to that kind of work.

Can I Get a VA Disability Rating for Pulmonary Hypertension?

Veterans with pulmonary hypertension that was caused by or got worse as a result of their time on active duty may qualify for service-connected disability compensation from the VA. According to the VA Schedule of Rating Disabilities, veterans who've been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension—documented by an echocardiogram (ECG) or cardiac catheterization—may be assigned a 100% disability rating. For more information, see our article on the VA disability rating system.

Medical Evidence You'll Need to Establish Disability

Whether you're applying for Social Security disability, VA compensation, or both benefits, your claim will be decided based on medical evidence like lab tests, imaging results, and your doctors' treatment notes. To get disability for pulmonary hypertension, your medical records should ideally contain all of the following:

• objective medical reports, such as pulmonary function tests, open-lung biopsies, CT scans, X-rays, MRIs, or echocardiograms (ECG or EKGs)
• admission and discharge summaries from any hospitalizations
• documentation of medications you've tried and your response to them, and
• clinical doctor's notes from multiple visits noting the frequency and severity of your symptoms.

If the SSA thinks it doesn't have enough information to make a legally sufficient determination on your disability claim, the agency might send you to a consultative examination at no cost to you. It's highly recommended that you obtain medical source statements from your treating doctors if they're willing to write one. Social Security values any insight your doctors can provide about your work-related limitations or whether you might meet a listed impairment.

Disability Benefit Amounts for Pulmonary Hypertension

Social Security doesn't award benefits based on the nature of your disabling condition. Instead, the amount of your payment depends on the type of disability program you qualify for—Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The agency will determine whether you're eligible for SSDI by reviewing your employment history and how many work credits you've earned, while SSI is needs-based and subject to certain resource limits.

For 2025, the maximum monthly amount you can receive in SSDI is $4,018, although the average amount paid is much smaller, around $1,580. SSI benefit amounts in 2025 are $967 for an individual ($1,450 for a couple) monthly, minus any countable income for that month.

VA benefits are determined by a combination of your total disability percentage rating and your living situation. Current VA compensation amounts for a 100% disabled individual veteran without a spouse or dependents, for example, is $3,831.30 per month.

How Do I Apply for Disability Benefits?

Filing for Social Security disability benefits is a fairly straightforward process. One easy way to start your application is to apply online at the SSA.gov website. You don't have to complete the application all at once—just make sure that you keep track of the application number given to you when you start the application so you can access it again if you need to come back to it.

You can also apply for disability benefits by phone by calling 800-772-1213 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you can call the TTY number at 800-325-0778. Or, you can choose to apply for disability benefits in person at your local Social Security field office. Some offices require that you make an appointment before you show up, so it's best to call ahead first.

Applications for VA disability compensation follow a similar procedure. You'll need to complete Form 21-526EZ, Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits, which you can do online using the electronic version of the form. You can also print out the form and fax it to 844-531-7818 (248-524-4260 from outside the U.S.), bring it to your local VA office, or mail it to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Claims Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444.

Do I Need a Lawyer for My Disability Claim?

Not necessarily, but it's usually a smart move. If you've had multiple cardiac catheterizations all showing blood pressure higher than 40 mmHg or several doctors' opinions stating that your functional limitations rule out all jobs, your disability claim might be strong enough to get approved after your initial application. But most claims are denied at first, meaning you'll need to appeal the denial—which is where you're more likely to need a lawyer's help.

An experienced disability attorney can help you keep on top of appeal deadlines, handle communications with the SSA or VA, gather any missing medical evidence and, most importantly, know what legal arguments to make in order to support your claim of disability. Disability representatives work on contingency—meaning they don't get paid unless you win your claim—so there's little risk in hiring a representative to help you navigate your appeals.