Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky Social Security Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI Claims
A disability hearing request from Lexington, Kentucky is generally handled by the Lexington hearing office at Suite 210, 2241 Buena Vista Road. Social Security assigns the hearing office by your residence address, though you can ask through the field office, in a signed statement giving your reasons, to have the case transferred, and Social Security decides whether to do it. The Lexington field office in Suite 110 of the same building and the Frankfort, Richmond, Danville and Maysville field offices that take nearby counties are all on that hearing office's list.
Downard & Associates represents adults in Lexington and Fayette County and in Jessamine, Scott, Woodford, Clark, Bourbon and Madison counties with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims, from the first application through reconsideration, a hearing before an administrative law judge and Appeals Council review. We are based in Lebanon, Tennessee, talk with Lexington clients by phone or video, and take no fee unless you win.
How we help
What Our Lexington Disability Attorneys Handle
Adults are judged by one disability definition in both programs, and you can apply for both at the same time.
SSDI rests on a Social Security earnings record, ordinarily your own, while SSI depends on limited income and countable resources and needs no work history. Adults are judged by one disability definition in both programs, and you can apply for both at the same time. A parent's record can sometimes support an adult whose disability started before 22, and the record of a spouse or former spouse who has died can sometimes support a disabled widow or widower, including a surviving divorced spouse, age 50 to 59; these depend on rules about the family relationship, the worker's record and when the disability began. Statewide rules are on our Kentucky disability lawyer page.
Downard has no office in Lexington. We meet with you by phone or video, and our attorney generally takes part in your hearing from Tennessee in the same way, even if you appear in person. Our clients are adults age 18 and older. We do not take VA claims or VA appeals, continuing disability reviews, cessation cases or cases about back pay alone, and we refer a case that needs federal court to affiliated counsel.
The local offices
Five Field Offices Serve Lexington and the Bluegrass
Social Security's office locator assigns the Lexington ZIP codes listed below, and several neighboring counties, to the field office on Buena Vista Road, and splits the rest of the region among four other offices. Each office below is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Lexington, Suite 110, 2241 Buena Vista Road: Lexington ZIP codes 40502 to 40511 and 40513 to 40517, including the University of Kentucky campus (40506); Nicholasville, Wilmore and Keene in Jessamine County; Winchester; Paris and Millersburg in Bourbon County; Cynthiana; Mount Sterling; and Owingsville. Phone 1-866-530-7754.
Frankfort, 140 Flynn Avenue: Georgetown, Sadieville and Stamping Ground in Scott County; Versailles and Midway in Woodford County; Lawrenceburg; Frankfort; and, to the west, La Grange (40031) and Shelbyville (40065). Phone 1-866-964-1724.
Richmond, 1060 Gibson Bay Drive: Richmond, Berea and Waco in Madison County; Irvine and Ravenna in Estill County; and Stanton and Clay City in Powell County. Phone 1-866-838-8945.
Danville, 103 Belinda Boulevard: Danville and Perryville; Harrodsburg, Burgin and Salvisa in Mercer County; Lancaster; and Hustonville. Phone 1-877-512-3850.
Maysville, 509 Marketplace Drive: Carlisle (40311) in Nicholas County. Phone 1-855-807-8802.
The field office takes applications and appeal requests and checks the non-medical requirements, but it does not decide whether you are disabled or hold hearings. In Kentucky, Disability Determination Services, a state agency, generally makes that decision at the application and reconsideration stages; at a hearing, the judge decides. Search your own street address in the locator, because assignments can change and a ZIP code can cross office lines.
Hearing offices
The Lexington Hearing Office Shares a Building With the Field Office
The data behind Social Security's hearing office locator gives the Lexington hearing office's address as Suite 210, 2241 Buena Vista Road, Lexington, KY 40505, phone 1-866-783-7301, and lists eight Kentucky field offices: Campbellsville, Danville, Frankfort, Hazard, Jackson, Lexington, Maysville and Richmond. Appendix F of Social Security's privacy notice for hearing records lists the same eight offices at 2241 Buena Vista Road.
The five field offices named above are all on that list in both sources, and the Lexington field office is in Suite 110 of the same building. The Frankfort office's service area also reaches west toward Louisville: the locator assigns La Grange and Shelbyville to the Frankfort office, so those claims go to Lexington rather than to the Louisville hearing office, as our Louisville disability lawyer page explains. Your Notice of Hearing gives the time and how you take part, and names the place if you appear in person or by agency video.
Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is determined by the claimant's residence address, though you can ask, in a signed statement giving your reasons that the field office sends along with your hearing request, to have the case transferred, and Social Security decides whether to do it. Social Security's hearings manual also lets it reassign some cases to another hearing office to relieve a temporary workload imbalance or increase productivity, only when the other office can hear and decide them more quickly. Social Security does not reassign a case this way when you have properly objected to both a phone hearing and an agency video hearing, have not agreed to online video, and have not changed your residence. If you move while your hearing request is pending, the hearing-format rules in 20 CFR 404.936 and, for SSI, 20 CFR 416.1436 let Social Security decide again how you will appear, including by phone or agency video, despite the objection, and it considers the move only once you send evidence verifying your new residence. In a workload reassignment, its hearings manual says management will still honor the objection after a move when doing so causes no additional delay and nothing else calls for scheduling you another way. When Social Security moves a case to another hearing office for workload or productivity reasons, the office that receives it is responsible for notifying you and your representative of the reassignment as soon as possible. Our hearing office directory lists every office with its field offices, and our ZIP code lookup shows the field office Social Security's office locator assigns to a ZIP code and the hearing office Social Security links to that field office. Your Notice of Hearing gives the address of the hearing office handling your case and, for an in-person or agency video hearing, the place, so go by that notice for your own case.
Kentucky rules
Your First Copy of Kentucky Medical Records Is Free
Kentucky law gives a patient one free copy of a medical record, on written request, from a licensed hospital or a health care provider. Under KRS 422.317, a hospital licensed under KRS Chapter 216B or a health care provider must provide a copy of the patient's medical record without charge to the patient, upon the patient's written request, and may charge no more than $1 per page for a second copy requested by the patient, the patient's attorney or the patient's authorized representative. A 2009 Kentucky Attorney General opinion, OAG 09-009, reads the statute to let a provider charge for mailing or faxing the free copy only if it also offers a way to get it with no charge at all, such as picking it up. Your own copy lets you check what each provider has on file.
SSI and Medicaid are linked in Kentucky. Social Security's operations manual, POMS SI 01715.010, lists the 209(b) and SSI criteria states, and Kentucky is on neither list, so it has a 1634 agreement: Social Security makes the Medicaid eligibility decision for people receiving SSI who meet certain citizenship or immigration requirements, while the state, not Social Security, decides that someone is ineligible for Medicaid. An SSDI award brings Medicare, generally after 24 months of SSDI entitlement; SSDI does not by itself bring Medicaid, though someone with limited income and resources may also qualify for SSI, or for Kentucky Medicaid under the state's own rules.
Local treatment records
Records From UK HealthCare, Baptist Health Lexington and the Lexington VA
VA records can support an SSDI or SSI claim even though we do not handle VA claims themselves.
With your permission, Social Security makes every reasonable effort to help you get records from your own medical sources, which 20 CFR 404.1512(b)(1) (416.912(b)(1) for SSI) defines as an initial request to each source and, if the records have not arrived, one follow-up request 10 to 20 calendar days later. Before finding that you are not disabled, it develops your complete medical history, generally at least the 12 months before the month you apply. You must still tell it about or submit all evidence known to you that relates to whether you are disabled, so a full list of providers, with your own copies where you have them, helps close gaps.
UK HealthCare: its medical records page offers records through MyChart, or an authorization form faxed to 859-218-7658, mailed to the Release of Information Section, Health Information Management, Room C601, 800 Rose Street, Lexington, KY 40536-0293, or to UK HealthCare ROI, Suite 110, 2333 Alumni Park Plaza, Lexington, KY 40517. You can also fill out the form in person at the Alumni Park Plaza office or on the first floor of Chandler Hospital's Pavilion H, next to registration. It says the first copy is free and additional copies cost $1.00 per page. Phone 859-323-5117.
Baptist Health Lexington: Baptist Health's medical records page recommends MyChart in most cases, or a paper authorization form signed by hand (it does not accept electronic signatures) and faxed to 502-253-4829 or mailed to Baptist Health Release of Information, P.O. Box 436147, Louisville, KY 40253. The page does not say which Baptist Health hospitals use that fax number and address, so confirm with Baptist Health Lexington before you send a form.
