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This morning, Rep. Pressley's office sent me a PDF of the denial letter.
With that in hand, I sent messages to two law firms that handle denials of social security disability applications and are in or near Boston.
One of the lawyers called me back at about a quarter of two this afternoon. I talked to him, and then he sent me forms to sign and send back, authorizing him to act on my behalf about my disability claim; giving permission for him to see medical records that would otherwise be protected by HIPAA; and agreeing that if the appeal succeeds, he will be paid a percentage of any back benefits.
Then he called me back, and asked me a bunch of questions about my medications, doctors, and what if anything had changed since I filed the application, and used those to file the appeal online.
So, I can stop worrying about that 60-day deadline.
The next step is that the agency will assign a new examiner. Then they will send me more forms to fill out, and send the lawyer copies of everything because I have designated him as my representative. I figure that part of what I would be paying for is persistence: he won't get discouraged by delays or bad news, and he doesn't have executive function issues to interfere with getting things done. (For unsuccessful appeals, all the can charge is "reasonable" costs, determined by the agency, not the law firm.)
With that in hand, I sent messages to two law firms that handle denials of social security disability applications and are in or near Boston.
One of the lawyers called me back at about a quarter of two this afternoon. I talked to him, and then he sent me forms to sign and send back, authorizing him to act on my behalf about my disability claim; giving permission for him to see medical records that would otherwise be protected by HIPAA; and agreeing that if the appeal succeeds, he will be paid a percentage of any back benefits.
Then he called me back, and asked me a bunch of questions about my medications, doctors, and what if anything had changed since I filed the application, and used those to file the appeal online.
So, I can stop worrying about that 60-day deadline.
The next step is that the agency will assign a new examiner. Then they will send me more forms to fill out, and send the lawyer copies of everything because I have designated him as my representative. I figure that part of what I would be paying for is persistence: he won't get discouraged by delays or bad news, and he doesn't have executive function issues to interfere with getting things done. (For unsuccessful appeals, all the can charge is "reasonable" costs, determined by the agency, not the law firm.)