The Social Security Consultative Exam Doctor told me I was disabled, but I still lost

I often times have people ask me why did the social security consultative exam doctor tell me that I am disabled and I should not be working, yet Social Security denies my application. If a doctor has said that you are disabled, you might be thinking you have an easy Social Security Disability case. While this scenario is not all that common, it does happen. The fact of the matter is the consulative examination is a quick visit. If your there more than 30 minutes, that is very long. The consultative examiner is seeing multiple people that day and he/she wants to get done because they do not get paid alot of money. They also her paid per exam, not how long you are in the exam room. 

The consultative examination doctors do not work for SSA. They are paid just to do some exams. These could be private doctors just trying to make some extra money. 

From time to time a client tells me that they went to the Consultative Examination that Social Security requested that they go to and the doctor told them that they were disabled. Of course the client then is expecting the next correspondence from Social Security to be a Notice of Award. But, unfortunately that is not always the case.

I've had more than a few clients tell me that the doctor told them that they were disabled only for Social Security to turn around and deny them either at the initial decision or Reconsideration. Why does this happen? In my opinion it boils down to one of several possible reasons; either the doctor said one thing and wrote another thing in his report, the doctor may have said something which was misunderstood or the doctor did state that the claimant was disabled but Social Security - who is the ultimate decision maker - decided that the claimant did not meet the Social Security definition of disability.

It is important to understand that “disability” under Social Security is a legal determination that must be made by Social Security itself, often by an administrative law judge (also known as an “ALJ”).  This ALJ is a Social Security Judge who will ultimately determine whether you are disabled or not.  And in making that determination, the ALJ looks to the rules and regulations that Social Security has issued in order to make the decision.  As part of the decision, the ALJ will look to medical opinions and medical records from treating sources such as your doctor.  But, it is important to understand that this is only one area that the ALJ takes into consideration.  It is vital to have an experienced Social Security disability attorney, one who understands the Social Security’s rules and regulations on disability, aid you in the process of obtaining benefits—particularly at the appeal stage.

If you need help applying for Social Security Disability or SSI, please contact me at joshben99@gmail.com. I have over 20 years experience with Social Security Disability cases.