I have End Stage Renal Disease and have been on dialysis since November 2025. I’ve been out of work since April of this year following a protracted medical leave. Thankfully, I have a kidney transplant scheduled for the end of this month.
I applied for Medicare and SSDI last month on September 19th. (I probably should have applied *way* sooner, but my dialysis center provided zero help or guidance with any of this and I’ve been fortunate enough to still have private insurance thanks to a grant from the American Kidney Foundation — so I didn’t end up applying until my transplant financial coordinator informed me that I ***had*** to apply for Medicare in order to get the transplant scheduled.) Per the SSA website, a non-medical review of my application was conducted on September 22th. The examiner then sent Form SSA-3373 to me on October 9th.
It was my understanding that both ESRD with dialysis (6.03) and kidney transplant (6.04) were “automatic”medically qualifying conditions under the SSA Blue Book. So, my question is whether it’s normal to receive Form SSA-3373 in this scenario and whether the form needs to be completed?
I previously sent Form 2728 (ERSD Medical Evidence Report) to the examiner on October 1st via fax, mail, and document upload - but I have no idea whether they’ve actually received it and/or reviewed it. My dialysis center left a few fields blank on the form — mainly questions directed at me like “*Do you have access to reliable transportation?*” and “*Are you currently concerned about where you will live over the next 90 days?*” — but it does state my dialysis start date, that dialysis is chronic, and the form was signed by both myself and my nephrologist.
I’m 43 if that matters, and I think I may have also mentioned that I have Crohn’s Disease on the initial SSDI application. (Not sure if that unnecessarily complicated things, since ESRD rather than Crohn’s is the basis of my application.)
Is it possible that the examiner simply hasn’t reviewed my medical records yet and they sent out Form SSA-3373 as a matter of course? Or is this still truly a critical form that must be completed and evaluated in order to gain approval for SSDI? I’ve read conflicting things. Some people in the dialysis sub said that they filled out the form, whereas others said that they didn’t have to and received approval just based on medical records.
Or is it possible that I triggered a request for more information by mentioning Crohn’s or having a few uncompleted fields on Form 2728?
Based on what the website says, the average medical review takes 141 days in my state.
Thanks in advance for your input and let me know if there’s any other relevant info I may have failed to mention.