The answer to that question is yes. My name is Scott Rubin and I'm a Social Security Disability attorney at Rubin & Badame, Attorneys at Law, P.C.. Here at Rubin Badame, we've been practicing Social Security law for over 20 years and we have done thousands of hearings on fibromyalgia. I often get phone calls from claimants who ask whether they can be approved for disability for fibromyalgia.
The rules for fibromyalgia
First, the Social Security Administration in 2012 has indeed recognized fibromyalgia as a medically determinable impairment. Secondly, the individual must be seeing a rheumatologist or a doctor certified for fibromyalgia. And the doctor has to perform certain labs and tests to preclude certain other diseases.
How it must be diagnosed
For example, the doctor must rule out Sjogren's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus disease, Behcet's, ankylosing spondylitis, and Lyme disease. And after those illnesses are ruled out, the doctor must perform a clinical evaluation, and there must be 11 of 18 trigger points found on the body, both above and below the hip.
Who must make the diagnosis?
The diagnosis of fibromyalgia should be made by a board-certified rheumatologist, and the rheumatologist must take into account the American college of rheumatology criteria for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Just because someone's primary doctor says it may be fibromyalgia won't cut it for Social Security. We have to be sure. It needs to be proven that fibromyalgia is the illness.
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