San Francisco disability attorney Geri Kahn wrote about her experiences with providing records to Social Security:
Before filing a new initial claim I always order the records and then submit them directly to the Social Security field office immediately after I have filed the claim electronically. I recently was at an interview in one of the field offices in San Francisco and the claims representative told me that he could not accept the records I was submitting because he was only permitted to fax 15 pages to the state agency disability examiner.
Since you need to prove that you are unable to work to win a Social Security disability claim, Social Security often uses disability examiners to get a medical opinion of what a person can and cannot do. Disability examiners use the medical records Social Security provides to make this decision.
Then, Social Security uses the disability examiner’s opinion to decide if your condition(s) make you disabled.
Limiting the number of pages sent to a disability examiner, and to 15 pages no less, is ridiculous.
That is barely a sliver of the amount of information in most cases. It’s like deciding whether an individual is disabled by seeing if they can walk down a hallway.
Fortunately, most cases get a much better review with judges at the hearing level. If you are denied on your initial application, do not give up. Appeal!
via California Social Security Lawyer Blog.
