Medical Records and disability go hand in hand. The importance of having a complete medical file and the right type of medical evidence cannot be understated for your Social Security Disability claim. A disability lawyer can help obtain the correct type of medical records and help obtain the complete medical file. It sometimes can be difficult to obtain the complete file because if a claimant was saw by a doctor at any hospital the records could be in the possession of the hospital or the doctor at a separate office. Sometimes the record is “unavailable” but this could be because that the incorrect name, date or birth, or some other information was incorrectly given.
Should I pay for medical records and disability?
These records for social security disability cases can often cost a lot of money but many states including Utah have laws that limit the cost of medical records. You can check this rule here. Basically medical record providers in Utah can only charge the actual cost of reproducing the records and the cost of postage. Medical documentation in social security disability cases is so important because the rules require actual objective information such as test results to support their decisions. In other words conclusions are insufficient. This is a very well-established rule in the Social Security regulations.
Hospital records are sometimes important to a disability case where there are many hospitalizations in a period of time. However they may not be important for a surgical visit where there are no long-term effects to the disability applicant’s health. If you a veteran and go to the Veterans hospital you want to make sure you know that the records are for a social security disability claim so that you will not be charged for the records. Also keep in mind that VA records do no ordinarily contain the results of rating exams also known as compensation and pension exams for VA disability compensation. Social Security does weigh the opinions and records differently depending on whether they are considered an “acceptable medical source” or just a “other medical source”. We wrote a previous article on this issue available here. All evidence will be considered but some Social Security disability applicants may be frustrated to find out that there main treating provider is not considered an acceptable medical source.
MOST DISCUSSED