Great Link about What Your Doctor Should Include in a Report for your SSDI Case

Found this website called Survivorship from A to Z, which is awesome. It gives advice on guidelines for 3rd party Function Reports & Letters from friends & Family, as well as the one below, for doctors. (Apparently they expect them to speak Social Security Legalese, too...what's up with that? It's like being in school again, being forced to write papers in MLA or APA formats! Just more confusing perhaps!) Anyways, this kind of breaks it down. Have to show it to my doctors. Left my decision with one of mine the other day, in hopes he'd take a look at it, see how nasty they were, figuratively tearing his letter to shreds and be inspired to tell them what they want to hear, and make it just a little harder for them to deny me next time. After all, if all of us w/CFS who can't work start putting together airtight cases and they have to actually start giving us the benefits we're sick enough to receive, maybe that'll give the CDC/government/whoever a kick in the butt to start funding more resesarch!

Great article.

From:

http://www.survivorshipatoz.org/cancer/articles/what-your-doctor-should-include-in-a-report/

Physicians Statement

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In addition to obtaining your medical records, Disability Determination Services (DDS) will sometimes send a questionnaire to one or more of your doctors for completion.

Since the forms are created by each state, there is no standard. In general, the forms include questions about restrictions in your ability to perform work-related tasks, social functioning, and activities in daily living (transportation, household chores, personal hygiene) -- all information that you also provide.

If you know one is coming, alert the doctor ahead of time. Ask all your medical providers to contact you should they receive an inquiry from Social Security.

Some doctors will permit your input in the completion of the forms.

• Remind the doctor of the definition of disability used by Social Security (instead of their own idea of what a disability may be). See Disability For Purposes of Social Security Benefits.
• Ask the doctor to complete the statement focusing on both:
• How your symptoms keep you from working.
• The affects on your daily living.

If your doctor will agree to it, review the statement before it is sent to DDS. There may be symptoms the doctor didn't include or affects on your work or daily life that aren't included.

See What Your Doctor Should Include In A Report for advice on what should be included in the report and how to get it.

NOTE: If a nurse practitioner is your medical provider, try to get the report signed by a doctor.
Again, from:

http://www.survivorshipatoz.org/cancer/articles/what-your-doctor-should-include-in-a-report/

And here are a couple of more related articles:

http://www.survivorshipatoz.org/cancer/articles/physicians-statement/
http://www.survivorshipatoz.org/cancer/articles/disability-for-purposes-of-social-security-benefits/

I swear, if it drives me to my deathbed, I am going to win these benefits! I will beg for letters, reports, beg borrow or steal to get all my records complete to submit, whatever! I'm getting beyond over jumping through hoops, so it's do or die!