Marc Whitehead & Associates

Claims for Hepatitis C Disability Benefits

To qualify for and obtain hepatitis C disability benefits from Social Security, the Veterans Administration, or a disability insurance plan, you need to prove that your condition is serious enough to prevent you from working and functioning normally. Ultimately, it is the disability insurance company or the government program that will decide if you are disabled, not your doctor.

Our attorneys represent hepatitis C disability claims, and know the hardships that arise from this disease. Hepatitis C, or HCV, is the primary cause for end-stage liver disease resulting in liver transplants. Often the most prominent symptom of hepatitis C is extreme fatigue and weakness. People who test positive for hepatitis C may able to work and act productively to some degree, but are overcome by exhaustion during the day.

Long-lasting, or chronic, hepatitis C often leads to liver failure, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The drugs interferon and ribavirin are the approved drugs used to combat chronic hepatitis C disability, with more drugs in clinical trials. While medications for HCV can be effective, the treatments themselves can cause serious side effects, and in their own right be severely crippling.

What Causes Hepatitis C Disability?

Prior to 1989, physicians knew only that an acute form of hepatitis was occurring after blood transfusions, and that it was not related to hepatitis A or B. In 1989, this virus was isolated and named Hepatitis C.

Today, hepatitis C is generally associated with drug use involving infected needles; needle sticks with infected blood with regard to health care workers; tattoos and body piercing; as well as unprotected sex. Mothers can pass the disease to her child at birth. Hepatitis C testing is done by blood tests to find levels of the HCV antibody, and then verified with additional tests for viral RNA.

Often there are no symptoms during the incubation period. When symptoms do occur, signs of illness can include mild flu-like symptoms, fatigue, nausea, depression and jaundice. Because there are often no symptoms, many people may not realize they are infected.

Hepatitis C Disability Claims Under Social Security

Hepatitis C is identified in the SSA Listing of Impairments under Digestive System Listing 5.05 Chronic Liver Disease. In most cases, your hepatitis C must be diagnosed as chronic, or long-term, rather than acute, which may clear up within months.

If your claim was denied by Social Security, this does not necessarily mean you do not deserve benefits. Don’t abandon your claim, even if it has been denied more than once. Instead, pick up the phone and contact our office. The first thing our firm will do is evaluate your case to determine what needs to be proven for you to win your claim.

Our attorneys will examine the reasons for denial, the legal and medical issues of your case, as well as your ability to earn a living. We are able to appeal the denial of Social Security claims at all levels of the appeals process, whether you need to have your claim reconsidered, or you need to appear in a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), before the Appeals Council, or through the final level of appeal, a lawsuit in federal court.

Denied Veterans’ Claims for Hepatitis C Disability

Thousands of veterans have been infected with Hepatitis C during their service to our country, many of whom served as medics and doctors. The battlefield and other military conditions heighten the possibility for the transfer of the virus.

The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes viral hepatitis and HCV in the VA schedule for rating disabilities. Hepatitis C is listed under the Section for The Digestive System. Because the disease can remain “silent” in the body for so long, many military men and women exposed to the virus are unaware they have it. Veterans who served in the decades before HCV was discovered may not have been diagnosed until much later.

Unlike some other conditions, veterans suffering with hepatitis C disability may not be able to establish what the VA refers to as “continuity of symptomatology,” or a pattern of treatment that began while the veteran was in service, and which continued consistently after they left the service. For these and other reasons, we have seen many difficulties arise in veterans’ claims for hepatitis C disability.

We are accredited Veteran’s claim attorneys, with significant experience and understanding of the challenges involved in properly preparing and appealing veterans’ claims. We welcome your call to discuss how we can help you establish service connection, or assist you in any other way to appeal and win your denied claim for hepatitis C disability.

Claiming Hepatitis C Disability Under Long Term Disability (LTD) Insurance

At a time in your life when you need long term disability benefits, you suddenly find that the insurance company will not award disability compensation to you. You also may have found that few attorneys agree to take on these difficult cases. Even fewer are experienced in this area of law.

If you have filed a claim for hepatitis C disability and it was denied or underpaid, your first call should be to a disability insurance attorney who deals in this area of law every day, and has significant experience handling insurance companies.

In our review of denied LTD claims, we see that denials often occur not because the person is not genuinely disabled, but because the claim was deficient and did not contain the evidence required to prove their disability. When the stakes are so high, you must not give up, or think you have lost.

We also review many claims that insurance providers deny for reasons that are unfair or unjustified. For example, some insurance companies will discredit subjective symptoms such as fatigue as if they have no value, saying that subjective symptoms cannot be considered in determining disability.

If you have been diagnosed with hepatitis C and were wrongly denied LTD insurance coverage, please contact Marc Whitehead & Associates as soon as possible. A major part of proving you are disabled entails connecting the hepatitis C with your inability to do the level of work defined in the insurance policy. As disability attorneys, we help you establish the disability within the terms of the policy, and accumulate and present the necessary doctor’s reports, medical evidence, and vocational capacity information in a way that demonstrates the true nature and extent of your condition.

We Defend Unfairly Denied Disability Claims

If your claim for hepatitis disability benefits has been turned down by your insurance company, Social Security, or the Veterans Administration, do not give up. Contact us to discuss your hepatitis C disability now. We can assist you wherever you live.

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