CASE REPORT   

Minerva Medicolegale 2017 June;137(2):43-7

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4849.17.01766-7

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

The case of the pre-existing conditions of disability in the social security law N. 222/1984: discussing a representative case

Michele SAMMICHELI, Marcella SCAGLIONE ✉

Centro Medico Legale (CML) INPS di Siena, Siena, Italia

The pre-existing disability is a medical condition that existed before signing a social or private insurance contracts. This situation always constitutes an element of difficult medical legal assessment and cause of legal dispute in the social security sector. This research is to clarify the concepts of pre-existing risk and defect, describing differences and similarities between the two notions. The research, moreover, describes a case observed by the physicians of the Medical Legal Department of INPS (Italian National Welfare Institute) of Siena. It focuses on the case in which a person with pre-existing disabilities is subjected to worsening of the conditions of his or her disability or when new disability conditions are added to the pre-existing one. In this case, the quantification of damage to the working ability is an important step toward the eligibility for social security disability benefits. At last, the purpose of the Authors is to define basic operative guidelines for the proper medical legal evaluation of the pre-existing conditions of disability in the social security sector.

KEY WORDS: Disability evaluation - Social security - Preexisting condition coverage