The Treating Doctor’s Role in SSA Determinations of Disability

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Treating physicians are routinely asked for their opinions on patients’ impairments by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and claimants’ attorneys alike. This memorandum, written for doctors treating certain Social Security disability clients, answers questions frequently asked by doctors about responding to such requests.

What role does a treating physician’s opinion play in evaluating a Social Security disability claim?

SSA considers the treating doctor to be the medical professional in the best position to provide a detailed, longitudinal picture of a claimant’s medical impairments, and his or her opinion is given special consideration by SSA. He or she brings a unique perspective to the medical evidence that is not found in objective medical findings or individual examinations, such as SSA-arranged consultative examinations or brief hospitalizations.

What information should the treating physician provide to SSA?

SSA will require information about the nature, severity, extent and duration of a claimant’s impairments. This would include the doctor’s observations and opinions about the patient’s ability to function in a sustained manner when performing work activities or activities of daily living; the effects and side effects of any treatment given; and the anticipated duration of any impairment limiting the patient’s ability to function. SSA needs these opinions in order to draw accurate conclusions about the severity of the claimant’s impairments and his or her remaining capacity for work.

For further information on these and other issues of interest to treating physicians, or if you have a patient in need of an effective advocate before the SSA, please contact Greenville disability lawyer Stephen Yacobi today.