The simple version

These cases are decided by working through a fixed order of questions. The third one asks whether what is in the file meets a published listing.

Meeting a listing ends the questions with a yes, there and then. That is what the listings are for: finding the files that can be settled quickly in the applicant's favor.

Not meeting one means the questions carry on. The governing document says plainly that nobody is turned down solely for failing to meet a listing, which is the reverse of how most writing on the subject reads.

The numbers

• Social Security Administration final rule, Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Cardiovascular Disorders, RIN 0960-AI43, citation 91 FR 40804, published July 2, 2026, effective October 30, 2026 (Federal Register document 2026-13420)
• The rule revises the criteria in the Listing of Impairments used to evaluate claims involving cardiovascular disorders in adults and children under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act (same document, abstract)
• The document states that the listings are used at step 3 of the sequential evaluation process to identify claims that should clearly be allowed, citing 20 CFR 404.1520, 404.1525(a), 416.920, 416.924 and 416.925(a) (same document, supplementary information)
• The document states that no claim is denied solely because a person's medical conditions do not satisfy the criteria of a listing (same document)
• The document states that the listings are not intended to be an exhaustive compilation of disabling conditions, and are used to identify cases at an early stage of the sequential evaluation process that meet a strict threshold for the statutory definition of disability (same document)
• The document describes the medical equivalence rules as providing flexibility at step 3 by considering whether a person's impairment is at least equal in severity and duration to the criteria of any listed impairment (same document)
• The document states that if it is unable to find a person's cardiovascular disorder disabling based on meeting or equaling a listed impairment, it will continue the sequential evaluation and may find the person disabled at the final step of the process, citing 20 CFR 404.1520(a)(4) and (g) (same document)
• The document states that where it is unable to find that a person's cardiovascular disorder meets or medically equals a listed impairment, it will continue the sequential evaluation process and evaluate the person's symptoms, including pain (same document)
• The document states that to meet the duration requirement the medically determinable impairments must have lasted, or be expected to last, for a continuous period of at least 12 months, and the resulting inability to perform substantial gainful activity must also have lasted, or be expected to last, for not less than 12 months without interruption (same document)
• The document states that the agency last published final rules that comprehensively revised the cardiovascular disorders listings on January 13, 2006, at 71 FR 2312 (same document)
• An advance notice of proposed rulemaking for cardiovascular disorders was published April 16, 2008, at 73 FR 20564 (same document)
• The rule amends 20 CFR parts 404 and 416 (same document)
• The document states the rule applies to new applications filed on or after the effective date and to claims pending on or after it, including continuing disability reviews, citing 20 CFR 404.901, 404.1590, 416.990 and 416.1401 (same document, footnote 10)
• The document states that if a Federal court reverses a final decision and remands a case for further administrative proceedings after the effective date, the rule is applied to the entire period at issue in the decision made after the remand (same document, footnote 10)

What a listing actually does

Treat the listings as a fast lane rather than a door. They were built to pick out the files that should clearly get a yes, and the document says they carry a stricter threshold than the statutory definition itself.

There are two ways through that lane rather than one. What is in the file can meet a listing outright, or it can medically equal one, which asks whether the impairment is at least equal in severity and length to that listing's criteria.

The lane sits at step 3, so questions come before it and after it. The document points to the regulation that lays out that order, and says a file that neither meets nor equals a listing may still be found disabled at the final step.

So missing both routes carries the file onward rather than ending it. The document says that where it cannot find a disorder meets or medically equals a listing, the ordered questions continue and symptoms including pain get evaluated.

The rewrite taking effect October 30 changes the heart criteria inside that fast lane. It does not move where the lane sits, and it does not change what missing it means.

The actual math the listings do not do

There is no grading here and no formula. A listing is a set of criteria, and what is in a file either meets it, equals it, or does neither.

There is also no percentage anyone can quote for a given diagnosis. The criteria differ from listing to listing and the outcome turns on what is in a particular file, so no figure in this article attaches to any individual.

The one piece of arithmetic worth doing is a subtraction between two published dates. The last full rewrite of these heart criteria was published on January 13, 2006 and the new set takes effect on October 30, 2026, a gap of twenty years and nine months.

The document does give one hard number. The impairments must have lasted, or be expected to last, at least twelve months, and the resulting inability to do substantial gainful activity must also run at least twelve months without interruption.

What this means

If you are reading a listing and the criteria do not appear to fit, that is information rather than an answer. There is a second route at the same point, and the ordered questions continue past it either way.

Meeting or equalling a listing is a shortcut, and missing both is not a refusal. Both of those are stated in the governing document, and a great deal of the commercial writing on this subject implies otherwise.

The new criteria also do not wait for new filings. The document says they apply to files already pending and to continuing reviews from the effective date onward, so a file sitting in the queue now gets decided under them.

The habit worth keeping is broader than this one program. When a government process runs through an ordered sequence, find out where a test sits in that sequence before deciding what failing it costs you.

What this is NOT

This article explains what the Listing of Impairments does inside Social Security's ordered evaluation, using the final rule Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Cardiovascular Disorders, RIN 0960-AI43, 91 FR 40804, published July 2, 2026, effective October 30, 2026, read on October 18, 2026. It is not medical advice and it is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for either. It makes no statement about whether any diagnosis, test result, symptom or person meets or medically equals any listing, because that turns on the contents of a particular file and on criteria this article does not reproduce. It does not describe the new cardiovascular criteria themselves, which run to many pages of clinical detail, and it should not be read as a summary of them. It is not advice about whether to file anything, whether to appeal anything, or whether to seek representation, and it predicts no outcome for anyone. It performs one piece of arithmetic, a subtraction between two dates given in the document, and every other figure here is the document's own. It is not a claim that meeting or equalling a listing is the only route to being found disabled: the document describes a sequence that continues past that stage, and this article does not set out the later questions. Social Security is a public program rather than an employee benefit, so nothing here describes any employer's plan, policy or obligations. It does not name the officials who signed the document. This is not a political endorsement or criticism of anyone, and it takes no position on how disability should be decided.

Sources

• Social Security Administration, Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Cardiovascular Disorders, final rule, RIN 0960-AI43, 20 CFR parts 404 and 416, citation 91 FR 40804, Federal Register document 2026-13420, published July 2, 2026, effective October 30, 2026, read October 18, 2026