Social Security Disability Tips.Consultative Evaluations

0:00 All right, everybody, all right, this is Anthony Reeves and I am here to give you another Social Security tip that will help you with your Social Security disability claim. The tip today is focusing on consultative evaluations. All right, take a second for this one, because this is going to be a little weird, but it's going to help you out. What usually happens in the course of your disability case is at some point they may ask you, they being Social Security, to attend what's called a consultative evaluation. Now there's a variety of reasons why they may actually send you for this one. There may be no records for you, and this is the only way they can get an idea about some information about your particular case. Two, that might

0:44 be a conflict in your file. What I mean by conflict, I don't mean by people are in there fighting or anything. It just basically means that different doctors are rendering totally different opinions about the level of severity of your condition. So sometimes they'll send them to send you to an evaluation, so a doctor can look at records from all those and kind of balance the two and determine which one is more favorable or which one has a more accurate indication of the severity of your condition. Also, if there's some new things that you bring up. Let's say, for instance, that you mentioned a condition that there's nothing in the records on, or this is the first time that you've mentioned it, they may do that just as an evaluation piece to get an

1:25 idea of the severity of your case. Now, if you get set up for a consultative evaluation, there's a few things that you need to be aware of so that you can make sure that you can give them the best record or best evaluation possible. Here are a few things that you need to know first when they set you up for an appointment. Don't be late, and don't change and don't change your routine. That's the first one. Don't change your routine. I've run across so many people who find themselves in a situation where they decide, well, I'm not gonna say my medication of the day so they can see how bad I am. Please don't do that. You take your medication the way you normally take it. If you take medication in

2:07 the morning and then you eat. Then take your medication in the morning and then you eat. They want to be able to see you as you normally are. Don't be switching up things. Second of all, be on time and go to the appointment. Sometimes people will make it upon themselves in this mindset that they think that it's an option. Well, I don't want to go, I'm not going to go. It doesn't work like that because if you decide not to go, they can use the fact that you're not going against you and processing your disability claim. So please secondly, make sure you keep your appointment and be on time. So the first one is don't change your routine. Second one, it's be on time and go to your appointment.

2:46 Third, this is not a doctor's appointment people, That's right, I said. But when I say that, this is what I mean, because some of you are going to be like, well wait a minute. If this is evaluation, I'm going to a doctor, how is this not a doctor's appointment. Here's what I mean. It's not a doctor's appointment, and that this is not somebody who is here to treat you. They're only to evaluate. There is a difference. When somebody is treating you, they're trying to help you improve your condition. When somebody is evaluating you, they're trying to determine what the status of your condition is. They're not trying. They're not trying to give you prescriptions or medication or anything like that. And unless

3:23 you're in an emergency situation, they are only there to assess your condition. That's it for it. Let me see. Ah. Make sure that you provide them accurate information, okay, and please forgive. Make sure you give them acting for those of who are like, what are you looking at? I'm looking at my chat? She hating baby, I cheat? Sheat?

3:45 Make sure you give them good information about your situation. Be honest people. I can't tell you how many times if I've had people who've gone here and decided that they're going to go in here and try to make their situation worse than what it really is. Is be truthful. That doesn't help you. And these doctors are dumb, you know. These are people who go to medical school, they have internship residency. These are people who have typically about a good eight years of education and about a good anywhere between six seven years of additional medical training before they start their private practice. So you're talking about a person with well over almost fifteen years of training right before they see you

4:24 so don't try to be slick and beat the system and decide that okay, I'm just gonna, you know, tell them, oh, I'm so bad, like you're sitting on my back and just killing me. I can't do anything. But you're going to a treating doctor and they're only giving you ivy profile. So don't try to gain because they not trying to hear that.

4:39 So make sure that you want to be as honest as possible. Don't add things. People. If you've gone to treating doctors before and out of nowhere, you know you've never told them that you've ever had problems with bad back or you've heard voices, don't go to the doctors and Social Security sends you and just think this is my time to make step up. That is an go. Don't do that. That doesn't help your situation. Okay. Also, also don't add things. If it wasn't a problem before now. If it's a problem now, it's one thing. But if it was a problem long standing and you never thought to say anything to anybody, don't say, oh, by the way, I forgot my bunyan hurts. This is not that kind of party. And keep one other thing in the back of your

5:24 mind. They are always watching. Let me let me tell you what I mean by that. Sometimes what happens is that I'll have people that they'll go and they'll have a walker in their car, and they'll use a walker going all the way up to the appointment, and then as soon as they leave the appointment, they put the walk around the shoulder and walk on out, not realizing that people are still watching them. Simplease don't be slack. So there's seven things that you need to be aware of. Make sure you don't change your routine. Make sure you're on time. Make sure you recognize that this is just an evaluation, not a treating doctor's appointment. Make sure you're honest about the information you give. Make sure you don't make anything up.

6:00 Make sure you don't add things that weren't there. And I always remember they're keeping an eye on you. And the reason why I mentioned about keeping an eye on you is because there is a fraud unit, because people sometimes fail to realize that filing a fraudulent claim with the Social Security Administration is a federal offense. I eat, do not file a claim saying that you don't that you have something that's wrong with you, and really there's nothing. Trust me, they investigate those things. People. Evaluations can consultative evaluation can be a very helpful tool, but they can be a very harmful tool if you're not smart about what you're doing. Keep those things in mind, and this tip has been brought to you by Anthony Reeves is the Reeves Law Firm dedicated to

6:39 representing the disabled and the discriminator.