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Who Determines Whether I Am Disabled or Not?

The short answer is the Social Security Administration (SSA); however, the longer and more accurate answer is Disability Determination Services(DDS).

First, SSA will review your application to make sure you meet some basic requirements for disability benefits. They will check whether you worked enough years to qualify. Additionally, they will undergo an evaluation of any current work activities. If you meet these requirements, they will process your application and forward your case to the DDS office in your state. This state agency completes the initial disability determination decision for SSA. Claims examiners and medical examiners in the state agency ask your doctors for information about your condition. DDS is supposed to consider all the facts in your case. They’ll use the medical evidence from your doctors, hospitals, clinics, or institutions where you have been treated and possibly additional information.

Some of the questions they will ask pertain to the following:

  • Your medical condition(s);
  • When your medical condition(s) began;
  • How your medical condition(s) limit your activities;
  • Medical tests results; and
  • What treatment you’ve received.

 

DDS also ask the doctors for information about your ability to do work-related activities, such as walking, sitting, lifting, carrying, and remembering instructions. Keep in mind that it is not your doctors who decide if you’re disabled. Rather, according to the rules it is up to DDS to make that determination. Also, if your medical sources can’t provide the necessary information, DDS may ask you to a consultative examination. Social Security will pay for the exam and for some of the related travel costs.

When DDS makes its determination on your case, they will send a letter to you. If your application is approved, the letter will show the amount of your benefit, and when your payments start. If the application isn’t approved, you typically have the option of appealing the decision.

To learn more about the appeals process, please read “Social Security Denials and Appeals” available through disabilitysecrets.com.

 

By Kevin J. Kohler

Domain #4 – Moving About and Manipulating Objects

If a child has a severe impairment(s) that does not meet or medically equal any listing, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will then look to see if the child functionally equals the listings. To functionally equal the listing, the child’s impairments must result in marked limitations in two domains, or extreme limitation in one domain.

The fourth domain used by SSA is called 4. Moving About and Manipulating Objects. In this domain, SSA will consider how well a child moves their body from one place to another and how they move and manipulate things. The SSA will look at both gross and fine motor skills.

Some areas of moving the body will include rolling, rising up from seated position, raising head and arms and legs. They will look at how the child transfers from one surface to another and how they move forward and backward when crawling, walking, and running.

With regards to moving and manipulating objects, SSA looks at how the child pushes, pulls, lifts, or carries objects. SSA will evaluate how the child controls their upper extremities in carrying objects. They will even consider eye hand coordination to manipulate small objects.

For more information, please contact one of the attorneys at Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik.

Written by Hoglund Law

The attorneys of Hoglund law are licensed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC is based in Roseville, Minnesota. In addition to handling cases involving bankruptcy & social security, Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC handles faulty drugs and toxic exposure.

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Remote DLI – Seek Social Security Before It’s Too Late.

From:  Joshua Tripp

 

In some cases, where a claimant has not worked recently and there is too many household assets or too much income to be eligible for SSI, the claimants are left struggling to prove disability for many years prior to the current date. This can be very difficult to do and there must be more than just the claimant’s testimony to win the case.

For an example, I recently had a social security claimant who had to go back about ten years to prove disability.  For approval here, it must be shown that the claimant had a disability prior to their date last insured and that their disability has continued.  This requires consistent medical evidence of severe impairment.  Additionally, to bolster the claimant’s medical record of ten years ago, I had the claimant’s current doctor, who was currently supportive of disability, write a narrative of the claimant’s impairments based on the current time frame, along with a review of the prior medical records.  This was helpful to assess that the conditions were as severe ten years as they are today.  He opined that the claimant was unable to work ten years ago and the condition has not improved.  Although this is important, his opinion needs to be supported by the medical record as a whole.  The medical evidence is particularly important for a case with a remote date last insured because it is hard to say the claimant can testify about conditions as accurately ten years ago as they could today.

It is always best to not wait to apply for social security disability.  Waiting can put you in the predicament of having to prove disability many years prior to the application, which is not an easy task.  Contact a social security attorney before it is too late.

Written by Hoglund Law

The attorneys of Hoglund law are licensed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC is based in Roseville, Minnesota. In addition to handling cases involving bankruptcy & social security, Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC handles faulty drugs and toxic exposure.

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Treating Source Statements

Opinion evidence can have a big impact in Social Security Disability cases, especially when it comes from a treating source. But sometimes a treating doctor, counselor or therapist will decline to provide an opinion if he or she is in the best, but not ideal, position to do so. For example, maybe the disability claimant can only afford to treat with their primary care doctor, who declines to provide an opinion because he or she is not a specialist. If Social Security has not sent the claimant to a consultative exam, there will be no opinion evidence in which a doctor identifies specific functional limitations caused by the claimant’s impairments (except for the doctor working for the state agency making the determinations at the initial and reconsideration levels). The treating provider may not fully understand how opinion evidence is considered in Social Security Disability claims, or may not want to take the time because a response is not mandatory. In these situations, a friendly letter explaining the role of opinion evidence and requesting that the doctor provide whatever he or she is comfortable with, even in the form of short narrative (preferably with the records used to form the opinion attached), can get results.

Consider contacting an experienced social security disability attorney for help with this and other issues.

Written by Hoglund Law

The attorneys of Hoglund law are licensed in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC is based in Roseville, Minnesota. In addition to handling cases involving bankruptcy & social security, Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC handles faulty drugs and toxic exposure.

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