How Medical Records are Gathered by Social Security Disability

Generally, Social Security gathers medical records from all of the medical sources an individual provides at the time of their initial disability claim.

Once an individual’s disability claim is sent to the state disability agency responsible for processing Social Security disability claims, the disability agency (known in most states as DDS, or disability determination services) will send out to get copies of the individual’s medical records. The act of doing this--requesting medical records--is known as gathering MER. MER stands for medical evidence of record.

How is evidence requested? The disability examiner who is assigned to a particular case will look at the disability application that has been completed by a claimant and will send a request letter to each doctor, hospital, and clinic that has been provided by the claimant. For this reason, it is crucial to provide a full listing of all medical sources. And, better yet, it is important to include dates of treatment, names of doctors, and names of conditions diagnosed. Ideally, claimants should also provide a list of all tests, labs, and studies (including whether or not xrays, CT scans, or blood work has been done).

What if the individual has had not medical treatment within the last year? The state disability agency will most likely schedule a consultative examination for the individual in an effort to ascertain the individual’s current limitations. Of course, it is better for an individual to have his or her own medical sources (i.e. a regular doctor) and records if at all possible. Reason: it is next to impossible to get a true picture of what limitations an individual’s medical and/or mental impairments may cause in a twenty minute examination (some exams only last 10 minutes) with a physician who is not familiar with the individual’s medical history.

Now are there any other ways for Social Security to gather medical records? Social Security will take medical records from the disability claimant themselves at the time of the initial disability interview or any time during the disability process.

Additionally, if an individual has a disability representative, the representative may also submit questionnaires completed by your treating physicians or submit any other medical records they deem useful to the individual’s disability claim.

Remember you are not obligated to get your medical records, however you are obligated to provide Social Security with the names, addresses, and phone numbers
of all of your treating physicians if possible so that your records can be obtained by Social Security. Having said that, however, claimants who supply their records at the time of application can sometimes get their cases to move significantly faster through the system (the biggest holdup on case processing is waiting for records to come in after they have been ordered).









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