COLA: 3.2%Attorney User Fee: $117SSI Amounts: $943 for individuals and $1,415 for a couple/monthFICA wage base: $168,600Quarter of coverage amount: $1,730Substantial gainful activity amount (non-blind): $1,550/monthTrial work period threshold: $1,110/month
As is often the case, the Social Security Administration is lagging behind the medical community. This time the so-called “long hauler” COVID patients are getting short shrift. SSA doesn’t recognize that COVID symptoms can last for a long time after the test results are negative and, perhaps permanently. Attorney Crawforth has represented several of these…
Summer 2021 Newsletter STILL STANDING…AND PRACTICING I published the first issue of Social Security & You in Spring of 1993. Some years I’ve published more issues than others. The most recent issue was dated Spring 2019: over 2 years ago. The world was a much different place then. Especially for me. Read the full newsletter…
Spring 2019 Newsletter An Opioid Story I’ve changed his name. Let’s call him Gerald. He was a laborer. And by that I don’t mean that he just did physical work. He was a card-carrying member the Labor’s Union local. And that meant a lot to him. I represented him for Social Security disability and Michigan…
IS WATSON REALLY HAL?
When I was younger I used to watch Jeopardy! religiously. As an undergrad at the University of Michigan I even applied to take the test to be a contestant. I was scheduled to take the test in New York over spring break my senior year. I remember gas was awfully expensive and I didn’t have a place to stay. Maybe I got cold feet. I went to Ft. Lauderdale instead.
Though I haven’t watched with any regularity in recent years, it is fun to tune in for the college shows and the battles of the past champions. So it was with some interest I followed the shows involving Watson, the IBM computer that slaughtered the field of returning champions.
In addition to being amazed I felt a little uneasy. I was impressed by the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the late 60’s. I remember seeing it in a theatre with my friend, Ned, before either of us was old enough drive. The eerie thought of Hal 9000, the dispassionate computer, came to mind immediately, watching Watson.
And though I still have no idea what the last 20 minutes of Kubrick’s film was about, I am happy to report that Watson is being prepared to serve mankind. Watson’s manufacturer, IBM, has modified the computer for a recent demonstration project to suggest diagnoses for medical students, based upon data it is fed.
Better than “I’m sorry, Dave, but I can’t do that.”
A recent Archives of General Psychiatry report on bi-polar disorder was summarized by aol. 4 signs aol described as “surprising” were outlined. I’ve seen these classic symptoms of bi-polar disorder for years in my practice.
They are:
1) reckless spending
2) super charged sex drive
3) alcohol or drug abuse
4) skimping on shut-eye
The bottom line is those with bi-polar disorder are prone to poor, impulsive decisions, cycling between high (manic) periods and low (depressive) periods, and tend to self-medicate.