Tucson, Arizona
Tucson Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI Claims Assigned to the Bonita Avenue Hearing Office
Social Security's Tucson hearing office, in the Rio Nuevo Professional Plaza at 201 North Bonita Avenue, is assigned claims from nine field offices: Tucson, Tucson (South), Casa Grande, Douglas, Globe, Nogales, Safford, Show Low and Sells, which shares its name with the Tohono O'odham Nation's capital. Downard & Associates represents Tucson-area claimants in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims, from the application through reconsideration, a hearing before an administrative law judge and Appeals Council review. 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 Handle for Tucson Claimants
Consultations happen by phone or video, and our attorneys handle hearings from Tennessee by phone or video.
Two Tucson details can change how a claim is handled: which of Arizona's hearing offices handles your claim, based on where you live, and the federal rules that keep certain tribal payments out of SSI income, including judgment fund distributions to members of the Tohono O'odham Nation, which Social Security's manual lists under the Nation's former name, the Papago Tribe of Arizona.
We handle applications, reconsideration, hearings and Appeals Council review. Our Arizona disability lawyer page covers how claims across the state are routed and who decides them before a hearing.
We have no Tucson office. Consultations happen by phone or video, and our attorneys handle hearings from Tennessee 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 cases about back pay alone, and we refer federal court appeals to affiliated counsel.
Hearing office
The Tucson Hearing Office and the Field Offices It Hears
Social Security's hearing office locator, which groups offices by hearings hub, shows one hearing office in the city:
- Tucson, Rio Nuevo Professional Plaza, Suite 265, 201 N. Bonita Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85745: the Casa Grande, Douglas, Globe, Nogales, Safford, Sells, Show Low, Tucson and Tucson (South) field offices.
Arizona's other two hearing offices are in Phoenix, and our Phoenix disability lawyer page covers them: the locator assigns Phoenix Downtown the Apache Junction, Chinle, Flagstaff, Mesa, Phoenix (Downtown) and Tuba City field offices, and Phoenix North the Colorado River Basin, Glendale, Phoenix (North) and Prescott field offices. The Yuma field office is listed under the San Diego hearing office. That puts Show Low with Tucson rather than with either Phoenix office. Our Tucson Social Security offices guide gives the address, hours and main ZIP codes of the Tucson and South Tucson field offices and the Douglas, Nogales and Casa Grande offices that serve the surrounding counties.
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, to have a 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 generally does not reassign a case this way when you have properly objected in writing to both a phone hearing and an agency video hearing, have not agreed to online video, and have not changed your residence. After a move, it generally still honors that objection when deciding whether to reassign the case for workload reasons, if doing so causes no added delay and nothing else calls for scheduling you another way. That practice is separate from the hearing-format rule, under which Social Security decides how you appear after a move. When Social Security moves a case to another hearing office for workload or productivity reasons, the office that receives it notifies you and your representative. Our hearing office directory lists every office with its field offices. For an in-person or agency video hearing, the Notice of Hearing names the place, so go by that notice for your own case.
Tribal payments and SSI
How Tribal Payments Count in a Tucson SSI Claim
SSI counts income and resources, so a payment a tribal member receives can change whether SSI is paid and how much. Social Security's manual section on Indian-related exclusions lists federal statutes that keep certain payments to tribal members out of SSI income and resources. Two of the Arizona entries: per capita distributions of judgment funds to members of the Papago Tribe of Arizona are excluded from income and resources effective January 3, 1983, under Public Law 97-408, and distributions of judgment funds to members of the San Carlos Tribe of Arizona are excluded effective December 17, 1981, under Public Law 97-95. The Tohono O'odham Nation's 1986 constitution identifies the Nation as formerly known as the Papago Tribe.
Other exclusions apply to members of any tribe. Per capita distributions of funds held in trust by the Secretary of the Interior are excluded from income and resources, but the manual says tribal funds that a tribe distributes per capita and that were never held in trust by the Secretary, such as tribally managed gaming revenues, are not excluded under that provision. Separately, Social Security's trust land income section excludes up to $2,000 a year in payments from individual interests in Indian trust or restricted lands from income, counting only payments received in months you are eligible for SSI, and counts the excess over $2,000 in a calendar year as unearned income in the months it is received. The land interests themselves are excluded from resources.
When a claim involves one of these payments, Social Security may verify tribal membership and the payment with the Bureau of Indian Affairs or tribal authorities. The documents the manual lists include an income report or comparable document from the BIA or the tribe's governing body and a signed statement from tribal authorities, so keep any notice that describes a distribution, including where the money came from.
