SUREST WAY TO LOSE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY BENEFITS

YOU CAN LOSE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY BENEFITS

 The surest way to lose your Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits is to discontinue regular medical treatment.  You stop going to the doctor(s), discontinue your prescribed medications or fail to leave a good paper trail of medical documentation.

Remember that Social Security doesn't know you.  You are a collection of data points to them.  Mostly, they will go by your more recent medical records to determined whether you are still disabled.  If there are no recent medical records to document your disabling conditions, then Social Security assumes (yes assumes) that you are no longer disabled under their rules.

Individuals give many reasons as to why they gave up medical treatment:

1. My doctor told me there's nothing else she can do for me.
2. It just got too expensive.
3. I'm afraid of taking so much medicine.
4. I feel as well without treatment as I did with it.
5. I lost my insurance and I just can't afford it.
   

The fact is, it doesn't matter WHY you discontinued seeing your doctor or stopped following medical advice.  It only matters that you did.

Remember, it's almost as hard to keep disability benefits without medical proof as it was to get them in the first place.

Most people on Social Security disability will be reviewed every 2 or 3 years to see if they continue to meet the rules for disability.  A written notice will be sent before the continuing disability review (CDR) begins.  By that point, however, it's too late to start seeing the doctor again.

Social security wants to see a regular and continual pattern of treatment and following the doctor's recommendations, including taking medications as prescribed (unless there is a good reason not to).

Beneficiaries with benefits based on mental impairments are at even more risk if they fail to continue treatment.  Mental impairments are more difficult to prove generally than physical ones.  If an individual stops getting counseling and/or medication, it will often be assumed that they have made "significant medical improvement," and are no longer disabled.

Social Security decision makers operate on what they can see.  What they need to see is documentation from your medical or mental care providers indicating that you are still as impaired as ever and that you are still not able to work at "substantial gainful activity."

Does Social Security have an incentive to discontinue benefits?  Yes.  There is constant pressure from the Congress to eliminate benefits to persons who "are no longer disabled."  And Social Security spends more time and money today than ever to justify paying benefits year after year.

Best advice to prepare for a Continuing Disability Review?

• See your doctor at least twice a year; more if you need to
• Refill and take your medications as prescribed
• Tell your doctor about continuing problems or challenges to activities
• Try to get any tests recommended by your doctor(s)
• Avoid telling your doctor things like, "I am doing fine," unless you mean it literally
• If you get notified that of a CDR, work with our doctor(s) to be sure all medical records area provided to Social Security for the review.  Don't assume records are sent in.  Check to see.
• Communicate with Social Security and return all forms or calls.  Ignoring correspondence from Social Security will not make the review go away.  
• Remember, starting now is the best way to protect your benefits against a CDR later.

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Charles W. Forsythe assists claimants with Social Security disability applications, appeals and hearings.  (256)O 799-0297.