[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 19 (Friday, January 29, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Page 4900]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-1834]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

[Docket No. SSA-2009-0081]


Drug Addiction and Alcoholism

AGENCY: Social Security Administration.

ACTION: Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: We are requesting your comments about our operating procedures 
for determining disability for persons whose drug addiction or 
alcoholism (DAA) may be a contributing factor material to our 
determination of disability.

DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive 
them no later than March 30, 2010.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of three methods--
Internet, fax, or mail. Do not submit the same comments multiple times 
or by more than one method. Regardless of which method you choose, 
please state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA-2009-0081 so 
that we may associate your comments with the correct document.

    Caution: You should be careful to include in your comments only 
information that you wish to make publicly available. We strongly 
urge you not to include in your comments any personal information, 
such as Social Security numbers or medical information.

    1. Internet: We strongly recommend that you submit your comments 
via the Internet. Please visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function to find docket number 
SSA-2009-0081. The system will issue a tracking number to confirm your 
submission. You will not be able to view your comment immediately 
because we must post each comment manually. It may take up to a week 
for your comment to be viewable.
    2. Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966-2830.
    3. Mail: Mail your comments to the Office of Regulations, Social 
Security Administration, 137 Altmeyer Building, 6401 Security 
Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401.
    Comments are available for public viewing on the Federal 
eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov or in person, during 
regular business hours, by arranging with the contact person identified 
below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cheryl A. Williams, Social Security 
Administration, Room 4624 Annex Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, 
Baltimore, MD 21235-6401, (410) 965-1020. For information on 
eligibility or filing for benefits, call our national toll-free number, 
1-800-772-1213 or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or visit our Internet site, 
Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Electronic Version

    The electronic file of this document is available on the date of 
publication in the Federal Register at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html.

Background

    The law provides that a person shall not be considered disabled for 
purposes of the Social Security Disability Insurance or the 
Supplemental Security Income programs if his or her DAA is a 
contributing factor material to our determination of disability. 
Sections 223(d)(2)(C) and 1614(a)(3)(J) of the Social Security Act 
(Act) (42 U.S.C. 423(d)(2)(C) and 1382c(a)(3)(J)). If we find that a 
person is disabled and we have medical evidence of DAA, we must decide 
whether the DAA is material to our determination of disability. To do 
this, we evaluate which of the person's disabling physical and mental 
limitations would remain if he or she stopped using drugs or alcohol. 
We then determine whether any or all of these remaining limitations 
would be disabling. The DAA is material to our determination of 
disability when we find that the person's remaining limitations would 
not be disabling. 20 CFR 404.1535, 416.935.
    To provide guidance on how we interpret the DAA provisions of the 
Act, we issued instructions to our employees in an Emergency Message on 
August 30, 1996.\1\ We later included some of those instructions in our 
Program Operations Manual System (POMS).\2\ Since 1996 we have used 
these instructions and our regulations \3\ to determine whether a 
person's DAA is a contributing factor material to our determination of 
disability.
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    \1\ You can read the Emergency Message here: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/public/reference.nsf/1c87f767ab05e983852574da00547b35/4e8211854b65c36d852574da005a91e0!OpenDocument.
    \2\ You can read the POMS instruction here: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0490070050.
    \3\ 20 CFR 404.1535 and 416.935.
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Request for Comments

    We are asking for your comments on the procedures we follow when 
evaluating DAA. In particular, we would like your opinion about what, 
if any, changes you think we should make to our instructions. For 
example, do you have any suggestions about:
     What evidence we should consider to be medical evidence of 
DAA?
     How we should evaluate claims of people who have a 
combination of DAA and at least one other physical impairment?
     How we should evaluate the claims of people who have a 
combination of DAA and at least one other mental impairment?
     Whether we should include using cigarettes and other 
tobacco products in our instructions?
     How long a period of abstinence or nonuse we should 
consider to determine whether DAA is material to our determination of 
disability?
     Whether there is any special guidance we can provide for 
people with DAA who are homeless?
    Please see the information under ADDRESSES earlier in this document 
for methods to give us your comments. We will not respond to your 
comments, but we will consider them when we decide whether and how we 
should update our current instructions.

    Dated: January 22, 2010.
Michael J. Astrue,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 2010-1834 Filed 1-28-10; 8:45 am]
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