BOOKS & E-BOOKS *

Disability Workbook for Social Security Applicants, Seventh Ed. 2008, by Douglas M. Smith, Attorney at Law. Explains how to document a winning disability claim, and appeal successfully when Social Security makes errors. Available as print or e-book.   Click here to order

Disability Evaluation in a Nutshell: Three Minute Guide to Effective Medical Reports. Identifies questions to be addressed by doctors in reports to Social Security about patients with disabilities. June 2005. (16 pages) Available as print or e-book. Click here to order Disability Evaluation in a Nutshell: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Shows how to apply the principles of Social Security Ruling 99-2p to writing persuasive medical reports that satisfy Social Security disability standards. Winter 2004-2005. (24 pages) Available as an e-book. Click here to order Disability Evaluation in a Nutshell: Interstitial Cystitis. Shows how to apply the principles of Social Security Ruling, SSR 02-2p to writing persuasive medical reports that satisfy Social Security disability standards. Winter 2004-2005. (24 pages) Available as an e-book. Click here to order Preparing for Your Disability Review Explains the main types of disability reviews and how beneficiaries can respond to them effectively. Fall 2003. (32 pages) (Being updated, available soon.) Click here to order When SSA Asks Repayment Explains how to respond to Social Security when they ask for money back. Winter 1999 (12 pages) Available as print or e-book. Click here to order A Helping Hand -- with Social Security Disability (Illustrated) Explains the Social Security disability program with pictures.Winter 2004 (16 pages) Available as an e-book. Click here to order Recipe for Winning DI Benefits from SSA Compares proving disability with following a recipe to bake a cake.Summer-Fall 2004 (24 pages) Available as print or e-book. Click here to order Proving Disability to SSA: Overcoming Challenges in the Disability Claim Process Shows how disabled applicants can win quickly by thoroughly documenting Fall 2003. (24 pages). People who have the Disability Workbook do not need this booklet. Available as print or e-book. Click here to order Moderate Work: Congress Encourages SSDI Beneficiaries to Work, Within Limits This special issue shows how Social Security “work incentive” rules may enable Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries to earn moderate amounts of money without losing benefits. March 2007 (8 pages). Available as print or e-book. Click here to order Winning SSDI While Working Describes how SSA may award benefits despite coninuation of work. Winter 2005 (16 pages) Available as print or e-book. Click here to order

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HOW USEFUL IS THE SOCIAL SECURITY LISTING TO TREATING DOCTORS?

Has someone told you to get a copy of the “Listing of Impairments” to help your treating doctor write a medical report for Social Security? Think twice before putting much effort into this. The doctors we know typically have not found the Listing very helpful in writing medical reports for Social Security. We do not encourage people to invest major effort in getting a copy of the Listing for their doctors. We have several reasons for taking this position, including:

1. Publicly available copies of the Listing typically are out of date;
2. Few doctors have training or experience in using the listing;
3. Social Security seldom seems swayed by a treating doctor’s opinion about a Listing.

Social Security regulations describe Listing issues as “reserved to the Commissioner.” We understand that to mean the Commissioner pays great attention to opinions of Social Security doctors and little attention to opinions of treating doctors on Listing issues.

A Social Security comment in the recent update of the Lupus Listing (Listing 14.02) seems to confirm our understanding. The agency said,

“We do not expect physicians and other medical sources to use our terminology . . .”

And later they explained that whether or not a patient’s condition satisfies Listing criteria,

“is an administrative finding that we make based upon consideration of all relevant evidence in the individual’s case record, which may include information that the treating source does not have. We only need evidence describing the individual’s limitations, and we will determine whether those limitations meet our definition . . .”

In short, we believe that Social Security considers few (if any) treating doctors to be authorities on the Listing. That is why we do not encourage people who inquire with us to invest major effort in getting a copy of the Listing for their doctors.

The discussion in the new Lupus Listing may be found in the Federal Register for March 18, 2008, beginning at page 14590.

 

Individual Requests for Advice or Information

We welcome questions about our products, or about orders you have placed or intend to place.

Also, welcomed are ideas for improvement. If you spot flaws or unclear language in our publications or website we value your suggestions for correction or clarification.

However, we lack the resources to respond to requests for individual advice or information.

We encourage customers to consult sources equipped to offer personal advice such as: their local Social Security offices, private organizations of experienced disability lawyers such as NOSSCR, bar association lawyer referral services, and legal aid offices for individual advice or information.

 

HINT: DON’T GIVE SSA PAPERS THAT LACK PAGE NUMBERS

People applying for Social Security disability benefits should assure that documents they or their medical providers submit to the Social Security Administration (SSA) have page numbers. Otherwise SSA may put documents into their electronic system and later print them out as an un-numbered and almost useless stack of paper.

Claimants should number pages of any documenst they create, and ask medical providers to number pages of documents they provide on their behalf. Here’s why we mention this.

Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearings are about documents, testimony, medical opinion, and discussion of what they mean. But how do hearing participants (the ALJ, attorney, medical expert, and claimant) discuss a particular document buried in a six inch stack of papers (or in an electronic file) when none are properly marked?

A disability attorney asked this question yesterday (April 19, 2007) at a Baltimore conference of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR). He had encountered this very situation recently

A Social Security deputy commissioner responded that she knew about the problem but it is rare. She said SSA is developing software to assure that print-outs and electronic records are numbered or otherwise organized.

Still, we hope that claimants, attorneys, and their medical providers will take care to mark documents with page numbers to make them accessible. This will assure that their cases are not “the rare case” afflicted with disordered documents that the lawyer and deputy commissioner discussed at Baltimore.

SOCIAL SECURITY FIELD OFFICES SHRINKING Social Security field offices lost 873 staff members between October 2005 and September 2006. Fewer staff members means less help for people struggling with Social Security disability forms. For more on this, click here.

SHOULD SSA CLOSE OFFICES ONE DAY A WEEK TO IMPROVE WORK? The Commissioner of Social Security floated this idea (which would be tested in thirty offices) in remarks on August 9, 2006. For more on this, click here.

For more Social Security disability news, click here.