What happens when Social Security sends me to one of their doctors

0:01 All right, everybody, this is Attorney Anthony Reeves, and it's always it's a pleasure to give you my legal big tip of the day. Before I get started, let me throw out one thing that you may not be aware of. When you're looking for somebody who's going to be helping you with your soci security disability case, trust me, you can look anywhere. Meaning a lot of times people look for people who are local, but social security is a federal practice. So if you see a commercial or if somebody tells you that somebody represented them in their state and you're thinking, well, I got to find somebody locally, you don't have to find somebody locally. You can contact that firm and see whether or not they be interested in taking your case,

0:39 because the reality is is that you're practicing before a federal administrative court. So this way, whether it be an attorney or non attorney representative, as long as they don't mind traveling and they can get your medical records for you, it doesn't matter where they're coming from. So keep that thought in the back of your mind when you're trying to decide who you want to represent you.

0:58 Now, the reason why I'm having this today is there was a question about psychological evaluations as opposed to me just talking about psychological evaluations. Let me tell you about evaluations that are scheduled for you by Social Security. This is how it typically works. You'll get a letter in the mail from the Disability Determination Services telling you you've got an appointment to see a doctor. There's always been some confusion about what actually happens when you go there. Let's get one thing completely straight. Okay, they're not there to treat you, so don't go in there thinking that they're going to prescribe your medication or they're going to treat you like your normal treating doctors when they're doing an evaluation. It's because

1:41 of a couple of reasons. One, there's an inconsistency that means you've got different doctors saying different things. So these doctors may necessarily have to come together to see if they can make some sense of what's going on. Two, there's a lack of medical evidence present with regards to a particular condition. Like let's say you're you're saying you're depressed, but then you also say you have a bad back, but you can't afford to go to a regular doctor, so they'll send you to an evaluation just to kind of assess what your back, how bad your back is. The third may be if there are specific types of testing that they may have to do that are necessary to support your claim. Now, don't get the high pro glow if there is an If

2:15 you say your back hurts, they're not gonna send you for an MRI as just not the kind of party of talking about. But if you're having breathing problems, they may do a breathing test. If you're saying that you have problems with learning, they may send you for an IQ test. If you're hearing voices and different things, they may send you for various testing in that manner. Now, this is all at the prerogative of Social Security. They don't have to do that. So I don't want you to think when you walk out of that, oh my gosh, they didn't do what they were supposed to do and they messed up and they didn't look out for my well being. They're not there to treat you. They're only there to get a brief assessment. Another thing you need to be aware of. It's not gonna

2:52 last that long unless they're doing testing. The assessment is not there to spend two and three hours to assess your situation, so I won't be surprised if you're in and out in like I don't know, fifteen to twenty to thirty minutes, because it's not designed for you to be there a long time. So just keep that in the back of your mind. Also, if you don't, you know, they're gonna send the results to Social Security for them to review for the determination. Keep in mind you have to talk to the Disability Determination services who are setting it up. The doctor's probably not going to give you a report. The Disability Determination Service, which is the medical component, the state component that does the development of the medical portion of your disability

3:38 case, they're going to get the report and then they're going to send that to Social Security. So if you want to copy that report, you need to ask the Disability Determination Service. Finally, keep this in mind. If you if they ask you to bring medical paperwork, bring it. If they ask you to be there early, come for it. Don't go in there thinking, oh my god, this is the person that's going to determine whether I'll get approved or not. So I got to say the right things and do the right things. Make sure that you're honest. People, I cannot say this any clear. Don't try to go in there running dirty and try to be slick and make your situation sounds worse than it is. You are dealing with professionals who went to medical school, so they know when you are

4:24 trying to blow smoke. So don't go in there and try to be, oh, I got a headache, that's just so all swolled up, but you've never told any of your doctors about a headache. And also be mindful if they have your medical records, they've already reviewed them, So don't be slick and say something and something is in your file that is in other words, let's say, for instance, that you went to the hospital because you got baker acted or you got involuntary admitted, and the reason why is because you know you was smoking at hydro that herb or you were using crack or something, and then go in front of the doctor for the evaluation for some security and say, oh, I've never used drugs. Guess what, They're

5:01 gonna put a note in your file that they review and you and they reviewed your file saying you had been using drugs, but you said you didn't that's just not the kind of party you want to have go down. So the evaluations in a nutshell is this when you're going for an evaluation before a disability excuse me for a doctor that has been scheduled by disability determination services. Be honest, be yourself. Trust They're not there to find in your favor or rule against you. They're only there to take an objective assessment. Do not go in there thinking they're going to do a deep down, head to toe assessment to the level that you're thinking. Go in there knowing that, look here, they're gonna make an assessment. You're gonna get in, you're gonna

5:43 get out, and you're gonna keep on rolling. I hope that helped and answers any questions that you may have. Of course, as you may also know, you can always hit me up at www dot reeve'sfirm dot com. And oh, just to let you know, I made a very new revision to my blog because I had some complaints from people who are like they had a hard time being able to fig find things. And now I've laid out all the categories of all the various things that I've written about. So if you want to read them, copy them, go to legalbeet dot Anthony Reeves dot com again legal beat all one word dot Anthony Reeves dot com and you can scroll through make comments. That's another place. It's a great place to make comments as well. So if you have any comments there, you're like,

6:25 could you explain that I'll be more than happy to take your comments and then come over here and do a video for you, because that's the kind of guy how I am. As always, it's my pleasure. You have a wonderful day and take care