Compassionate Allowances for Schizophrenia; Office of the Commissioner, Hearing

We are considering ways to quickly identify diseases and other serious medical conditions that obviously meet the definition of disability under the Social Security Act (Act) and can be identified with minimal objective medical information. We are calling this method ``Compassionate Allowances.'' In December 2007, April 2008, November 2008, and July 2009, we held Compassionate Allowance public hearings. These hearings concerned rare diseases, cancers, traumatic brain injury and stroke, early-onset alzheimer's and related dementias, respectively. This hearing is the fifth in the series. The purpose of this hearing is to obtain your views about the advisability and possible methods of identifying and implementing compassionate

Agency Contact: Compassionate.Allowances@ssa.gov. You may also mail inquiries about this meeting to Nancy Schoenberg, Acting Director, Office of Compassionate Allowances and Disability Outreach, ODP, ORDP, Social Security Administration, 4671 Annex, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401. For information on eligibility or filing for benefits, call our national toll-free number 1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or visit Social Security online, at http:// www.socialsecurity.gov.