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Jul 24, 2017

Settlement Concerning One Consultative Physician

     Social Security has settled a class action lawsuit concerning the agency's usage of Dr. Frank Chen to do consultative medical examinations in disability claims. Chen was alleged to have supplied Social Security with "grossly deficient reports [that] were based on cursory examinations (often lasting ten minutes or less), referenced tests that were never performed, and were inconsistent with plaintiffs’ medical records." The agency kept using Chen despite knowing of problems with his examinations and twice warning him. Many of those who were denied disability benefits after being examined by Dr. Chen will now get redeterminations.

8 comments:

  1. Will those re-determinations get processed as quickly as Conn's clients were cut-off from their benefits? Will Chen or anyone at Social Security be prosecuted criminally for their actions?

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  2. Sometimes it seems as if the agency uses CE's that can't be employed elsewhere. I can't imagine anyone choosing these doctors to actually treat them (they don't). We had one who insisted that my client could stand on his leg even though he wouldn't, and he didn't have the x-ray. When the x-ray report came, it showed that the bone had never joined. We won the hearing, but he could have been approved sooner.

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  3. @2:53

    We had one who told our client she had 20/20 vision and her pupils were round and equal in both eyes, including her glass eye.

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  4. DDS sends the claimant to the CE - not SSA. There are some that the ALJs already have prepared language to discredit.

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  5. @7:28

    Doesn't SSA approve CEs, and then DDS select them from the available candidates in a given case? I know blanket purchase agreements are used for vocational and medical experts. I thought the process was similar for CEs.

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  6. Why isn't this doctor being prosecuted for providing "grossly deficient reports"? Seems he was ripping off the government by providing substandard product for payment. Isnt this a form of fraud?

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  7. 5 years on the street because of Chen
    thru cold and rainy winters
    could not apply for housing because I could not get my SSI
    20 years worth of medical history but no sorry denied by Chen
    Had to go on Welfare to survive
    They kept cutting me off saying that if I could not get my SSI then I must be able to work , Thanks
    Then I had too appeal that and of course won the appeal
    based on my medical history
    then after a few more months they started sending me notices
    instructing me to go in for "Psychiatric Evaluations"
    It is all so sick what I have had to go through behind Chen's lies

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  8. I have been denied my bennifits because of Frank Chens medical reports on me going all the way back to 2011.I am in group one of the lawsuit and will be eligible for retro bennifits as well as current.

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