Finally, finally, finally, finally...

...my disability claim has been approved. I applied four times and hired an attorney for the last one. My diagnoses read like alphabet soup. Bipolar 2, PTSD, ADHD, OCD, GAD, IED and I think one more. It's hard to keep up.

My case is unusual. Basically, both my attorney and the judge agreed that I should have been approved years ago when I first appealed. It's rare that a judge will give their ruling during the hearing, much less have it put on the record. That's how open and shut my case was, and still I was denied until I hired an attorney. Even with that, it took at least two years to finally get a court date. Ridiculous.
I'd advise anyone who needs disability to just skip to the attorney. You don't have to pay them, the government does. You will save yourself literally years of aggravation. It was a horrible experience.

I'm so glad. I hope now that things will get smoother.

Congratulations, Werewoman!!! That is just awesome!! What a relief!

Are saying people should argue their own cases before a judge?

That's awesome @Werewoman. It must be a big relief to you.

Everyone's situation is different. It took roughly 8 weeks for me to be approved. I never needed an attorney. I was long=term committed and had a court appointed guardian. The staff did the paperwork. My guardian signed it. My guardian was able to use my SSDI check to pay my bills while I was committed for a year. I didn't have to worry about losing my home or defaulting on any bills. When I was finally discharged, my guardian had carefully saved money for me so I could pick up the pieces of my life and pay for further treatment. It's very disorientating being confined to a hospital for a year and then suddenly expected to know how to live life again. My guardian did a great job with my money and continued to guide my finances for quite a long time as I dealt with my illnesses.

I guess my only point is how long it takes and whether or not you need an attorney depends on your circumstance. Your psychiatrist is the gate keeper for what SSDI looks for. If your psychiatrist really thinks you need SSDI, he can make a personal call to your case worker and talk directly to him or her. That always makes the process smoother as well. I know people who's psychiatrists were able to get SSDI approval in a few months for their patients. Just depends on the circumstance.

I hear you, sophiebunny. My longest hospitalization was 4 1/2 years and when I got out, I was an absolute wreck, afraid of my own shadow, afraid to do anything. It is completely ridiculous to just discharge people after such a long time without more support, at least more than I received.

No. Hire an attorney to argue your case for you. If you apply on your own, you can miss important stuff that you were not aware was necessary.

If you are denied, which is highly likely, you have to do an appeal. I swear they have a rubber stamp that says "Denied". I was denied four times. The second time I appealed and that was also denied. Finally after literally years of fighting this battle, I hired an attorney. If you go that route, their fee is paid out of any back payments you're owed. In my case, because it took sooooo long, I'm getting about $47,000, but they took out $6000 to pay the attorney. The case is argued by the attorney, though I sat next to him. If you apply and are adjudicated disabled the first time around - I've heard it does happen - that's all you do.

There's one huge problem, so I found out, that no one warned me about, I had to go on Medicare. If you don't have health insurance, that's fantastic. If you do - I get it through my husband's work - you're screwed. Medicare is now my primary insurance carrier, and my old insurance is secondary.

I go once a month for a ketamine infusion booster. The cash price for a treatment is $500. I was paying $150 and my husband's insurance paid the rest. We could barely afford that, but the treatment has been very successful.
So, last week I arrived for my booster and handed them my Medicare card. Poor Kaitlyn, she just looked at me sadly and told me they don't take Medicare. I was like, oh that's fine, I still have my old insurance too. She was like, I doubt it but we'll try.

Guess what? Now NO ONE is paying for it. My old insurance won't because they expect Medicare to cover it. There aren't any ketamine clinics in my area (all two of them. &#128580 that take Medicare. The clinic has taken pity on me and said I could do it for $250 instead of $500. It's now paid for out of my disability checks, so I can afford it. I only get $1150 a month, though, and I'm pretty sure none of my providers take Medicare, soooooo now all of my disability is going for medical bills. I'm actually worse off than I was before. I could change a few of them to another doctor or therapist, but I have a TEAM of them and I've been seeing most of them for over a decade. How do I let go of that?

Did you get a medicare gap plan?

Yes, that seems to be the case. All of my care givers, had to send in assessments for me to plead my case and gave their reasons
If my psychiatrist knew that it just took a phone call, he'd have done it years ago. It's probably different in different states, Idk. It just doesn't make much sense to me.

I don't know what that is.

All I know is that I was sent a Medicare card in the mail about the time I received my first payment.
Then I was told that medicare would be my primary carrier and my insurance from hubby's work is secondary. It only works if I use a Medicare provider, but there's no ketamine clinic near me that takes it.

Silly me, I thought that the secondary insurance would cover whatever medicare didn't, but it doesn't work that way. If medicare won't cover it, they won't either even though they've been paying for it since last December. Idk. That's just the way my life has been. If it can go wrong, it does, or if there's a way to eff it up, I'll find it. I no longer expect anything from anyone, that's good, that is. It just doesn't ever work for me. I know life isn't fair. I don't expect it to be, but geez Louise can I catch a break once in a while.? Just once, please.

I caught a break!!!

A very astute young lady at my insurance carrier looked it up. Turns out, Medicare will not become my primary until I turn 65. Granted, I only have a few years until then, but by then I can get a supplemental plan, so I'm good...for now.

Congratulations on being approved!

I was approved for SSDI in August, only to find out that I had to accept Medicare. The situation is absurd. Absolutely ridiculous. To fight for years for disability, only to find out that most of your income goes to Medicare...what a let-down.

It took many hours of dealing with bureaucracy, I mean really persisting, until I at least brought down the cost of Medicare to fairly reasonable.