Often, when working on cases with medical evidence, it’s common to come across a situation where the treating doctors don’t think the client is actually disabled. Unfortunately, that is a problem for all of these long-term disability claims. The reason is if your treating doctor doesn’t certify your disability, then no insurance company is going to approve long-term disability benefits. So what are your options if you’re struggling with your treating provider and you’re not getting the care that you feel like you need in order to get better?
What Option to Take
The only option really is to look for another doctor or to sit down with your treating doctor and explain in more detail exactly what you are experiencing physically or mentally. You can even take it one step further by asking your treating doctor for some objective testing. Whether it be a functional capacity evaluation or a neuropsychological exam, there are all kinds of different tests out there that could validate what you are feeling. If you don’t have those validating tests for your doctor to give a qualified opinion, then your doctor’s opinion may not be the right one. You want to make sure that your doctor is giving the best opinion based on the evidence.
Ask for an Objective Test
Perhaps you don’t go in and argue with your treating doctor about whether you’re disabled or not, but maybe you just go in and say, “I would like to get more testing because I don’t feel like I can do this. I don’t feel like I can do that. If an objective test tells me that I can do it and I can do it within the context of this job, then okay. But if the objective test says that I can’t, will you support my claim for disability?” I think almost every doctor at that point would say, “Absolutely. I would support your claim for disability if the objective testing proves that you’re unable to do the main duties of your own occupation,” or the main duties of any occupation. Those are very important opinions to get from your treating doctor. If your treating doctor is not willing to support your claim for disability, then your chances of winning long-term disability are slim to none.
I hope this video has been helpful. If you have any questions, comment in the comment section below, be happy to answer or send me an email. Happy to answer that way too. Thanks.
