There are two very complex areas of Social Security Disability that your representative needs to master to be able to get disability benefits for you: medical evidence and vocational issues. These areas are complicated and specialized, and our team at Disability Advocates has extensive training and experience in both.
This is not typical for disability representatives. But our disability representatives are not typical.
We Used to Work for the Social Security Administration Making These Decisions.
Several people on our team at Disability Advocates were single decision maker disability adjudicators - the people who reviewed claims and made the decisions about whether people who applied qualified for disability benefits.
That experience gave us a detailed understanding of how Social Security reviews medical records, applies its rules, and evaluates a person’s ability to work. We know what information the decision makers are looking for because we once performed that work ourselves.
Understanding Medical Evidence
The Social Security Administration’s Adult Listing of Impairments is organized into 14 categories covering body systems and groups of medical disorders:
- Musculoskeletal disorders
- Special senses and speech
- Respiratory disorders
- Cardiovascular disorders
- Digestive disorders
- Genitourinary disorders
- Hematological disorders
- Skin disorders
- Endocrine disorders
- Congenital disorders that affect multiple body systems
- Neurological disorders
- Mental disorders
- Cancer
- Immune system disorders
Each category includes many different medical conditions, along with the detailed rules about the symptoms, test results, examination findings, and treatment records Social Security considers when evaluating a disability claim.
Our experts completed extensive training about the medical conditions within these categories and learned how different illnesses and injuries affect the body. More importantly, we learned how the symptoms and limitations caused by those conditions may affect a person’s ability to work.
Medical Knowledge Is Only Part of the Process
A strong disability claim also requires vocational knowledge. Social Security must examine the work you performed during the relevant period and decide whether you can still do that work. If you cannot, Social Security may then consider whether there is other work you could perform despite your medical limitations.
Our vocational training taught us how to examine important details about a person’s work history, including:
- The physical demands of the job
- The mental demands of the job
- The skills the person used
- How the job was actually performed
- How the job is generally performed in the national economy
- Whether the person’s medical limitations would prevent past work
- Whether any skills could transfer to other work
- Whether the person could do any other work even without transferable skills
This analysis can have a major effect on the outcome of a claim. Even strong medical evidence must be connected to specific work-related limitations. A representative should be able to explain not only what medical conditions a person has, but also why those conditions prevent the person from maintaining employment.
A Rare Combination of Medical and Vocational Training
Having both types of training, along with the direct experience in making disability decisions, gives the Disability Advocates team a unique perspective.
We understand how Social Security evaluates a claim from beginning to end. We know how to identify missing evidence, explain important limitations, examine past work, and address whether other work is truly possible.
Experience You Can Trust
Choosing a disability representative is an important decision. You deserve someone who understands the rules, the medical evidence, the vocational issues, and the way Social Security actually makes its decisions.
At Disability Advocates, this is not simply one area of our practice. Working to help deserving people get their Social Security Disability benefits is all that we do. Our specialized training and prior experience inside the disability program allow us to prepare each claim with care, knowledge, and a clear understanding of what Social Security needs to see to get your case approved.
If you are considering applying for disability benefits or need help with a pending claim, Disability Advocates is ready to put that experience to work for you.