Newly Updated Legal Handbook Available

Know Your Rights:
A Handbook for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Written by Jennifer Jaff, Crohn's patient, CCFA member, and an attorney in Hartford, CT, the Handbook addresses many of the legal issues IBD patients face every day. Jennifer acquired her knowledge of these issues not only through her own struggles, but through years of providing free legal advice and assistance to patients with IBD.  She is the founder of Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, an organization providing free advocacy services.  For more information about this organization, please send an email to response@ccfa.org, with you question in the subject line and contact information in the body of the email, or call 800.932.2423 ext.239.  The Handbook is her attempt to answer all of the questions that she has been asked over the years in as thorough a manner as possible while avoiding confusing "legalese."

In this second edition of her Handbook, Jennifer has included expanded content just for people with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.  The CCFA Special Edition features three additional appendices:  Social Security Disability Insurance, CCFA Doctors' letters, and State-by-State review of Disability rulings.

Medical Records, Social Security Disability, and More

• First, the Handbook provides instruction on how patients can obtain their own medical records. Appendix A summarizes each state law relating to getting medical records.
  
  
• Second, it discusses private health insurance, including how to get and keep insurance, as well as how to appeal a decision from your insurance company to not pay for a treatment or procedure your doctor has prescribed.
  
  
• Third, it reviews private disability insurance, with an emphasis on what to do if your claim for disability is denied, or your disability is discontinued.
  
  
• Fourth, it addresses Social Security Disability, or SSDI. This section will help patients who apply for SSDI learn the system, using a step-by-step approach to each level of decision-making, from the initial application all the way to the courts.
  
  
• Finally, the Handbook discusses discrimination in employment, public accommodation, and medical leave. It includes a detailed discussion of the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA, in the employment context, as well as in the context of public accommodations (i.e., restaurants, stores, etc.). The handbook's analysis of employment discrimination allows each patient to determine whether he or she meets the standards for coverage under the ADA, and what accommodations his or her employer can, should, and may be required to, make.