Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia SSDI and SSI Lawyers for Applications and Appeals
Three Social Security hearing offices divide Philadelphia's disability hearings: two in Center City and one just outside the city line in Elkins Park. Downard & Associates represents Philadelphia claimants with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims, from the first application through reconsideration and a hearing before an administrative law judge. We work by phone or video from our office in Lebanon, Tennessee, and there is no fee unless you win.
How we help
What We Do on a Philadelphia Disability Claim
After a denial, we answer the specific reasons Social Security gave.
The claim work is the same everywhere: evidence, forms and deadlines. In Philadelphia, the large health systems, including Penn Medicine, Jefferson Health and Temple Health, and the city's own health centers each handle records requests their own way. We track which providers hold which records and request them in the form each system accepts.
At the application stage, we document your treatment and your work history, and for SSI we also document income and resources. After a denial, we answer the specific reasons Social Security gave. At a hearing, we prepare you to testify and present the evidence to the judge. Our Pennsylvania disability lawyer page covers claims in the rest of the state.
We do not have a Philadelphia office. Every consultation and preparation session happens by phone or video. We represent adults age 18 and older. We handle SSDI cases for people who 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, and we refer federal court appeals to affiliated counsel.
Hearing offices
Philadelphia's Three Hearing Offices
Social Security's hearing office locator assigns the city's field offices to three hearing offices:
Philadelphia: 21st Floor, 1601 Market Street. Its list covers the Aramingo, Downtown, South and West Philadelphia field offices, plus Norristown and West Chester.
Philadelphia East: Suite 502, 833 Chestnut Street. Its list covers the Germantown and Nicetown field offices, plus Chester and Upper Darby.
Elkins Park: Suite 250, 8380 Old York Road, Elkins Park. Its list covers the Northeast Philadelphia field office, along with Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Fairless Hills, Limerick and Reading.
So a Northeast Philadelphia claimant can be heard in Montgomery County while a neighbor in Nicetown is heard on Chestnut Street. The Notice of Hearing names the place that applies to you. If you plan to appear in person or by agency video, plan the trip from the address on that notice.
State agency
Calls and Letters From the Bureau of Disability Determination
Before any hearing, the medical decision on an application or a reconsideration is made by Pennsylvania's Bureau of Disability Determination (BDD), which evaluates SSDI and SSI claims on behalf of Social Security. Its page for applicants asks claimants to contact BDD when they receive a request for information about their medical sources.
A BDD request asks for things only you can supply, such as a doctor you saw once, a clinic that changed its name or the dates of a hospital stay. Answer it and send us a copy. Once you appoint a representative, Social Security's instructions to state agencies direct BDD to send its requests for evidence to you with a copy to the representative, and generally to make its contacts through the representative or with the representative's permission, so we see the same requests you do. If BDD schedules an examination with one of its doctors, our guide to the consultative examination explains what happens there.
Local treatment records
Records From Penn, Jefferson, Temple and City Health Centers
Penn Medicine: the patient portal gives you your own copy. To send records to anyone else, including your representative, Penn's health information page requires its authorization form, mailed or faxed to the hospital that holds the records. It lists separate records offices for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Pennsylvania Hospital.
Jefferson Health: the release form for Center City and Methodist lists the hospitals and Jefferson Medical Group outpatient practices as separate checkboxes, and imaging films and imaging reports as separate record types. The practice box asks for the physician or practice name and address, so have them ready before you fill it out.
Temple Health: its medical records page lists a phone and fax number for each location: Temple University Hospital's main campus on North Broad Street, the Jeanes and Episcopal campuses, Temple Women & Families Hospital, Fox Chase Cancer Center and Chestnut Hill Hospital. Northeastern Campus patients go through the Episcopal Campus.
City health centers: registered patients of the Department of Public Health's City health centers can see their records through the HealthCenterConnect patient portal.
Whichever system treated you, ask for office notes, test results and imaging reports covering the whole period you have been unable to work.
Hearing formats
Appearing From Home or at the Hearing Office
Deadline
30days
20 CFR 404.936
Social Security's ways to attend page offers four ways to appear: in person at one of its offices, by telephone, by agency video at one of its offices, or by online video on your own device from a private place. Under 20 CFR 404.936, you have 30 days after receiving Social Security's notice about ways to attend to object in writing to a phone or agency video appearance, and the same 30 days to agree in writing to online video. Online video is never scheduled without your agreement, and you can withdraw that agreement before the hearing starts.
For a Northeast Philadelphia claimant assigned to Elkins Park, online video avoids the trip up Old York Road. For a claimant who would rather sit across from the judge, a written objection to both phone and agency video within those 30 days generally leads to an in-person hearing at the assigned office, whether that is on Market Street, Chestnut Street or Old York Road. Our hearing representation includes preparing you for whichever format you choose.
Get organized
Build Your Philadelphia Claim File Before BDD Asks
The fastest way to answer a BDD request is to have the answers written down before it arrives. Keep one list, and add to it every time something changes.
Every provider: each hospital, practice, clinic and therapist, with addresses and the dates of your first and most recent visits. List a Penn, Jefferson or Temple practice separately from the hospital it is affiliated with, and include any City health center.
Every request: the date you asked for records, the route you used (portal, mailed form or fax) and what came back.
Every BDD contact: each letter or call, the date it arrived and any examination appointment it set.
Your recent jobs: Social Security weighs work done in the past five years, and under 20 CFR 404.1565 it asks for the dates you worked and the duties of each job in that period.
Daily limits: specific examples of tasks you cannot finish, rest you need and help you get from others, with how often each happens.
Send us a copy of the list when we start. It becomes the index for every records request we make.
After a denial
Philadelphia Denials and the 60-Day Deadline
Deadline
60days
20 CFR 404.909
Reconsideration must be requested in writing within 60 days after you receive the denial notice, under 20 CFR 404.909 for SSDI and 20 CFR 416.1409 for SSI. Social Security treats the notice as received 5 days after the date printed on it unless you show otherwise, under 20 CFR 404.901. A denial at reconsideration starts another 60 days to request a hearing under 20 CFR 404.933 for SSDI and 20 CFR 416.1433 for SSI.
Read the denial for its stated reason before deciding what to send. A gap in the medical record, a question about work credits and an SSI resource issue each need a different response, and a request for more time is granted only for good cause.
Common questions
Philadelphia Disability Claim Questions
Why is my Northeast Philadelphia hearing in Elkins Park?
Social Security's hearing office locator assigns the Philadelphia (NE) field office to the Elkins Park hearing office at 8380 Old York Road, along with field offices from Bucks County to the Lehigh Valley and Reading. If the trip is a problem, you can agree in writing to an online video hearing within 30 days after Social Security's notice about ways to attend.
Who is the Bureau of Disability Determination, and why are they calling me?
BDD is the Pennsylvania agency that decides the medical part of SSDI and SSI applications and reconsiderations for Social Security. It contacts claimants to identify medical sources and to schedule examinations when the records are not enough.
Can Penn Medicine send my records directly to my disability lawyer?
Yes. Penn requires its authorization form for any release to someone other than you, mailed or faxed to the records office of the hospital that treated you. Your own copy is available through the patient portal.
Does Downard meet Philadelphia clients in person?
No. We represent Philadelphia claimants from our office in Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations and hearing preparation by phone or video. If your hearing is in person, you attend at the place named on your Notice of Hearing.
Discuss your claim
Talk Through Your Philadelphia Claim With Us
Tell us where you have been treated, what Social Security has decided and the date on your last notice. We will tell you what the next step requires, by phone or video.