Another Struggle for Long COVID Patients: Disability Benefits

Josie Taveras uses an inhaler in the kitchen of her apartment in Brooklyn on Oct. 14, 2021.

With no direct medical evidence of her condition, she has been turned down for disability coverage twice. Even a note from a prestigious post-COVID clinic in the Mount Sinai hospital system, attesting that Taveras “continues to experience daily symptoms and is currently unable to work,” was not enough.

“I expect the tests to come back normal,” said Dr. Luis Tatem, an infectious-disease specialist who has been treating Taveras and other long COVID patients at the University Hospital of Brooklyn. He added: “We’re used to having a laboratory to back us up. And for this, you don’t.” “Addressing the disability backlog is one of our top priorities,” Tiggemann said via email, acknowledging that the pandemic had increased wait times. Biden has called for an increased $1.3 billion for the agency’s budget for the 2022 fiscal year, but his proposal is part of the current negotiations in Congress, and it is unclear whether it will pass.

Steven Trompeter, 49, was unable to perform his job as an industrial mechanic after getting sick with COVID symptoms, including cough, fever, muscle aches and loss of taste and smell, in February 2020. He applied for disability in December 2020 and was approved six months later. “No two cases are the same, each case is individual,” she said. “We look at doctor’s tests, medical records, past treatments and whether they have other conditions.”

Dr. Stephen Martin, a physician and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said the complex nature of diagnosing long COVID required the coordination of various specialists who also have specific knowledge of the condition. Many are overbooked, he said, with wait lists of more than six months — especially for patients who do not have good health insurance.

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