Social Security Disability and Computer Usage
There are rumors that an administrative law judge stated in a seminar that he went on line and researched to see if the claimant had job applications pending during the claim. The speculation is that the ALJ is using on-line research skills to see if current resumes are being posted by the claimants. Why would this be important to the ALJ?
When you apply for Social Security Disability, you are stating that you cannot do an 8 hour a day job 5 days a week. If you have posted your resume seeking work, some might conclude that you really think you can work. The old adage “you cannot have your cake and eat it too” comes to mind. Some will conclude that you really are not disabled and you are only using the Social Security Disability system to provide you a means of support while you are looking for work. After all, if you cannot work, why would you be posting your resume seeking work?
Perhaps you posted a resume on line shortly before you became disabled. Have you forgotten about it? Did you remember to remove it from the site when you became unable to work? Even if you did, can it still be retrieved from the web?
Much has also been made in the news media about potential employers looking at social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace to see what they can learn. If someone might research you, what might they learn about you at these sites? If you participate in an online chat group, how might your comments be misconstrued? Also, if you are posting all the time, what might that say about your computer skills and your ability to concentrate? Do not assume that the postings are private because it is a disease support group web site. Who knows, your ALJ may actually belong to the support group and be reading about you.
There used to be an ALJ in Indianapolis that would state that he got on the SSA system the day before the hearing and personally ran the earnings records to see what it showed. He would then ask the claimant pointed questions about the latest findings. You need to be prepared to answer the ALJ’s questions about what the internet reveals about you. You may hear the ALJ begin a question with “I see on the web that…..”
Social Security Sending Corrected Benefit Notices
The Social Security Administration earlier this month mailed notices that contained incorrect January 2010 payment dates. Read more
ICLEF asks Tom S. Ebbinghouse to Teach Lawyers about Social Security Disability
The Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (ICLEF) has asked that I speak at the “Entitlements Planning” seminar on December 17th. I will be teaching other lawyers about Social Security Disability. The purpose of ICLEF is to advance and promote the administration of justice and understanding of the law through the institution, supervision, implementation, coordination and administration of a program of continuing legal education for the use and benefit of members of the legal profession. The directors of the Indiana Bar Foundation, which is associated with the Indiana State Bar Association, incorporated ICLEF as in independent non-profit corporation in 1964. The Co-sponsors are the Indiana Bar Foundation, the Indiana State Bar Association, the Indiana University School of Law, Notre Dame Law School and Valparaiso University School of Law. You can read the list of seminars that I have Chaired and/or made a presentation to teach lawyers about Social Security Disability here.
Happy Thanksgiving
Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving. Today is “the” day that we stop, count our blessings, and give thanks for them.
I encourage my disabled clients to stop and celebrate the blessings in their life on a regular basis. It is easy to get mired down in the negative things that are going on in our lives. This is especially true when you are ill and disabled. You never thought that you would not be able at this point in your life to do the “normal” things that are now impossible to do. It is very easy to only focus on the things in your life that you have lost. This “stinkin’ thinking”, as Zig Zigler calls it, will eventually pull us down. If you are ill and disabled, please stop on a weekly basis to count your blessings and give thanks for them. By focusing on the “good” in your life, it will be just a little bit easier to continue to in your daily life. Even if you can not have the Thanksgiving Day you would like today, look for the good and you will find something that you can give thanks about. It will be good medicine for you.
Substantial Gainful Activity Amount For 2010 SSA Disability
At Step One of the Five Step Sequential Analysis , Social Security determines if you are engaged in Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA). When you work for someone else and are not self-employed, SSA usually uses a “rule of thumb” to determine if someone is engaged in SGA. According to this “rule of thumb” if you earn a certain dollar amount or less, you are usually not considered to be engaged in Substantial Gainful Activity. In 2010, for non-blind individuals, the amount is $1,000 per month. Currently, the amount is $980 per month. For blind individuals, the 2010 amount is $1,600 per month, which is the same amount used in 2009. I previously posted the amounts back to the year 2000, which you can see by clicking here.
Why Your Nurse Pratitioner May Make Your Social Security Disability Case Sick
More and more of my clients have seen a Nurse Practitioner for their medical care. Some like the Nurse Practitioner so much that they no longer actually see the doctor or their return appointments just keep being made with the Nurse Practitioner. The Nurse Practitioner is giving them great care, so why should they care if they see a Nurse Practitioner instead of a doctor?
Social Security divides medical sources into two categories: “acceptable medical sources” and other health care providers who are not “acceptable medical sources”. Nurse Practitioners are in the category of other health care providers who are not “acceptable medical sources”.
In Social Security Ruling 06-03, SSA explains that it makes the distinction for three reasons: First, SSA needs evidence from “acceptable medical sources” to establish the existence of a medically determinable impairment. Second, only “acceptable medical sources” can give SSA medical opinions. Third, only “acceptable medical sources” can be considered treating sources whose medical opinions may be entitled to controlling weight.
