What Is This Consultative Examination That Social Security Is Sending Me To?

In most cases, claimants for either Social Security Disability benefits (SSD) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are scheduled for Consultative Examinations by Social Security. Social Security may request that you go to an examination by a medical doctor for physical impairments and/or a psychologist for mental impairments.

In my experience, almost every client who has been denied on their initial application and at Reconsideration has been sent to a Consultative Examination in relation to the impairments that they are alleging. If a claimant is alleging both mental and physical impairments, then it is possible that Social Security will schedule both a mental and physical examination; or they may schedule one or the other.

The majority of the time these doctors are not helpful to the claimant's case (at least this is my opinion on physical examinations). But, it's in your best interests to attend these examinations. If Social Security schedules you for a Consultative Examination and you fail to attend then it's likely that your application for disability benefits will be denied. If you have to re-schedule the appointment, that can usually be done by contacting the claim's adjudicator in advance. However, I always suggest to my clients that they try their best to attend the examination when it is originally scheduled unless absolutely necessary to re-schedule.

If you confirm your attendance for the examination and then fail to show up for the appointment, Social Security is not obligated to re-schedule the appointment. Often, if you fail to appear and do not have a valid reason, Social Security will deny your application. If you fail to attend the examination, if the case goes to hearing, the judge is likely going to want to know what your reasons for failing to attend the examination are.

It has been my experience that the mental examinations are much more helpful and through than the physical examinations. Physical examinations, from what I have been told, seldom last longer than 10 minutes.

The Doctor Social Security Sent Me To Told Me I Was Disabled, Why Was I Denied?

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.

The good news is that if the doctor at the Consultative Examination, whether it be a medical doctor or a psychiatrist, did include favorable evidence for you in their report that this may help you at the Social Security hearing.