SSDI Benefit Reviews and What Recipients Should Expect
You finally qualified for SSDI benefits because a medical condition kept you from working. Receiving notice that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is reviewing your disability can therefore raise an immediate concern: could you lose the benefits you depend on?
SSDI recipients should expect periodic Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs). During a review, SSA may ask for updated information about your health, treatment, daily activities, and work to determine whether you continue to meet its disability requirements. A review does not mean SSA has already decided to stop your benefits.
At Leavitt Meunier Law LLC, we help clients understand SSDI benefit reviews, respond to requests for information, and address decisions that affect their continued eligibility. From our Metairie, Louisiana office, we serve clients throughout New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Hammond, Alexandria, Shreveport, Monroe, Lake Charles, Northshore, Mandeville, Covington, and Madisonville.
SSA Reviews Whether Your Disability Continues
A Continuing Disability Review allows SSA to determine whether you continue to meet its disability requirements. How often SSA reviews your case generally depends on whether medical improvement is expected.
If improvement is expected, SSA normally reviews the condition within six to 18 months after its decision. If improvement is possible, a review is normally scheduled about every three years. If improvement is not expected, SSA normally reviews the case about every seven years.
Your review notice does not by itself mean that SSA believes you are no longer disabled. It means SSA is evaluating whether you continue to satisfy the applicable requirements.
For an adult SSDI recipient, the review generally involves comparing current evidence with the evidence from the most recent favorable medical decision. SSA considers whether medical improvement has occurred and, if so, whether that improvement is related to your ability to work.
SSA May Request Updated Information
SSA may ask you to provide current information about your medical condition and recent treatment. Depending on how your review is conducted, you may receive a Disability Update Report or a more detailed Continuing Disability Review Report.
The information requested may include your doctors and other medical providers, recent treatments, medications, medical tests, changes in your symptoms or limitations, daily activities, and work activities. Accurate and current information helps SSA evaluate how your condition has changed, if at all, since its previous favorable decision.
Some cases undergo a full medical review. During that process, your case may be sent to your state's Disability Determination Services. The examiner may request additional information or forms and, when the existing evidence is insufficient, may arrange a medical examination.
Continuing appropriate treatment can also help create a current medical record showing your symptoms, limitations, and response to treatment.
Medical Improvement Does Not Automatically End Benefits
A finding that your health has improved does not necessarily mean that your SSDI benefits will stop. SSA generally must determine whether there has been medical improvement and whether that improvement is related to your ability to work.
Medical improvement refers to a decrease in the medical severity of the impairment or impairments that were present at the time of your most recent favorable disability decision. SSA bases that determination on changes in symptoms, signs, or laboratory findings.
Even when medical improvement has occurred, the question is also whether it has increased your ability to perform work-related activities. In most cases, SSA must ultimately determine that you are currently able to engage in substantial gainful activity before finding that your disability has ended. Certain exceptions to the medical-improvement rules can apply.
If SSA determines that your disability has ended, you have the right to appeal. Depending on the type and stage of the appeal, you may also be able to request that benefits continue while the medical cessation decision is being challenged. Pay close attention to the instructions and deadlines in your SSA notice.
Preparation Can Make the Review Easier
You do not have to wait until a review begins to keep track of information that may become relevant. Maintaining accurate records can make it easier to respond when SSA asks about your condition and treatment.
Useful steps include:
Keep your medical information current: Maintain up-to-date information on your doctors, treatments, tests, medications, and significant changes in your condition.
Describe your limitations accurately: Make sure your medical providers know about continuing physical or mental limitations that affect your daily activities and ability to work.
Track significant changes: Keep records of new diagnoses, hospitalizations, procedures, treatment changes, or meaningful improvement or worsening.
Respond to SSA requests: Complete requested forms accurately and return them within the stated time.
Keep important notices: Save correspondence from the SSA to maintain a record of requests, decisions, and applicable deadlines.
You should provide an accurate picture of your condition rather than trying to make your health appear better or worse than it is. The purpose of the review is to determine whether you continue to meet SSA's disability requirements based on the available evidence.
Keeping this information organized can also make it easier to address questions about your SSDI benefits if SSA requests additional evidence or reaches a decision you disagree with.
Get Help With an SSDI Benefit Review
A Continuing Disability Review (CDR) notice can be difficult to evaluate on your own. You may not know whether SSA is simply requesting routine information or whether something in your medical record could raise questions about your continued eligibility.
At Leavitt Meunier Law LLC, we can review the notice, your recent medical history, and any changes in your condition or ability to work. If SSA has already determined that your disability has ended, we can also assess the decision and the available options for challenging it. Contact our Social Security Disability attorneys in Metairie, Louisiana, to discuss your SSDI benefit review.