Oct 5, 2019

Did They Get Their Money's Worth?

     I don't think I've seen this before. Social Security has posted the amount it spent on consultative medical examinations of disability claimants in Fiscal Year 2018: $353,390,976.61.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, the agency didn't. More wasted money. Just another day at the office for SSA.

Anonymous said...

Let's get rid of the Ce. They provide little. Decide the case on the medical record.

Anonymous said...

Right, the Consultative Examinations are of no value whatsoever. Every disability applicant has a comprehensive set of treatment sources that address every one of their alleged disabilities, and provide complete, thorough, and definitive medical information about each of them.

Anonymous said...

Would be very helpful if there was an efficient way to report the occasional CE office that is outright committing fraud. Copying and pasting reports w/ no functional limitations, etc. Overwhelming minority, but they do exist.

Anonymous said...

Back in the pre-ACA days before Medicaid expansion came to our state, the CE was often the ONLY medical evidence we had and more often it was a CE and some scattered emergency department records that might have nothing to do with the claimant's allegations.

Now they are much more rarely useful.

Anonymous said...

A problem is that both doctors and hospitals do a lot of copy and paste too.. Thus we often need to buy a psych CE despite months of mental studs normal statements in the medical records. Lawyers see the useless psych CEs that resulted in denials. Many useless psych CEs result in allowances. Most make no difference one way or the other. Despite multiple changes in listings etc. SSA has not come up with any sensible or reliable way or guidance to evaluate weakness in musculoskeletal and neurological conditions. This is more of a problem than the poor medical records and the poor CEs we get


Anonymous said...

A problem is that both doctors and hospitals do a lot of copy and paste too.. Thus we often need to buy a psych CE despite months of mental studs normal statements in the medical records. Lawyers see the useless psych CEs that resulted in denials. Many useless psych CEs result in allowances. Most make no difference one way or the other. Despite multiple changes in listings etc. SSA has not come up with any sensible or reliable way or guidance to evaluate weakness in musculoskeletal and neurological conditions. This is more of a problem than the poor medical records and the poor CEs we get


Anonymous said...

@11:37

It might just be me, but psych CEs seem to at least be more than copy-and-paste.

Physical CE's literally just check the, won't last 12 months box, and leave it at that.

Anonymous said...

@1:47

I'm guessing it depends on where the CEs occur. In my area, half of the physical CEs give differing functional limitations (and I've been in other areas where they give no opinions, which is equally great) for the claimants. Some simply rubber stamp with no limitations in seemingly every case, but they are rare.

In comparison, the psych CEs in the area simply copy/paste moderate to marked limitations in every area, an inability to cooperate with others, needs extra supervision, etc. in essentially every case while giving 90% of the claimants the same MH diagnoses. Our psych CEs have yet to meet an individual who isn't disabled, unless that individual tells them they aren't disabled.