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Every good day starts with a good night’s rest. But your bad days can quickly outnumber the good ones when you’re struggling with sleep apnea.
When sleep apnea won’t let you get the rest you need to be refreshed every day, it can make working for a living a challenge. In severe cases, it can make it impossible.
Social Security Disability benefits are there for people whose health problems prevent them from holding onto a job. These monthly checks can stabilize your finances as you work on managing your condition.
While Social Security has a long list of impairments that qualify for disability benefits, sleep apnea is a special case: It’s not on there. That means, more often than not, that people who suffer from sleep apnea and apply for benefits wind up being denied.
Social Security’s decision to turn you away, however, is not the end. Sleep apnea may not be a listed impairment, but there are ways to still get the disability benefits you need to manage your life.
This is where the disability attorneys at Lachman & Gorton are indispensable. We have helped thousands of people in Upstate New York successfully appeal Social Security denials, and we can help you find a way forward when sleep apnea is a barrier to work.
You pay no fee for a Social Security Disability lawyer until you win benefits.
When you have trouble regulating your breathing while asleep, you may be experiencing involuntary narrowing of your throat at night, or your brain may be failing to send the proper signals to your muscles to control your breath.
Signs of sleep apnea include:
With changes to diet and behavior or with the use of a breathing device such as a CPAP machine, people can live (and often work) with sleep apnea. But severe cases do happen that rule out regular work.
If you applied for Social Security Disability and got denied, one tactic with sleep apnea is to show Social Security that it’s related to a worse condition you have—one that does more clearly qualify for benefits.
Sleep apnea has been linked to…
…that are recognized as qualified impairments by Social Security.
If you have such a condition, then that health problem becomes the pathway to appeal your disability case. It makes your argument much easier to win.
But if you don’t have one of these qualified conditions, don’t give up hope. Lachman & Gorton disability lawyers can help you explore all possible options in Binghamton, Elmira, Endicott, Oneonta and Rochester.
Let us take a look at your case and provide a free evaluation—at no cost to you.
A fortunate aspect of Social Security’s approach to benefits is that your condition doesn’t need to be on their list of qualified impairments to win approval. These cases may be harder to prove, but success is possible.
Many people who suffer from sleep apnea fall into this camp. The key here is to show how your health problem, regardless of your diagnosis, has disrupted your ability to manage daily life.
If your combined symptoms are severe enough to rule out a job—any job—then you may qualify for disability benefits based solely on them.
Social Security will ask you to provide evidence or undergo tests that evaluate your “residual functional capacity (RFC).” In other words, how your health negatively impacts your ability to do routine tasks, such as standing, sitting, or concentrating for a period of time.
They will also ask for evidence that shows you have trouble managing yourself day to day.
You get this information in coordination with your doctor. But doctors don’t always know what Social Security is looking for, so at Lachman & Gorton we coordinate with them on your behalf. We developed a form to guide doctors in describing your functional limitations so Social Security will understand.
The combination of your symptoms and your RFC can be grounds for a successful appeal.
If you live in Upstate New York and you’re wondering what your options are after Social Security has denied your claim, your first call should be to a New York disability lawyer.
With sleep apnea, you struggle to find the energy for a complicated government process. Your disability attorney lightens your burden.
At Lachman & Gorton, we treat you with the dignity and respect you deserve, and we’ll put all our available resources and experience into winning you the benefits that can bring much-needed peace in a difficult time.