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Walking Your Way To Benefits?
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I had a hearing this week with a woman who had all sorts of problems with her spine. We had the MRI reports and the X-rays and the doctors’ opinions. But the case turned on a simple question from the judge: what position gives you the most relief? The woman replied that walking was best…
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Closing Loopholes Made It Even More Important To Wait To Collect Social Security Retirement Benefits.
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As you know, Congress closed the loophole that allowed two-earner couples to maximize their Social Security retirement benefits.
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Understanding Radiculopathy
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Social Security maintains a listing of conditions that qualify people for disability benefits. Not surprisingly, this is called the Listing of Impairments. It is available online at this location. For those persons suffering from back and spinal conditions, the place to look is at the very begin…
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Grinding To A Halt
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Social Security falls even farther behind in scheduling hearings. There is no good explanation why. Is the system about to bind up and stop?
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More People Delaying Taking Retirement Benefits
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Even though the smart strategy is undeniably to delay taking your Social Security retirement benefits as long as possible, too many people still don’t do this. But this might be changing. A new study in Forbes shows that more Americans are getting with the program. Among the most encouraging deve…
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Apply and Suspend Going Fast
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Now the President Obama has signed the budget deal into law, we know more about how it affected Social Security. Perhaps the most notably change was the pending elimination of the apply and suspend tactic. This maneuver allowed two-wage-earning couples to maximize their Social Security benefits…
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Pain In The Neck Is More Than A Cliche
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When you consider what we ask our neck and shoulder muscles to do, it’s little wonder how many of us have chronic neck pain. The typical head weighs as much as a bowling ball. We expect our neck to keep our heads upright all day as we turn from this direction to that. So, what…
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Social Security Looks Relatively Untouched In Budget Deal
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The proposed budget deal in Congress involves Social Security disability. From the early reports, however, it seems as if the program will not suffer any major setbacks. In fact, the budget deal actually addresses one of the big issues affecting Social Security disability. If reports are true, th… Continue Reading
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More Troubling News About Pain Killers
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It seems like most the new studies on the effectiveness of pain killers indicate that these drugs are not much help at all. We have seen recently that over-the-counter drugs are more useful. New pain killers are scarcely better than placebos. Now comes word that giving narcotic pain pills to tee…
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More Bad News For Big Pharma
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Just a few weeks ago a study showed that placebos work almost as well as very expensive new pain killing medications. Now another study says that back pain sufferers should skip such prescription drugs as opioids and muscle relaxers entirely. The better option turns out to be Ibuprofen or naprox…
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The Backlog For Hearings Is Longer Than Ever–But Fear Not
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When SSA passed the one million mark in people waiting to have their Social Security disability hearings, many people took note. These included reporters at the Washington Post. Something about having that many people waiting seemed to signal that the delays were at their nadir. Well, forget abo…
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Looks Like No Increase in Benefits For 2016
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The PBS News Hour reported that Social Security beneficiaries will get no increase in their monthly benefits for 2016. This is because inflation was pretty much non-existent for 2015. Per PBS, the main cause of low inflation is gas prices. This is a bit ironic, given that the disabled and retir…
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Time Is On Your Side
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This is starting to look like a trend. Once more we have research that shows that less medical intervention is often the best approach. The Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, just published a study comparing the benefits of physical therapy with simply waiting for healing to occ…
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Flat Rate For Disability Recipients?
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Rachel Greszler of the Heritage Foundation thinks she has a way to improve Social Security disability. Her idea is to pay everyone who gets SSDI that same amount. This would be whatever it takes to keep such beneficiaries above the poverty line. For 2015, that would amount to $981.00. Ms. Gresz…
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Big Pharma’s Biggest Threat?
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If I asked you to list the biggest hindrances drug companies face in bringing new pain killers to market, you would like have several suggestions. The expense, for example, of developing new medicines. Perhaps increased governmental regulation of the pharmacy industry? These are two excellent an…
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Gun Control And Social Security (No, Seriously)
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If you live in the real world, you probably missed the contretempsover gun control and Social Security. If, however, you watch Fox News, this story is probably right up there near the top of the list of things you are currently enraged about. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Obama administ…
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Walk While You Work (Whistling Is Optional)
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By now, you have probably heard of the studies that say sitting all day is as bad for you as smoking. Some researchers suggest that all of us office workers should stand while we go about our routines. Scientists at the Occupational Biomechanics and Ergonomics Lab in Laval, Quebec’s Jewish Reha…
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20 Years And Counting
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On September 20, 1995, I sat in the mostly empty office I had just rented. I didn’t have a thing. No furniture. No computer. The telephone was not even connected (remember: no cell phones back then.) My client count was an easy to remember zero. I had just left a very high-volume law firm that…
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Don’t Touch Those Toes
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When people call to mind images of exercises, they are likely to picture someone touching his toes while bent at the waist. If not that, surely people envision an exerciser doing sit ups. Now comes word that neither of these classics is good for your back. In fact, they could be bad for you. If…
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Can Wearable Devices Help Speed Medical Research?
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For most people, devices like Fitbit and Jawbone are just expensive toys. I see a lot of people dashing around with a devices on their wrists. Many of them are working on getting their 10,000 steps for the day. While it is nice to see people being active, it does not seem likely that anyone…
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Widows Benefits And Retirement Planning
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It turns out that there is a nearly-endless supply of complications when it comes to retirement planning and Social Security. In a recent article, the New York Times highlighted the plight of some widows trying to maximize their Social Security benefits. Widows can claim either benefits based o…
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Be Wary When Applying For Retirement
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I trust that anyone who has followed the subject knows how important it is to wait until age 70 to collect your Social Security retirement benefits. The reason for waiting is that SSA will increase your month benefits by 8% for each year you wait past full retirement age. This extra money is your…
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Just Take Away The Pain And I’ll Get Around OK
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I suppose this one is no surprise: when researchers asked back suffers what they wanted most, the answer was clear: relief from pain. The other option for the survey respondents was better mobility. The vote was not even close. 79% said they would prefer relief from pain to being able to move mor…
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10 Myths And A Few Facts About Social Security Disability
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The website www.everydayhealth.com recently published a neat list of common myths about Social Security disability. It is well worth a read. Because I work in this field, I tend to get lost in the details and see only the complications. But this short article provides plenty of “big picture” i…
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One More Treatment That Does Not Work.
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You can apparently add steroid injections to the list of treatments that do not substantially improve back pain. Steroid injections can provide some relief, but it is only temporary. As in, a few weeks to a few months. These injections do nothing to reduce the likelihood of spinal surgery. So …
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