Videotaping IMA

Monday, August 19th, 2019

When applying for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) in New York, Industrial Medicine Associates (“IMA”) has been performing the consultative examinations (“CEs”) for the State agency for many years now. One of the reasons to videotape IMA CEs is to preserve first hand evidence. As an SSD attorney, I advise all of my clients to videotape their CEs for this very reason.

I represent a 23 year old former clerical assistant with rheumatoid arthritis and a knee injury. An administrative law judge (“ALJ”) approved her SSD application today, which would have been denied if the IMA CE had not been videotaped.

The State agency initially denied the claim by disregarding everything the treating specialist concluded, and by having its doctor, Verdella Cincore, claim that the IMA CE report showed the claimant was not disabled.

According to the New York State Department of Health, Cincore is an ob/gyn, who lacks any board certification. The American Board of Medical Specialties also confirmed that there is no physician named Cincore in the United States who is board certified in any field of medicine. Dozens of websites, including Good Samaritan Hospital, Healthgrades, Doximity, Zoddoc, NPI, HIPAASpace, Medcarelist, all state that Cincore holds herself out as an ob/gyn. According to medicinenet.com, “OB is short for obstetrics or for an obstetrician, a physician who delivers babies. GYN is short for gynecology or for a gynecologist, a physician who specializes in treating diseases of the female reproductive organ.” It should be obvious that an ob/gyn is not the appropriate specialist to evaluate the claimant’s impairments, which have absolutely nothing to do with delivering babies or the female reproductive organ.

The IMA doctor diagnosed the claimant with complex regional pain syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and hypothyroidism, which he wrote resulted in “Moderate to marked restrictions with walking, climbing, kneeling, squatting, bending, and prolonged standing.” However, the videotape of the CE revealed the IMA doctor unambiguously stating that the claimant should get disability benefits, and that it would be unreasonable if she did not get SSD benefits. In the absence of that videotape, the ALJ would have stated that the IMA doctor concluded the claimant could perform sedentary work, and would have denied the SSD application.

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