Social Security will add three new heart conditions to its disability rulebook on October 30, 2026. Cardiomyopathy and aortic valve disease each get a listing of their own, and so does cardiac allograft vasculopathy, the artery damage that can develop in a transplanted heart. The agency’s final rule covers both Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income.
Which heart conditions get a new listing?
The rule, published July 2, 2026 as 91 FR 40804, adds three entries to the heart chapter of the Listing of Impairments, the medical checklist Social Security uses to judge disability claims:
- Listing 4.07, aortic valvular disease
- Listing 4.08, cardiomyopathy
- Listings 4.16 and 104.16, cardiac allograft vasculopathy
The 104 series is the childhood version, so the transplant listing exists for both adults and children. Social Security says the new entries address conditions “that can progress quickly and significantly limit an adult’s ability to perform gainful activity.”
Anyone with cardiomyopathy or a failing aortic valve who is filing for disability, or whose application is already in line, now has a named listing that a claims examiner can hold their medical records up against. The step for a person in that spot is to ask the treating cardiologist whether the chart already holds the test results that listing 4.07 or 4.08 asks for.
What changed this year: Social Security and Medicare change every year, and nobody sends you a memo. The Retirement Money Brief breaks down what changed and what to do. Bonus when you subscribe: our SSI & Disability Income Checkup.
Get the Brief and the SSI checkup →
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
What else changed in the heart chapter?
The rule also reworks entries that already existed. Listing 4.12 is now titled peripheral artery disease and refers to the ankle-brachial index and the toe-brachial index. The new cardiomyopathy entry, 4.08A, includes functional criteria, which look at what a person can still do day to day.
For congenital heart disease, pulmonary atresia is added as an example of a valve defect, and pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum joins the single-ventricle examples. A new paragraph on connective tissue disorders names Loeys-Dietz and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes.
Listing 4.02D1, which covers heart failure patients on mechanical support, now reads “An implanted mechanical circulatory support device except extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).” Social Security added the word implanted to make clear that Impella-type devices do not qualify.
The guidance that explains how to read test results also moved. The paragraph on cardiac catheterization reports, 4.00C15b, was expanded, and the language that listed reduced oxygen concentration as a cause of hypoxemia was dropped from the adult and childhood introductions. Two cross-references, in listings 1.00B5 and 114.00J2m, were updated to match the new numbering.
Does this reach both SSDI and SSI claims?
It does. The rule amends 20 CFR Parts 404 and 416. Part 404 governs SSDI, which is built on a person’s work history. Part 416 governs SSI, which is paid on need and carries its own income and savings limits.
The medical listing is the same on either track. What differs is everything around it, because an SSI claim that clears the medical test can still stall on money rules. The Federal Register also carries a public inspection copy of the same rule.
Who at Social Security handles questions about the rule?
The rule is filed under docket SSA-2019-0013, and its introductory sections for adults (4.00) and children (104.00) were revised alongside the listings. The Federal Register notice names Michael J. Goldstein of Social Security’s Office of Disability Policy as the contact. His address is 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401, and the phone number is (410) 965-1020.
The official text on the Federal Register page is free to read, and it spells out the exact findings each new listing requires. What it cannot say is whether any one person’s records contain them, and that is the question a heart patient will want answered before the October 30 start date.
Heart condition and a disability claim in the works?
A heart listing only answers the medical question. A disability claim can still run into the income and savings rules that decide SSI, and a missed reporting step after approval can interrupt a check.
The SSI & Disability Action Kit sets out the 2026 SSI income and resource limits and the review and reporting steps, and its income and resource organizer gives a heart patient one place to keep those numbers straight while a claim moves through.
Get the 2026 SSI limits and reporting-steps guide from The SSI & Disability Action Kit →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 17 Medicare Money Moves Now That Part D Caps at $2,400
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
