Disability Audio is a regularly updated podcast that provides information about the Social Security Disability and SSI disability benefit system. It is produced by former Disability Claims Examiner Tim Moore, who previously worked for the Social Security Administration’s “DDS”, or Disability Determination Services agency.
More resources on the Social Security Disability Resource Page.
Description of this podcast segment:
The topic of this segment is “Social Security Mental Exam Questions”. And, accordingly, it gives some discussion of exams that are scheduled for SSD and SSI claims, such as psychological examinations (IQ tests), pyschiatric exams, mental status exams, and waischler memory scales. However, the first part of the segment defines just what a social security medical exam is and why one might be scheduled. These exams are commonly referred to, by applicants for social security disability and SSI disability benefits, as “social security medical exams”. However, disability examiners, the individuals who actually evaluate and adjudicate claims that are pending at the disability application and request for reconsideration appeal levels, refer to them as CEs, or consultative exams.
Consultative exams, contrary to the mistaken assumptions of many claimants are not conducted to provide medical treatment, nor are they conducted by doctors who work for the social security administration. Instead, they are typically scheduled in two types of scenarios. The first scenario is where it becomes necessary to obtain evidence because there is little to no medical evidence on which to base a decision. The second scenario is a case for which the most recent medical evidence available is considered to be too old to to base a current disability determination on (and this, in fact, is the most common reason for the scheduling of a consultative exam).
Claimants who are sent to physical or mental consultative exams for a social security disability or SSI disability case often wonder if the the examination appointment should signal some great significance (e.g. is it a good sign?, is it a bad sign?). In all honesty, however, very often the fact that a CE has been scheduled means very little. In nearly all cases, it simply means that the examiner needs recent medical evidence in the case file before a decision can be made. And in very few cases will the information obtained from such an exam ever have any real influence on the outcome of a disability case. In other words, going to a mental or physical exam for the social security administration usually equates to satisfying a processing formality before a decision can be given on a claim.
