Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates helps adults in Omaha, Nebraska, with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applications and appeals. We gather medical evidence, address the reasons for an initial denial, and prepare for administrative hearings. We work with clients by phone or video. Begin with a treatment list that identifies each facility, including any care in Council Bluffs, alongside the duties your condition makes difficult. If you have been denied, keep the complete decision and its arrival date.
How we help
What We Do for an Omaha Application or Appeal
We do not take disability cessation or continuing disability review cases, or new cases involving back-pay issues alone.
Applications: We help prepare and file SSDI applications, gather medical evidence, and document work history. For SSI, we also help complete the financial disclosures. The application should describe your treatment and work accurately.
Reconsideration: After an initial denial, we review the reasons in the decision, file the appeal, and address missing evidence or other issues identified by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Administrative hearings: We develop the medical record, prepare you for testimony about your condition and work, and present the case at the hearing. Preparation includes reviewing the treatment timeline and likely questions.
Our service limits also address matters involving Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits.
We handle SSDI cases for people who currently receive VA benefits, but we do not handle VA claims or appeals. We do not take disability cessation or continuing disability review cases, or new cases involving back-pay issues alone. We refer federal court appeals to a trusted affiliate rather than handling them in-house.
Our Nebraska disability representation page provides the broader state context.
Benefit eligibility
SSDI and SSI Eligibility for Omaha Adults
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough total and recent work covered by Social Security, as well as a qualifying disability. The work-credit requirements depend on your age when the disability began. For statutory blindness, the total-work requirement still applies, but the recent-work test does not.
SSI does not require an insured work record. Adults may qualify based on disability, statutory blindness, or age 65 or older, subject to income, resource, citizenship or qualifying noncitizen status, residency, and other requirements. See SSA's SSI eligibility guidance.
For SSDI and adult SSI claims based on disability, SSA evaluates whether a medically determinable condition prevents substantial gainful activity (SGA), meaning significant physical or mental work of a kind done, or usually done, for pay or profit. If the evaluation reaches the later steps, SSA considers whether you can do past work under its rules or adjust to other work. A diagnosis alone does not establish eligibility.
The condition and the resulting inability to perform SGA must generally have lasted, or be expected to last, at least 12 consecutive months, unless the condition is expected to result in death within 12 months of disability onset. This duration requirement does not require you to wait a year before applying.
For initial SSI eligibility based on statutory blindness, SSA does not use SGA. SSI statutory blindness has no duration requirement. Income, resource, and other SSI rules still apply. SSI based on age 65 or older does not require proving disability.
Treatment records
Checking Omaha Treatment Sources and Record Releases
Review the authorization for the relevant records with your representative.
If you received care through Methodist Health System, its medical-records instructions cover facilities including Methodist Hospital in Omaha and Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Record the actual facility and treatment dates, including care across the state line, rather than listing only the health system name.
Methodist asks you to identify treatment dates and record types on its authorization. Selecting the entire medical record alone does not release sensitive information such as mental health or substance use disorder records; the additional boxes must also be checked. Review the authorization for the relevant records with your representative.
If you received care at Nebraska Medicine, its records page offers access through One Chart | Patient, an online request form, and an authorization you can submit by mail, fax, or email. Use that provider's instructions for its records. Keep other treatment sources on your list as well.
Local claim process
How Nebraska DDS Reviews Medical Evidence for Omaha Claims
Nebraska Disability Determination Services, or DDS, is part of the Nebraska Department of Education and makes medical determinations for Social Security claims. SSA handles nonmedical eligibility requirements, such as insured status for SSDI and financial eligibility for SSI.
DDS first seeks evidence from the treatment providers you identify. If that evidence is unavailable or insufficient, it may arrange a consultative examination to obtain additional information. Keep your provider list current and tell your representative about new appointments, tests, or treatment sources.
Get organized
Build an Omaha Treatment and Work File
Note when your condition affected tasks such as lifting, standing, concentrating, or completing a shift.
Use this checklist to organize information before applying or discussing an appeal. SSA's application instructions describe the medical and work information it requests.
Providers: List each doctor, clinic, and hospital, with contact details, patient numbers if available, and treatment dates. Include relevant care received in Iowa or elsewhere.
Record requests: Note the facility, dates, and record types requested, the authorization used, and what has arrived. Mark any missing visits or reports for follow-up.
Tests and medicines: List test dates, locations, and ordering providers. List medicines and prescribers where applicable.
Work: Describe recent jobs, duties, dates, hours, and earnings. Note when your condition affected tasks such as lifting, standing, concentrating, or completing a shift.
Notices: Keep SSA decisions and requests together, record when they arrived, and save copies of what you submit.
Do not delay applying because some documents are missing. With your permission, SSA can help obtain medical evidence from your treatment providers. Continue responding to requests for information while your claim is being reviewed.
After a denial
Responding to an Omaha SSDI or SSI Denial
Deadline
60days
After an initial SSDI or SSI denial, a reconsideration request generally must be made in writing within 60 days after you receive the notice. After a reconsideration denial, a written request for an administrative law judge hearing generally has the same receipt-based deadline. The SSDI reconsideration rule and SSI reconsideration rule explain the first appeal stage. The SSDI hearing-request rule and SSI hearing-request rule cover the hearing stage.
SSA ordinarily presumes receipt five days after the notice date unless you show that you did not receive it within that period. Use the instructions in your decision rather than treating every Social Security letter as having an unconditional 65-day deadline.
If a reconsideration or hearing request is late, ask SSA for an extension in writing and explain the delay. SSA must find good cause; additional time is not automatic.
For the hearing stage, see our hearing-office guide.
Common questions
Omaha Questions About Evidence and Representation
Should I include care I received in Council Bluffs?
Yes. List relevant treatment sources wherever you received care. For example, Methodist's records instructions include both its Omaha hospital and Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs. Identify each facility and its treatment dates so the care can be matched to the records needed.
Does selecting the entire Methodist record include sensitive records?
Methodist says sensitive information, including mental health and substance use disorder records, requires the additional authorization boxes even when the entire medical record is selected. Follow the provider's current instructions for the information being requested.
Will Nebraska DDS decide whether I meet SSI financial rules?
No. Nebraska DDS makes the medical determination. SSA handles the separate nonmedical requirements, including SSI financial eligibility. A medical determination is one part of the eligibility review.
Can I work with Downard from Omaha?
Yes. We represent adults in Omaha with SSDI and SSI matters and communicate with clients by phone and video. Our firm is based in Tennessee. You can contact us to discuss an application, reconsideration appeal, or administrative hearing.
Discuss your claim
Discuss Your Omaha SSDI or SSI Claim
Tell us how your condition affects your work and whether you have applied or received a decision. We can discuss representation and the next stage of your claim.