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Your doctor can play a vital role in winning your Social Security Disability. Social Security relies on doctors to give opinions about whether you are disabled and if your doctor doesn’t provide and opinion, they will have doctors that don’t know you give their opinion, which is rarely good. So why can you do to ensure your doctor gives an opinion to SSA that will improve your chances of winning? There are a few things:
1. Always be honest with your doctors. Social Security will know if you lie to your doctors about things like alcohol use, complying with medications and treatments, etc. No one likes a liar and SSA definitely won’t grant disability to someone that could be lying about their disability.
2. Be as open as possible about your medical conditions, even if the doctor doesn’t ask. If it doesn’t go in your chart, SSA will not see it. For example, if you suffer from seizures, SSA will want documentation as to how often you have them, but often you will have seizures that you don’t report to your doctor. If it’s not reported, IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. That is SSA’s opinion. Tell your doctor everything. Also, keep your own log of the seizures, migraines or whatever recurrent problem you are having and give it to your doctor and the Social Security Disability examiner.
3. Follow all treatment recommendations. I know physical therapy can be hard and many of my clients quit before they’ve completed all their sessions. SSA will hold that against them. Your doctors will be less willing to help you as well. They prescribed the treatment they thought might help you and you disregarded their opinion. Do the work and if it doesn’t improve your disability, it will be strong evidence to prove you are disabled.
4. Get your doctor’s opinion in writing. Your doctor’s opinion is valuable. I urge all my clients to be proactive in getting that opinion and we have FREE FORMS for your doctor to fill out!
5. Be nice to your doctors! If you‘re rude or demanding, they will not like you or want to help you.
If you have any questions, please call or email me at 602-607-0000 or joe@jdisability.com!
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