The article describes the criteria for the examination of temporary disability and the establishment of a disability group for idiopathic interstitial pneumonia on the example of a clinical case of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia with a view to a uniform interpretation by clinical physicians and expert doctors of the criteria for persistent functional impairments in the case of respiratory organs and the timeliness of referring to medical and social examination of people suffering from it patients. Temporary disability is caused by the appearance of shortness of breath in patients, which is steadily progressing and leads to a decrease in exercise tolerance. The presence of an unfavorable prognosis in some forms of interstitial pneumonia predetermines the maximum period of temporary disability for 4 months with the subsequent registration of patients for medical and social examination. Restrictive dysfunction of external respiration is not singled out in quantitative criteria of functional persistent disorders of the body to establish the group of disability in the Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated December 17, 2015 No. 1024н, which causes difficulties during the examination. A key sign of persistent respiratory function disorders is respiratory failure, the severity of which is put in its quantitative gradation for recognizing a citizen as disabled. Pulse oximetry is currently available as a verification method for the diagnosis of respiratory failure, which is used for medical and social expertise. The morphological variant of interstitial pneumonia, if histological diagnosis was performed, or the presumptive nosological form diagnosed on the basis of a complex of clinical and radiological data, do not have a direct impact on the result of the examination; just as the volume of drug therapy and the response to it are not taken into account in order to establish the fact of disability.