Your doctor can help you win Oklahoma Social Security disability benefits
Disability claimants often want to know if they should ask their doctors to write a letter to Social Security to help them get benefits. Obtaining a letter from your doctor is a good idea, but it is a task best left to your Oklahoma City disability lawyer.
Your doctor’s opinion is very important
Your doctor is the most important medical witness in your Social Security disability case. Your doctor can offer an opinion on your condition that will be very influential. Opinions from treating doctors are entitled to greater weight than opinions from doctors who only examined you once or who reviewed your file, but never treated you. If your doctor’s opinion meets certain requirements, it may even be “controlling,” which means that Social Security will need to accept your doctor’s opinion as correct.
Doctors need guidance to write a useful opinion
Doctors often do not know what information Social Security decision makers are looking for. Without guidance from your Oklahoma City disability lawyer, your doctor is likely to write a letter that does not help and may even hurt your case. Many doctors simply restate facts that Social Security already has in your medical records. Others merely offer an opinion that you are disabled. Letters like these are not very helpful to your case.
Whether you are disabled is a legal decision. It’s up to Social Security decision makers to make the final determination. Your doctor’s opinion that you are disabled does not matter much to Social Security, but your doctor’s opinion about your capabilities and limitations does.
What a report from your doctor should cover
A good letter from your treating doctor should cover:
- Your medical history.
- Your doctor’s findings on examining you.
- Results of your medical tests.
- Your doctor’s diagnosis.
- The prescribed treatment.
- An assessment of how effective the treatment has been.
- Your prognosis (the doctor’s prediction of how much you will recover).
- A description of what you can still do despite your impairment.
Help from a knowledgeable Oklahoma Social Security lawyer
Educating your doctor about how to prepare an opinion letter requires the attention of a skilled Oklahoma Social Security disability lawyer. If you live anywhere in Oklahoma, you are not already represented by a disability lawyer, and you want our evaluation, briefly describe your claim using the form on this page. Or you may contact us by email or phone at:
Oklahoma City disability lawyer