Local treatment records
Medical Records From Tucson Medical Center, Banner, Sells Indian Hospital and the Tucson VA
Arizona's A.R.S. 12-2295 bars a health care provider as Arizona law defines it, or a contractor that copies its records, from charging for the pertinent information in records provided to the patient or the patient's legal representative to appeal a Social Security denial. The Social Security provision applies only to records requested to appeal a denial, so a request for a first application is not covered by this provision; additional requests, or requests for records already provided free in the same calendar year, may carry a reasonable fee, though no fee may be charged if no records are found, and a legal representative must provide Social Security's form SSA-1696 to receive the records free. This is an Arizona law for health care providers and their records contractors; the VA, other federal facilities, and Sells Indian Hospital, which the Indian Health Service lists among its tribal health care facilities, may follow other rules, so ask those offices about any fee. When you ask a provider for records after a denial, say they are for a Social Security appeal.
Tucson Medical Center: its medical records page offers records through MyChart and takes a signed TMC Health Request for Medical Records, with a separate authorization form for disclosure to others. Requests go by fax to (520) 324-1590, by email to tmc.medicalrecordsrequest@tmcaz.com, or by mail to Tucson Medical Center, HIM/ROI, PO Box 42195, Tucson, AZ 85733-2195; TMC does not take requests by phone. Medical Records is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, excluding major holidays, and films or digital images are requested at (520) 324-5166.
Banner Health: its patient medical records page takes online requests through MRO Patient Central for any Banner hospital, provider office or urgent care, or in person, with a government-issued photo ID, at the Health Information Management Services department of any Banner hospital or the reception desk of a Banner provider's office, and says a fee may be assessed for labor, supplies or postage; the Arizona rule above applies to records from Banner's Arizona facilities that are requested to appeal a denial, so say so in the request.
Sells Indian Hospital: the Indian Health Service Tucson Area page for Sells Indian Hospital, which it lists among tribal health care facilities, places the hospital off State Route 86, 60 miles west of Tucson in the Sells District of the Tohono O'odham Nation, and lists its medical records line as 520-383-7204 and its mailing address as P.O. Box 548, Sells, AZ 85634.
Tucson VA: VA Southern Arizona health care's medical records office is in Building 50, Room 155, first floor, at 3601 South Sixth Avenue, 520-792-1450, extension 14665. Bring a signed written request, such as VA Form 10-5345a, and your Veteran Health Identification Card, or send the form by mail to 3601 South 6th Ave, Tucson, AZ 85723, or by fax to 520-783-4386; you can also view and download VA records online. VA says mailed or faxed requests may take up to 20 business days to process. Our veterans page explains how a VA rating and an SSDI claim relate.
Hearings and deadlines
Hearing Format and Appeal Deadlines for a Tucson Disability Claim
To object to a phone or agency video hearing, after you receive the notice
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 online video 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, 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
Tucson Disability Claim Questions
Is a Nogales or Douglas claim assigned to the Tucson hearing office?
Generally yes. Social Security's hearing office locator assigns the Nogales and Douglas field offices, along with Casa Grande, Globe, Safford, Sells and Show Low, to the Tucson hearing office at 201 North Bonita Avenue. A transfer or reassignment is possible, and your Notice of Hearing names the place and format for your own case.
Do Tohono O'odham judgment fund payments count against SSI?
Per capita distributions of judgment funds to members of the Papago Tribe of Arizona, the Tohono O'odham Nation's former name, are excluded from SSI income and resources under Public Law 97-408, effective January 3, 1983. Other kinds of payments follow their own rules, so Social Security looks at where each payment came from.
Do tribal gaming per capita payments count for SSI?
They can. Social Security's manual says tribally managed gaming revenues that a tribe distributes per capita, and that were not held in trust by the Secretary of the Interior, are not excluded under the federal provision for per capita distributions of trust funds.
Does Tucson Medical Center take records requests by phone?
No. Complete and sign the TMC Health Request for Medical Records and send it by fax to (520) 324-1590, by email to tmc.medicalrecordsrequest@tmcaz.com, or by mail to HIM/ROI, PO Box 42195, Tucson, AZ 85733-2195. Patients can also view records in MyChart.
Which building handles VA records requests at the Tucson VA?
Building 50, Room 155, on the first floor at 3601 South Sixth Avenue. Bring a signed written request, such as VA Form 10-5345a, and your Veteran Health Identification Card. VA says mailed or faxed requests may take up to 20 business days to process.
Discuss your claim
Talk Through Your Tucson Claim With Us
Have your latest Social Security notice, the field office named on your letters and a list of where you have been treated in front of you. We will explain where the claim stands and the next deadline by phone or video.