3.03 Asthma. With:
A. Chronic asthmatic bronchitis. Evaluate under the criteria for chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease in 3.02A;
or
B. Attacks (as defined in 3.00C), in spite of prescribed treatment and requiring physician
intervention, occurring at least once every 2 months or at least six times a year. Each in-patient hospitalization for longer
than 24 hours for control of asthma counts as two attacks, and an evaluation period of at least 12 consecutive months must
be used to determine the frequency of attacks.
In my experience the most common listing met is 3.03 B.. There
is a few things you should know. Every asthma attack you have does not necessarily count towards this listing.
If you have an asthma attack but you are able to control it with your inhaler or home nebulizer it won't count towards
this listing. The listing only counts those attacks that require doctor or ER treatment to control the respiratory distress.
Even though this is probably the most common listing met for asthma it is still rare that someone meets this listing.
As you can see if you think you may meet this listing it is extremely important to make sure Social Security has all the medical
evidence.
Even if you don't meet the listing above or one of the other listings for asthm or COPD these conditions
can still have a significant impact when combined with other medical conditions. If you have a pulmonary condition it
is very important to get all your records and have a pulmonary RFC. Respiratory conditions can cause limitations such as fatigue, inability to walk far, lifting, and work related environmental
limitations. Some environmental limitations may include avoiding dust, smoke, chemicals, hot and cold temperatures.
I have found that many respiratory conditions actually developed from the environment of past employment. So you can
see in a situation were the person got the condition from working in a certain environment it would prevent that individual
from being able to do prior work. These types of environmental limitations can also limit other types of work.
The limitations from asthma and COPD are most affective when you have other conditions which limit you as well. To fully
understand how Social Security determines if you are disabled you should see "am I disabled?".
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