This means that the medical evidence from a Nurse Practitioner can not establish your medical impairment at Step 2 of the Sequential Evaluation. You must establish your medical impairment in order to win your benefits.
This means that if all of your treatment is by a Nurse Practitioner, then you have no one who can give SSA a medical opinion about how your medical impairments restrict what you can do.
In a card game, a King beats a Jack. Social Security does not even treat a Nurse Practitioner as a Jack–more like a low card. This is not good for your case!
Not Legal Advice
Please be aware that the information here is general and not tailored to what might be your specific facts. If you have specific questions, you should consult a lawyer. This information is not legal advice. You are not my client and I am not your attorney. In order for me to become your attorney, you must meet with me and execute a Fee and Representation Agreement.
Social Security Disability Compassionate Allowances
In October 2008, Social Security launched Compassionate Allowances to expedite the processing of disability claims for applicants with medical conditions so severe that their conditions by definition meet Social Security’s standards. According to Social Security, the idea is to fast track those cases for quick processing.
On July 29,2009, Commissioner Astrue was joined by Marie A. Bernard, M.D., Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, and other Social Security officials, to hear testimony from some of the nation’s leading experts on early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias about possible methods for identifying and implementing Compassionate Allowances for people with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Early-onset Alzheimer’s and related dementia has not yet been added to the list.
Here is the list of the first 50 impairments — 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers included in Compassionate Allowances:
1. Acute Leukemia
2. Adrenal Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
3. Alexander Disease (ALX) – Neonatal and Infantile
4. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
5. Anaplastic Adrenal Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
6. Astrocytoma – Grade III and IV
7. Bladder Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
8. Bone Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
9. Breast Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
10. Canavan Disease (CD)
11. Cerebro Oculo Facio Skeletal (COFS) Syndrome
12. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) – Blast Phase
13. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) – Adult
14. Ependymoblastoma (Child Brain Tumor)
15. Esophageal Cancer
16. Farber’s Disease (FD) – Infantile
17. Friedreichs Ataxia (FRDA)
18. Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Picks Disease -Type A – Adult
19. Gallbladder Cancer
20. Gaucher Disease (GD) – Type 2
21. Glioblastoma Multiforme (Brain Tumor)
22. Head and Neck Cancers – with distant metastasis or inoperable or uresectable
23. Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy (INAD)
24. Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)
25. Kidney Cancer – inoperable or unresectable
26. Krabbe Disease (KD) – Infantile
27. Large Intestine Cancer – with distant metastasis or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
28. Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome (LNS)
29. Liver Cancer
30. Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL)
31. Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) – Late Infantile
32. Niemann-Pick Disease (NPD) – Type A
33. Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer – with metastases to or beyond the hilar nodes or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
34. Ornithine Transcarbamylase (OTC) Deficiency
35. Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) – Type II
36. Ovarian Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
37. Pancreatic Cancer
38. Peritoneal Mesothelioma
39. Pleural Mesothelioma
40. Pompe Disease – Infantile
41. Rett (RTT) Syndrome
42. Salivary Tumors
43. Sandhoff Disease
44. Small Cell Cancer (of the Large Intestine, Ovary, Prostate, or Uterus)
45. Small Cell Lung Cancer
46. Small Intestine Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
47. Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) – Types 0 And 1
48. Stomach Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
49. Thyroid Cancer
50. Ureter Cancer – with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
Medical Diagnosis Alone Is Not Enough in Social Security Disability Case
I recently saw an article on the Social Security Disability Lawyer by attorney Gordon Gates about it not being the diagnosis but the severity of the impairment that is important. He states:
“When talking with Social Security disability claimants, I often hear a statement like “I can’t work because I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder” (or degenerative disc disease, or fibromyalgia). The claimant makes the statement like the matter is settled. The reasoning seems to be: since there is a doctor’s diagnosis of my impairment, my disability claim should be granted.
Unfortunately, that reasoning is not at all correct. It is not the diagnosis of the impairment but the severity of the impairment that matters in a Social Security disability claim. And I explain this to clients every day.
The diagnosis is just the beginning. A good beginning to be sure, since the diagnosis satisfies the medically determinable requirement in a Social Security disability claim. But the important thing is the severity of your impairment. How much does it affect your functionality? How does it affect your ability to work? These are the important questions in a Social Security disability case.
What is missing from almost every denied Social Security disability claim is evidence establishing a claimant’s functional limitations. A medical diagnosis alone does not establish any functional limitations. And unfortunately, a patient’s medical records usually have little information regarding functional limitations (medical records are created and maintained for medical providers to track a patient’s medical care, not to establish disability).
So remember, it’s not the diagnosis but the severity of the impairment that matters. And a Social Security disability lawyer spends a great deal of time trying to obtain evidence – often a medical source statement – that will establish a claimant’s functional limitations.”
I am in complete agreement with Mr. Gates observations. I have the same conversations with people all the time. I remind people that they need to tell the whole truth about their inability to work. You really do need to know the rules of Social Security disability.
