Since the outset of the COVID-19 national public health emergency, many individuals have experienced barriers that prevent them from timely accessing healthcare. In response to those barriers, we are issuing this rule to temporarily suspend our requirement that all relevant medical criteria establishing a disability resulting from a musculoskeletal disorder be documented simultaneously or within a 4-month period. For the duration of the pandemic period, we will construe the evidence of a musculoskeletal disorder as present within a close proximity of time, if the available evidence establishes such a condition within a 12-month period.