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A sizeable percentage of social security disability claims and SSI disability claims will involve the claimant having to go to a medical examination, one that is conducted by an independent medical physician and paid for by the social security administration. Typically, these exams are very short and have little influence on the outcome of a case. Just the same, it would be a mistake for a claimant not to go to such an exam if one has been scheduled. What effect will failing to attend a scheduled Social Security medical examination have on your disability claim? To understand this, you must first understand why Social Security disability examiners schedule consultative examinations in the first place. Social Security disability examiners order consultative examinations for a variety of reasons. However, the most common reasons for scheduling consultative examinations are A) a lack of medical treatment, B) a lack of current medical treatment, and C) insufficient medical information in a claimant's records that specifically addresses their disabling condition. What does Social Security consider current with regard to medical treatment notes? Social Security considers any medical information less than three months old to be current. Disability examiners may certainly consider older medical information when making a Social Security disability determination. However, this information is most often considered as part of the claimant's medical history rather than an indicator of the individual’s current condition and functional limitations. Naturally, if a claimant has no medical treatment for their impairment, a disability examiner must obtain some type of “objective” medical information in order to make a decision on a claim. In such instances, this is done by scheduling a consultative examination. Many argue that consultative examinations neither address an individual's impairments nor the functional limitations imposed by their medical or mental condition. And, in fact, "social security doctors" frequently perform consultative examinations that are outside their medical expertise. Recently, I came across an example of this in an article published in my local paper about the Social Security disability process. The article stated that Social Security sent a gentleman with an alleged back impairment to a gynecologist for his consultative examination. This, of course, provides an unsettling answer to the question of whether or not a social security medical exam may actually be helpful to your case. Returning, however, to the question of what will happen if you are scheduled to attend a social security medical exam and do not go, the answer is this: if you do not go to your medical exam and can present a valid reason for missing the appointment, the disability examiner will reschedule the appointment. Valid reasons may possibly include transportation problems, difficulty finding one's way to the doctor's office, illness, or a personal emergency. Typically, a disability examiner will be obliged to reschedule a missed exam for any reason that seems valid. And it is not unusual for a claimant to have an exam rescheduled more than once. However, if exams are repeatedly missed, the examiner has the discretion to actually deny the case for failure to cooperate on the part of the claimant. 
Social Security Disability and SSI Disability Information
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