How Your Doctor Should Fill Out a Medical Form
Depending on how they fill out Social Security disability forms, doctors can help, harm, or have little effect on the outcome of your disability claim. In order to make sure that the form that the doctor fills out for you strengthens your case, make sure that he or she is aware of the following regarding doctor’s statements.
It is a common misconception that you need to be practically or actually bedridden in order to be found disabled by the Social Security Administration. Having a doctor’s report stating that you are able to do certain work-related tasks does not mean that you are necessarily precluded from qualifying under SSA guidelines.
There are a variety of factors that determine someone’s eligibility for disability benefits. Because of age, for example, some claimants (especially those over age 50 or 55) can still be found disabled despite actually being capable of performing a surprising number of jobs. Your Ocala disability lawyer might also be looking to document the impact of a few physical limitations that he or she will use in combination with a mental impairment to establish eligibility.
When filling out a medical opinion form, it is important for your doctor to detail exactly what you can and cannot do and for what spans of time. Withholding information or changing it, however, is not advisable. The worst thing that a doctor can do for a patient seeking Social Security disability benefits is to exaggerate how disabled the patient is. If the document is found to contain such errors, the entire report cannot be used as evidence in the claim.
If you are represented by an attorney, he or she may wish to contact your doctor to discuss how the Social Security Administration will interpret the form and how to provide information in a way that is helpful to your claim. When in doubt, the best thing a doctor can do is to contact your attorney to discuss any concerns or questions. Not having a lawyer at this stage can lead to a denial of your claim due to doctor mistakes. Call (352) 304-5300 or fill out the form on this page for a free consultation from Ocala disability attorney CJ Henry.