Brother just got denied on reconsideration

[vision-master]

What does he do now? The disability services never updated his medical records from 2 years ago. In otherwords, they do a poor job. He was just diagnosed with perpheral neuropathy last Month, but the medical records were never submitted. It's gonna be hard living on cash assistance and food stamps. FYI: he weighs 430 lbs now, is over 50 years old and has only done manual labor his whole working life. WTF? :confused:

[Pookie]

If your husband is not represented:
Your husband has 30 or 60 days to file for an appeal - ALJ Hearing. Read the paperwork that came w/the denial. Instructions for filing for an appeal are there.

Unfortunately, it is up to your husband to obtain copies of all medical records, notes, testing & forward them to SSD. Always keep copies for yourself as paperwork tends to get lost and/or fall through the cracks.

Strongly suggest that you read up on SSD: http://www.ssa.gov/disability/

BTW: Your husband filing for SSDI or SSI?

If hubby is represented:
The attorney will (or should be) do all the work. However, I strongly suggest that you still keep copies of the medical reports, notes & testing for yourself. Go over them with a fine tooth comb to make sure everything in them are correct.

Good luck!

[UJ20]

I'd very strongly recommend checking out sites about disability which aren't affiliated with the SS administration too. Do a search for "disability tips", or "disability secrets", and you can find a lot of information which if you use it can help his case a lot.

One thing that can help him right now, from the website disabilityappeal.com (http://www.disabilityapeal.com), is

"Denial at the Hearing Level

Denial at the Hearing LevelOk, let’s say the all too common scenario happens - you submit sufficient medical documentation to support your disability claim (including impairment questionnaires and narratives from treating physicians), testify credibly at the Social Security disability hearing, and are entitled to prevail under the law. But the ALJ, for whatever reason (having a bad day, thinking the money is coming out of his pocket, etc.) denies you SSDI or SSI benefits. What is the next step your disability lawyer should take aside from explaining the denial to you and the appeals process? Request the hearing tapes. You see with the huge volume of disability hearings conducted by the Social Security Administration, having a court stenographer at each proceeding would be fiscally impossible. So they rely on tape recordings to preserve the record of what happens for possible appellate review. In many instances, once the tapes are obtained and listened to, parts of the record will be inaudible. And in a lot of cases they can’t produce the tapes at all because they have been purportedly lost (usually when an ALJ said something during the disability benefits hearing that may reflect poorly upon him). An incomplete or missing record, when noted in a legal brief sent to the Appeals Council (that should be only one of many points touched upon) results in an almost automatic sending of the case back for a new hearing. After all, how can the Appeals Council objectively review your disability appeal when part of the record is unclear or missing? This should be pretty basic stuff for any seasoned disability attorney, but you’d be surprised at how many of them overlook it. "

There's a lot of other good info on that site for people exactly where you're brother's at right now too.

Good luck, there are things that he can do to improve his chances, make sure that his lawyer is aware of the tape thing and the other things mentioned on that site and other sites. Knowing what you can do to make your case stronger is important.

[cferro514]

disability services never updated his medical records from 2 years ago.

It is the claimant job to update the medical records. The agency may have sent a request to the doctors' offices for information, and not received the records.
It is now time for your brother to hire an attorney.
Here is a place to look at the NOSSCR.
http://www.nosscr.org/links2.html
http://www.nosscr.org/about.html