(a) Availability. We will provide you with an opportunity for a disability hearing if:
(1) You have been receiving supplemental security income benefits based on a medical impairment that renders you blind or disabled;
(2) We have made an initial or revised determination based on medical factors that you are not blind or disabled because your impairment:
(i) Has ceased;
(ii) Did not exist; or
(iii) Is no longer disabling; and
(3) You make a timely request for reconsideration of the initial or revised determination.
(b) Scope. The disability hearing will address only the initial or revised determination, based on medical factors, that you are not now blind or disabled. Any other issues you raise in connection with your request for reconsideration will be reviewed in accordance with the reconsideration procedures described in § 416.1413 (a) through (c).
(c) Time and place -
(1) General. Either the State agency or the Associate Commissioner for Disability Determinations or his or her delegate, as appropriate, will set the time and place of your disability hearing. We will send you a notice of the time and place of your disability hearing at least 20 days before the date of the hearing. You may be expected to travel to your disability hearing. (See §§ 416.1495-416.1499 regarding reimbursement for travel expenses.)
(2) Change of time or place. If you are unable to travel or have some other reason why you cannot attend your disability hearing at the scheduled time or place, you should request at the earliest possible date that the time or place of your hearing be changed. We will change the time or place if there is good cause for doing so under the standards in § 416.1436 (c) and (d).
(d) Combined issues. If a disability hearing is available to you under paragraph (a) of this section, and you file a new application for benefits while your request for reconsideration is still pending, we may combine the issues on both claims for the purpose of the disability hearing and issue a combined initial/reconsidered determination which is binding with respect to the common issues on both claims.
(e) Definition. For purposes of the provisions regarding disability hearings (§§ 416.1414 through 416.1418) we, us, or our means the Social Security Administration or the State agency.
[51 FR 305, Jan. 3, 1986, as amended at 51 FR 8809, Mar. 14, 1986; 71 FR 10432, Mar. 1, 2006]