Autoimmune Disorders and Long-Term Disability

Autoimmune disorders are complex conditions that can significantly impact a person’s life, potentially leading those with the condition to claim disability benefits. From rheumatoid arthritis to multiple sclerosis, each autoimmune disorder presents its own set of challenges that can affect a person’s ability to work and engage in daily activities. Understanding the relationship between autoimmune disorders and long-term disability is crucial for those affected by these health challenges and pursuing a disability claim.

Getting Long-Term Disability (LTD) Benefits for Autoimmune Disorders

If you have disabling autoimmune disorders and long-term disability insurance, you may be surprised to learn that these claims are often denied. If your insurance company denied your long-term disability claim for an autoimmune disorder, there are steps you can take to fight for your disability benefits. You have the right to get more clinical information about your autoimmune diseases that may help your case and the right to submit that evidence as part of an administrative appeal.

Disability insurance carriers do not make receiving benefits for autoimmune disorders easy. Many people are denied benefits the first time they apply, and the appeal process can be just as challenging. Consider consulting with a disability attorney if your insurance company denies your claim. Working with an experienced disability attorney will give you the best chance of getting the benefits you deserve for your autoimmune disorder.

Filing an appeal can be daunting, but your expert disability attorney will evaluate your case to determine the evidence needed and guide you through the process. For many people, getting expert help is the difference between being denied or approved. Disability insurance attorneys can help you stay on top of your deadlines, gather documents, assist you during field interviews, and give you guidance that will help you get approved. They do not get paid unless you receive disability benefits, so you can seek help without paying costs upfront.

If your autoimmune disorder or treatment side effects make it impossible for you to work and your disability claim has been denied, the legal team at the Ortiz Law Firm will fight for your disability benefits. We offer a free case evaluation for wrongfully denied claims anywhere in the United States. Call us today at (888) 321-8131 to schedule a free case evaluation with an experienced disability lawyer to discuss your autoimmune disorder disability claim.

Is an Autoimmune Disease Considered a Disability?

Autoimmune disorders cause the body to have an overactive or underactive immune system. If the immune system fails to do its job or does it incorrectly, and the immune system attacks the wrong thing or fails to attack, the results can be severe. Overactivity will cause the body’s immune system to attack healthy cells. Under-activity will leave you susceptible to more infections and diseases.

Your insurance carrier may consider your autoimmune disorder to be a disability if you are unable to work as a result of an autoimmune disease and you have the medical evidence to support it. If you experience side effects of your treatment, that may also qualify you for benefits. You may be required to take certain medications, which often have side effects. Be sure to discuss any side effects with your doctor so this information will be reported in your medical records.

What Autoimmune Disorders Qualify for Disability?

Autoimmune diseases that could qualify for disability include:

