It is estimated that 35 million Americans may develop Long COVID due to COVID-19. Complications that result from Long COVID have the potential to disrupt the labor force, overwhelm worker's compensation claims, and create a bottleneck in the federal government's disability application process.
As the current workforce struggles with staffing shortages, the great resignation, and ongoing supply chain issues, our struggling systems are at risk of being overrun.
What is Long COVID?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Long COVID as the presence of COVID-19 symptoms persisting beyond the initial phase of a SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Since the first declaration of Long COVID as a disability in June of 2021, hope has been given to millions of individuals living with debilitating symptoms.
Who will it impact?
A study completed by the University of Michigan in November of 2021 revealed that over 50% of all those infected with COVID-19 develop Long COVID symptoms. Based on the daily rate of positive cases in the United States, an estimated 35 million people may develop Long COVID and eventually apply for disability services.
The legal and ethical expectation is that every person who files for disability will have their case reviewed fairly and timely. However, even before a global pandemic took hold of our lives, the road to accessing disability services was never smooth.
Due to a largely antiquated system, the influx of Long COVID disability applicants may overwhelm our disability support capacities.
Filing for benefits: an uphill battle
According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), processing a disability claims application takes approximately three to five months. If a claim is approved, there is an additional five-month waiting period before payment is processed.
To put that into context, for example, if someone applied for Long COVID disability the day it became available in June of 2021, their application would be reviewed in December of 2021. If approved, their first payment would be received in the sixth month following approval, or sometime in May of 2022 − nearly a year after filing the application.
If their first application was denied, it can be an additional 60 days to appeal and then a long wait for a court date to get the process back on track. Keep in mind these are the timelines estimated before a global pandemic. We can only assume the SSA is not immune to the workplace struggles of 2022 and are experiencing delays much like the rest of the world.
Impacts on business
There is an emerging trend explaining away some of the challenges faced by businesses throughout 2020-2022, a chorus of “we’re doing the best we can” or “these are unprecedented times.” However, an article published online by Scientific American in July of 2021, shortly after Long COVID’s disability status was announced, warned of this exact type of potential impact.
Steve Martin, Ph.D., and professor at the University of Massachusetts, summed up what could be a nightmare scenario for the SSA and human resource professionals.
If we end up with a million people with ongoing symptoms that are debilitating, that is a tremendous burden for each of these individuals, but also for our health care system and our society.
By highlighting the predicted effects on worker’s compensation, disability programs, and support services, the article painted a worrisome picture of what to expect. Their predictions are remarkably similar to what many individuals are experiencing now as they wait on decisions that can determine the path of their lives.
A quick review of major news outlets will show that talk of Long COVID disability applicants was already prominent in early 2021.
Calls for specialized guidance from the CDC or the WHO were heard loud and clear from major news outlets such as NPR in February and U.S. News in April. This was months before any individual could file for Long COVID disability and should have encouraged preparation efforts to address the influx of applicants.
Unfortunately, for the millions of individuals suspended in a limbo of financial and physical unknown, the only option right now is to hurry up and wait.
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