Pain Management Support

Monday, August 20th, 2018

I represent a 58 year old former security officer with hip, shoulder and back impairments, whose Social Security Disability (“SSD”) application was approved without a hearing. What distinguished this case from the countless other SSD applications based on orthopedic impairments is the support from pain management physicians.

The claimant had seen more than one pain management specialist, whose treatment records were provided. Just as importantly, we submitted reports detailing the claimant’s functionality. Those records and reports objectified the effects of the claimant’s pain.

The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) views the opinions of treating physicians with skeptically, which is why the SSA withdrew the rule that gave the opinions of treating physicians greater weight than the SSA doctors. I had numerous Administrative Law Judges (“ALJ’s”) and SSA medical experts tell me that they do not care what treating doctors say because they will say anything to help their patients. ALJ’s reject SSD applications by asserting claimant’s complaints of pain lack credibility and are inconsistent with the objective medical record.

No medical specialist is in a better position to opine about the effects of a claimant’s subjective complaints of pain than a pain management specialist, which makes it more difficult for the SSA to deny a claim. Moreover, logic dictates that the SSA will find complaints of pain more credible when a claimant sees the need to treat with a pain management specialist.

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