Lexington VA Health Care System: its medical records office page offers records online, by mail on VA Form 10-5345a sent to 1101 Veterans Drive, Lexington, KY 40502, or in person at the Medical Records Office, Tower Building, C 225, at the same address, where you bring a signed request and your Veteran Health Identification Card. It says mailed or faxed requests may take up to 20 business days. VA records can support an SSDI or SSI claim even though we do not handle VA claims themselves.
Hearings and deadlines
Hearing Format and Appeal Deadlines for a Lexington Disability Claim
To object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing, after you receive the Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing
30days
20 CFR 404.936(d), 416.1436(d)
After a hearing request, Social Security sends a Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing, and its ways to attend page lists four: in person or by agency video at one of its offices, and by phone, or by online video on your own device, either from a private location you choose. Under 20 CFR 404.936 and, for SSI, 20 CFR 416.1436, an objection to a phone hearing, an agency video hearing, or both must be made in writing within 30 days after you receive that notice. If you do not object, Social Security can schedule a phone or agency video hearing, though it can also schedule you in person or, if you agree, by online video; if you object to only one of those two formats, it can schedule you in person, by the other format, or by online video if you agree, and if you object to both, it generally schedules you in person or, if you agree, by online video. Online video is used only if you agree to it in writing, also within 30 days after you receive that notice, and a late objection or agreement needs good cause. If you move while the hearing request is pending, Social Security decides how you appear and can schedule a phone or agency video hearing despite an objection, though it considers the move only if you send evidence of your new residence; it can also use a phone hearing in a few other situations the rule lists. Our guide to hearing formats explains each choice and when Social Security moves a case to another office, and our disability hearings page describes the hearing itself.
A reconsideration request is due in writing within 60 days after you receive the initial denial, under 20 CFR 404.909 for SSDI and 20 CFR 416.1409 for SSI, and a hearing request after a reconsideration denial has its own 60 days under 20 CFR 404.933 and 20 CFR 416.1433. Social Security treats a notice as received 5 days after the date on the notice unless you show it came later, under 20 CFR 404.901 and 20 CFR 416.1401. A late request needs a written request for more time and good cause, so call us the week a denial arrives.
Common questions
Lexington Disability Claim Questions
Is a Lexington disability hearing held at 2241 Buena Vista Road?
Not always. The Lexington hearing office in Suite 210 at 2241 Buena Vista Road generally handles the case for addresses in the Lexington area, but Social Security can schedule a phone hearing, an agency video hearing at one of its offices, an in-person hearing, or an online video hearing if you agree. You can object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing within 30 days after you receive the Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing, though in limited cases Social Security can still schedule a phone hearing, and if you move while your request is pending, Social Security decides again how you will appear, including by phone or agency video despite your objection. The Notice of Hearing says where and how you take part.
Which Social Security office serves Georgetown, Versailles and Lawrenceburg?
The Frankfort field office at 140 Flynn Avenue. The locator assigns Georgetown (40324), Versailles (40383), Midway and Lawrenceburg (40342) to Frankfort rather than to Lexington, and Frankfort is on the Lexington hearing office's list, so the hearing office is generally the same.
Do Nicholasville, Winchester and Paris addresses go to the Lexington field office?
Yes, for the ZIP codes the locator assigns there: Nicholasville (40356), Winchester (40391) and Paris (40361) go to the Lexington field office in Suite 110 at 2241 Buena Vista Road. Richmond and Berea go to the Richmond office instead, and Danville, Harrodsburg and Lancaster to Danville. Search your own street address in the locator to confirm.
Can I get a free copy of my medical records in Kentucky?
Generally, yes, the first copy. KRS 422.317 requires a licensed hospital or a health care provider to give you a copy of your medical record without charge when you ask in writing, and caps a second copy at $1 per page. Ask each provider in writing, and keep a copy of what you receive.
Discuss your claim
Ask for a Free Review of Your Lexington Disability Claim
Call (615) 255-4307 or complete the free review form, and you will hear back within 3 business hours. Have your latest Social Security notice, the date it reached you and the names of the Lexington clinics and hospitals where you are treated.