What Is Form SSA-827, and Do You Have to Sign It?
Form SSA-827, Authorization to Disclose Information to the Social Security Administration, is the signed permission Social Security and your state’s disability agency use to get your medical records and other information about your health and abilities. One signed form covers every source: Social Security copies it and sends a copy with each records request. It’s good for 12 months from the date you sign it and covers past records plus anything created during those 12 months.
Privacy laws require doctors, hospitals and schools to have a signed authorization before releasing your records, so without it a disability claim can’t move forward. Social Security sends more than 14 million records requests a year, and a signed SSA-827 goes with each one. You’ll usually be asked to sign a new one at each stage of your claim.
What you’re authorizing
The form is broad on purpose. It authorizes the release of all your medical records, education records and other information about your ability to do tasks, and it gives specific permission for categories that privacy laws treat separately:
- mental health records,
- drug and alcohol treatment records,
- sickle cell anemia,
- communicable and noncommunicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS test results,
- genetic conditions and test results.
Every SSA-827 lists all of these so requests aren’t held up; signing it doesn’t suggest you’ve been treated for any of them. It also covers information about how your conditions affect your daily activities and work, and, for children, school records such as individualized education programs, evaluations and teachers’ observations.
The sources it covers include all medical providers, including mental health, addiction treatment, correctional and VA facilities; schools; social workers and rehabilitation counselors; doctors who examine you for Social Security; employers, insurers and workers’ compensation programs; and people who know about your condition, such as family or neighbors. The information goes only to Social Security and the state disability agency, including the copy services and medical consultants they use.
One kind of record is excluded: psychotherapy notes. Under the federal privacy rule, these are a therapist’s own notes analyzing what was said in counseling sessions, kept separate from the rest of your record. Your diagnosis, treatment plan, symptoms, functional status, medications, test results and progress are not psychotherapy notes, so those are released.
How to fill it out
The form takes about 10 minutes. Social Security’s instructions cover each part:
- Whose records: write your full name, Social Security number and date of birth in the box at the top right.
- Leave the box marked for Social Security or the state agency blank. Staff use it to add details, such as another name you’ve used or a specific source.
- Leave the “capable of managing benefits ONLY” box unchecked unless that’s the only issue. It’s for cases where Social Security is deciding only whether you can manage your own payments.
- Sign in blue or black ink, and write the date, your address and your phone number.
The date matters. Social Security won’t use an undated form; it sends it back to you to date. You don’t list your doctors on the SSA-827 itself. Your medical sources go on your disability report, and the agency uses the signed SSA-827 to request records from them.
Watch out: Read both pages before you sign. Page 2 explains how the information can be used, how to revoke the authorization, and that a few states or sources need a separate form naming them.
Do you need a witness?
Usually not. Federal law doesn’t require a witness, and Social Security doesn’t hold up a claim because the witness box is empty. A witness is needed if you sign with a mark, such as an “X”, instead of your signature, and some sources insist on a witnessed form; if that happens, Social Security will ask you for one. The form has room for a witness’s signature and phone number or address, and a second witness if you sign by mark.
Who can sign for someone else
If you can’t sign for yourself, someone with legal authority can, checking the box that explains their role:
- a parent of a minor child,
- a legal guardian,
- another personal representative with authority under state law to make health care decisions for you, who must explain that authority on the form.
Being your representative payee or your appointed representative in the claim isn’t enough authority to sign the SSA-827 for you. For a child 12 or older who is still a minor under state law, both the child and a parent or guardian generally sign. For a child under 12, the parent or guardian signs.
Three ways to sign
Social Security accepts three signing methods:
- On paper, signed in ink and brought in, mailed, faxed or scanned.
- Online, if you’re an adult filing your own disability application or appeal on the internet. Clicking submit at the end of the online disability report or appeal report signs the SSA-827, and you can print a copy.
- By attestation, during a phone call, video interview or office visit. After you’ve had a chance to read the form, an employee asks whether you understand it and agree, records your answer, and gives you a copy.
The electronic methods are faster: Social Security estimates they cut about nine days from processing for claims filed online or by phone. The forms page also lets you complete or upload the form after signing in to your my Social Security account.
Why you keep getting asked to sign it
Many people sign the form two or three times. That’s normal:
- Social Security gets a new signed SSA-827 at each level of your claim: the first application, reconsideration, and the hearing.
- It expires 12 months after you sign it. Claims often take longer than a year, so if yours is still pending, the agency needs a fresh one to keep requesting records. Your claim status online may show “Additional Information Needed” with “Release Of Information (827) Update” listed among the forms sent.
- A hearing office may send it with a packet of forms about your recent treatment, medications and work background, along with a barcode cover sheet for faxing evidence back.
- It’s part of the packet for a continuing disability review after you’re approved.
Some states and some providers won’t accept a general release and need a form that names them. In those cases, Social Security may ask you to sign a separate form for each.
If you don’t sign it
Social Security can’t get your records without it, and it’s your responsibility to help develop your claim. If you don’t return a requested form, you’ll get a deadline of at least 15 days, then a follow-up warning. If you still don’t respond, Social Security can decide your claim on the evidence it already has, which can mean a denial, though for a first application it won’t deny for this reason earlier than 30 days after the original request. If you need more time, ask; the office can give it.
Your doctors also can’t make your treatment depend on whether you sign. The form states that a health care provider may not condition treatment, payment, enrollment or eligibility for benefits on your signature.
Limiting or revoking your authorization
You can object to part of the form. On a paper form, you can cross out the words you object to and initial the change, and the state agency is alerted. Be aware of the cost: a source that won’t accept a restricted form may refuse to send records, and the agency will then ask you for an unrestricted one. Adding a note such as “not for use by” Social Security’s fraud investigators doesn’t stop them from getting the records.
You can revoke the authorization at any time by sending a written statement to any Social Security office, and a copy to each source you no longer want to release information. Revoking doesn’t undo what a source has already sent, and Social Security can still use information it received before you revoked.
Getting your records into the file
Signing the SSA-827 lets the agency ask; it doesn’t guarantee every provider answers. Social Security asks each source and follows up, and it pays the reasonable cost of existing records it requests from non-federal providers. You’re expected to tell Social Security about all your medical sources, including new ones after you change doctors. If a provider is slow, you can request your own records, or download them from a patient portal, and send them in. When records aren’t enough, the agency can send you to a consultative exam.