• Ankylosing Spondylitis: Ankylosing spondylitis affects the spine, although other joints can become involved. It causes vertebrae inflammation, leading to severe pain and discomfort.
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): CFS is a complicated disease characterized by extreme fatigue that no underlying medical condition can explain. It worsens with activity but doesn’t improve with rest.
• Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP): CIDP is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the nerves and nerve roots. Related symptoms include numbness, pain, and muscle weakness in the arms and legs. Early diagnosis and treatment are critical to prevent nerve damage and paralysis.
• Connective Tissue Disease (undifferentiated and mixed): Connective tissue is the material between the body’s cells that gives tissues form and strength. The genes that encode these proteins can harbor defects or mutations, affecting the functioning of specific properties in selected tissues. The result can be a heritable connective tissue disorder. Individuals who suffer from undifferentiated and mixed connective tissue disorders are often unable to maintain full-time employment.
• Epstein-Barr Virus: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a member of the herpes virus family. EBV can cause infectious mononucleosis, also called mono, and other illnesses.
• Goodpasture Syndrome: Goodpasture syndrome is a rare autoimmune disorder characterized by immune system attacks against the lungs and kidneys. The first symptom is usually fatigue, followed by nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, foamy urine, blood in urine, and swelling of the legs.
• Graves Disease: Graves disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. It is caused by an abnormal immune system response that causes the thyroid gland to produce too many hormones. Symptoms include unexplained anxiety and irritation, weight loss, swollen thyroid glands, fatigue, irregular heartbeat, frequent bowel movements, and heat sensitivity.
• Hashimoto Thyroiditis: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis autoimmune disorder creates antibodies that attack the thyroid gland. Symptoms can include fatigue, weight loss, depression, and swelling of joints or thyroid glands.
• HIV: A combination of symptoms may render a claimant unable to sustain full-time work activity: bacterial, fungal, protozoan, helminthic, or viral infections, malignant neoplasms, non-responsive ulcerations or lesions, motor or cognitive dysfunction, sinusitis, sepsis, endocarditis, meningitis, septic arthritis, pneumonia, or chronic diarrhea.
• Immune-deficiency Disorders (except HIV/AIDS): Immune-deficiency disorders prevent your body from fighting infections and diseases adequately and make you more susceptible to catching viruses and bacterial infections. If your conditions are resistant to acceptable treatments or severe and frequent enough that you need to be hospitalized or given IV treatments multiple times per year, you could be approved for benefits.
• Inflammatory Arthritis (Including Rheumatoid Arthritis): The spectrum of inflammatory arthritis disorders differs in cause, course, and outcome. For example, rheumatoid arthritis is a form of inflammatory arthritis that causes the immune system to attack the antibodies in your joints. Symptoms of inflammatory and rheumatoid arthritis include stiffness, pain, swelling around the joints, and lumps or redness on the affected area. Inflammation of major peripheral joints may cause difficulties with walking or fine and gross movements. An immune system attack may also cause pain, swelling, and tenderness. With constitutional symptoms or signs such as severe exhaustion, fever, malaise, and involuntary weight loss, this medical condition may result in extreme limitation and inability to work.
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Inflammatory bowel disease is a group of autoimmune disorders that inflame the intestines. Once thought to be an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the body, modern research shows that inflammatory bowel disease causes the immune system to unpredictably attack food, bacteria, or a harmless virus in the gut, leading to inflammation and bowel injury. Not knowing when symptoms will hit makes it difficult to work. When the disease is active, severe inflammation can make it impossible to work. There are two main types – Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
• Lupus: Lupus is a medical condition that causes the immune system to attack organs and tissue. Lupus symptoms vary, but the most common are malaise, sores or blisters in the mouth or on the body, joint pain, fatigue, fever, and losing weight. If your lupus manifests repeatedly and is shown to limit your ability to work, you may qualify for LTD.
• Multiple Sclerosis: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. The immune system attacks the myelin, causing communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Symptoms of multiple sclerosis include muscle pain, stiffness, difficulty walking, dizziness, speech delays, and clumsiness. Eventually, this autoimmune disease can cause the nerves to deteriorate or suffer permanent damage.
• Myasthenia Gravis: Myasthenia gravis causes extreme fatigue and weakness of your muscles due to a breakdown in communication between your muscles and nerves. Symptoms related to myasthenia gravis include double vision, drooping eyelids, and difficulty speaking and chewing.
• Polymyositis/Dermatomyositis: Polymyositis and dermatomyositis (PM/DM) are part of a group autoimmune diseases known as myositis. Muscle weakness is the most common symptom of PM/DM. You may be approved if you have shoulder or pelvic muscle weakness with loss of gross and fine movement ability, your muscle weakness causes difficulty swallowing or breathing, or it severely affects joint mobility or your intestines’ functions.
• Psoriasis: Psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder where skin cells reproduce too quickly, causing raised, red, scaly patches to appear on the skin. Psoriasis typically affects the outside of the elbows, knees, or scalp, though it can appear anywhere. Symptoms include pain and swelling of the affected area, dry, cracked skin that bleeds, burning, itching, soreness, and swollen joints.
• Raynaud’s Disease: Raynaud’s disease is an autoimmune disease that causes blood vessels to narrow when you are cold or feeling stressed. When this happens, blood can’t reach the skin’s surface, and the affected areas turn white and blue.
• Scleroderma (Systemic Sclerosis): Scleroderma is an autoimmune disorder that hardens and tightens the epidermis and connective tissues. You may qualify for benefits due to scleroderma because of fixed deformities that cause an inability to walk normally, perform fine motor skills, or permanent damage in either foot or both hands. You may also be approved if you’ve had other manifestations that can be shown to limit your ability to perform in a work environment.
• Sjögren’s Syndrome: The symptoms and qualifications to receive long-term disability for Sjögren’s syndrome vary. Common symptoms of Sjögren’s include fatigue, malaise, sores or blisters in the mouth or on the body, joint pain, fever, and weight loss. If your Sjögren’s syndrome manifests repeatedly and can be shown to limit your daily activities or ability to work, you may qualify for benefits.
• Systemic Vasculitis: Individuals with systemic vasculitis suffer from immune system attacks that cause inflammation of the blood vessels. The inflammation can cause blood moving from your heart to the rest of your body to swell within the vessels, making it hard for the blood to produce and circulate oxygen.
• Type 1 Diabetes: Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. In this disease, the immune system attacks the healthy insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, damaging them and preventing the pancreas from supplying insulin.
• Stiff Person Syndrome: Stiff person syndrome is a rare autoimmune disorder that causes muscles in the torso and limbs to alternate between rigidity and spasms.

Should I Apply for Social Security Disability Too?

If you do not have a disability insurance policy, you may still be eligible for Social Security Disability benefits. If your autoimmune condition is severe enough to affect your ability to work, it could qualify you for benefits. The Social Security Administration requires that your autoimmune condition last or be expected to last at least 12 months. The Social Security Administration will evaluate your medical evidence to determine if you qualify for benefits.

Many disability insurance policies require you to apply for Social Security Disability benefits for your autoimmune disease if approved for long-term disability benefits. Why hire multiple lawyers when one disability lawyer can handle both claims? The Ortiz Law Firm represents Social Security Disability claimants nationwide, and we offer a free case evaluation for claimants at the initial application, reconsideration, and hearing levels.

Was Your Autoimmune Disorder Claim Denied? Get Help With Your Claim

Disability insurance companies do not make it easy for you to receive the benefits you deserve. If you are unable to work due to autoimmune diseases or treatment side effects, but your insurance company has denied your claim, you should consult with a long-term disability lawyer.

If autoimmune disorders make it impossible for you to work and you have been denied your long-term disability insurance benefits, we can help. Disability attorney Nick Ortiz will fight for your disability benefits no matter where you live in the United States. Contact us online or call (888) 321-8131 to schedule a free case evaluation to speak with one of our lawyers.