The statistics for Social Security Disability claim applicants is grim; the administration rejects about 70% of them. This means you need to be thorough with your application to raise your chances of success. One way of being thorough is to present medical evidence for your impairment that is timely, acceptable, and sufficient. Here is what these three things mean.
Timely
Social Security makes a decision based on your current medical status. For this to happen, you must submit the most recent medical reports. According to Social Security, a timely record is one issued within the last 90 days. Older records are necessary for disabilities that have lasted more than 90 days, but you must submit the recent medical records too.
They need these records to track the progress of your injury. For example, a bone fracture is a rapidly changing medical condition whose status can greatly change in a matter of a few months. Therefore, what was true for your broken leg two months ago isn't necessarily true today. Compare this with progressive arthritis, which may not change much after one or two months. It's in your best interest to present the most recent medical records you have.
Acceptable
Social Security needs your medical records to come from acceptable sources so that it can authenticate your claim. Social Security can only use other non-medical evidence to gauge the severity of your impairment after using the acceptable sources to confirm its existence. The Social Security website provides a list of these acceptable sources. From the list, it's clear the administration requires information coming from health practitioners using modern medicine (science-based). Therefore, a health record issued by a traditional healer may not suffice.
Sufficient
Lastly, your records should contain enough information for the administration to make an informed and independent decision. Even if the records come from acceptable sources, they may not help you much if they are too brief. For example, a note from your general physician indicating that you have arthritis may be factually correct, but it won't be adequate if that is all it contains. There should be further information indicating when and how the diagnosis was made, the progression of the disease, the treatments you have received, and many other things. The SSA requires all these information to help it ascertain that you really have the impairment indicated, and it is preventing you from doing your normal job.
Follow these guidelines to strengthen your disability claim. Consulting a lawyer like one from Prediletto, Halpin, Scharnikow & Nelson, P.S. before presenting the evidence may help you to verify that you have met all the requirements. Of course, you may appeal if your initial application is rejected.
