CBS broadcast the second and final part of its series on the Social Security disability program this evening. You can view it online. This second part focused mostly on the standards used in making decisions on disability claims.
CBS stated that Social Security applies some sort of quota system in determining disability. As most readers of this blog know, that is not accurate. The system is far more sophisticated and far more insidious than that. Social Security actually uses a pyramidal quality assurance system that is heavily and intentionally skewed towards denials, but try explaining that in three minutes or so. The effect is about the same as if there were a quota system, but it is not a quota system.
CBS News has also posted online an unaired video interview with Dr. Nicholas LaRocca of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Dr. LaRocca undoubtedly means well, but he seems to suggest that claimants should delay filing a claim until they have gathered something -- he does not say exactly what -- from their doctor or maybe LaRocca is saying that trying to get something from one's doctor is a source of delay. It is hard to tell what we was trying to say.
Claimants often delay filing Social Security disability claims until they obtain permission from their doctor or obtain a report from their doctor. This is a mistake. No one needs permission from their doctor to file a disability claim and there is no magic report that one can obtain from one's doctor that will make all the difference.
Many treating physicians have their own absurd misconceptions about disability. I was talking today with one of my clients who was crying because her treating physician had told her that he could not support her disability claim. I tried to reassure her that Social Security was not going to care what her doctor thought, since she is in terrible shape and the only issue in her case is the onset date. A claimant like that could be dissuaded from filing a claim by a physician who has the misconception that one is only disabled when one is near death or quadriplegic.
There is no magic report that one can obtain from a physician that will make getting approved for Social Security disability benefits a snap. File the claim and then worry about trying to get medical reports or better yet hire an attorney and let him or her get what is needed.
CBS stated that Social Security applies some sort of quota system in determining disability. As most readers of this blog know, that is not accurate. The system is far more sophisticated and far more insidious than that. Social Security actually uses a pyramidal quality assurance system that is heavily and intentionally skewed towards denials, but try explaining that in three minutes or so. The effect is about the same as if there were a quota system, but it is not a quota system.
CBS News has also posted online an unaired video interview with Dr. Nicholas LaRocca of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Dr. LaRocca undoubtedly means well, but he seems to suggest that claimants should delay filing a claim until they have gathered something -- he does not say exactly what -- from their doctor or maybe LaRocca is saying that trying to get something from one's doctor is a source of delay. It is hard to tell what we was trying to say.
Claimants often delay filing Social Security disability claims until they obtain permission from their doctor or obtain a report from their doctor. This is a mistake. No one needs permission from their doctor to file a disability claim and there is no magic report that one can obtain from one's doctor that will make all the difference.
Many treating physicians have their own absurd misconceptions about disability. I was talking today with one of my clients who was crying because her treating physician had told her that he could not support her disability claim. I tried to reassure her that Social Security was not going to care what her doctor thought, since she is in terrible shape and the only issue in her case is the onset date. A claimant like that could be dissuaded from filing a claim by a physician who has the misconception that one is only disabled when one is near death or quadriplegic.
There is no magic report that one can obtain from a physician that will make getting approved for Social Security disability benefits a snap. File the claim and then worry about trying to get medical reports or better yet hire an attorney and let him or her get what is needed.
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