A CDR is a method through which the Social Security Administration examines your medical impairment(s) to assess whether you still have a debilitating condition that entitles you to disability benefits. The Social Security Administration uses what is known as a Continuing Disability Review to maintain track of the health history of some of its recipients (CDR).
Social Security defines disability as an illness or injury that stops you from working for at least a year. You must file a claims form as soon as you become disabled in order to receive disability benefits. Benefits end once your situation improves to the point that you can return to work. To determine if a condition still disables you, the Social Security Administration (SSA) conducts regular disability reviews, called continuing disability reviews (CDRs).
This article aims to help you understand how CDRs are conducted, how they are scheduled, and what you should do if your benefits cease.
How Do Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) Work?
The SSA will review your impairment information during a CDR. Unless you have a medical condition likely to improve quickly, you must undergo a CDR every three years. In order to prevent SSD benefits from being issued to individuals whose disabling impairment has improved enough to allow them to return to work, the legislation requires the SSA to conduct periodic Continuing Disability Reviews. Upon determining that your condition has stabilized, Social Security will terminate your benefits if you are not disabled or blind.
SSA employs three classifications:
- Medical Improvement is Expected (MIE) – Your evaluation is expected to occur roughly 18 months after you begin receiving benefits. You will be reassessed 6 to 18 months following the start of benefits.
- Medical Improvement Not Expected (MINE) – Your review will take place every seven years. Reviews are usually done every seven years. When your application for compensation is approved, the initial award notice will notify you when to expect your first review.
- Medical Improvement Possible (MIP) – You’ll generally be reviewed every three years. Your case will be reassessed every three years.
Continuity of Disability Reviews: How Long Do They Take?
Whether you receive a brief Disability Update Report or a thorough Continuing Disability Review Report will decide how long the CDR process takes.The SSD is initially eligible since the disability is predicted to continue a year or longer, but after that, improvement is anticipated. If a short-form mailer is sent to you, you will be told whether or not the Social Security Administration will examine all of your covered services.
The completion of this method may take 4–7 months or more. You will need to provide information about your daily activities, medical appointments, and other significant facts, so filling out this form will take time.
- Clinical documents, such as information on recent medical treatment, your doctors’ contact information, and the patient record numbers of the clinics and hospitals where you received care, will be required from you.
- The assessors will ask your healthcare provider about your condition, how it affects you, and the treatment you are receiving.
- They can request that you undergo a clinical evaluation or test, which Social Security will cover. They’ll likewise inquire whether you held a work while collecting SSDI or SSI, and if so, what your pay was.
- The number and timing of disability reviews are determined by Social Security based on their diagnosis of your long-term illness.
Are Your Disability Benefits Secure?
If you receive disability payments, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is required by law to conduct periodic medical examinations to establish if you still fulfill disability social security standards. As a result, if you are eligible for disability benefits, you may receive notice that your case is being reviewed.
A doctor’s visit frequency, medications taken, health improvement, and whether you and your doctor have discussed going back to work are all things the SSA needs to know. The Social Security Disability program will inform you of its choice to perform a medical evaluation or waive it until the next review period based on your answers and the nature of your disabilities. In most cases, this process takes between five and six months.
How are Medical Improvements Evaluated?
Except in extremely few instances where Social Security applies for an exemption and concludes that the client would not or should not have been ruled incapacitated in the first place, the Medical Improvement Review Standard (MIRS) will be used during a CDR.
Social Security will make a “comparison point decision,” comparing your limits at the time of the most recent favorable decision on your claim to your present restrictions.
Social Security may determine that you have had medical improvement related to your ability to work and can return to work. However, if Social Security finds that you are in less discomfort but can still only stand and walk for one hour, your benefits will continue even though your physical condition has improved.
Because it is Social Security’s job to prove your ability to return to work, losing benefits is more complex than gaining them because you are initially responsible for proving your disability. However, disability social security dismissals are possible.
How to Succeed in an Ongoing Disability Review
You will occasionally be the subject of an ongoing disability evaluation if you receive Social Security Administration (SSA) disability benefits. You will still need to pass these reviews to get disability benefits. It doesn’t need to be stressful to pass a CDR. Here are some tips listed below
Tips to Pass a CDR
To protect your right to benefits, follow these guidelines:
- Please fill out the CDR completely, whether it’s the short form or the long form. You may be subjected to a complete inquiry if your answers appear suspect.
- The Social Security Administration expects you to follow all treatment protocols regardless of an impairment that becomes permanent. To preserve your disability benefits, follow your doctor’s treatment plan as closely as possible.
- Find out everything you can about your disability. If your comments do not correspond to the indications of your diagnosis, you may lose your disability social security allowance or have the review procedure shortened.
- Keep regular copies of your records and copies of previous medical records and other documentation on hand.
- Ask your doctor how to get copies of your medical records to show your compliance. Maintain an active relationship with your physician and specialists
Note: You have the right to appeal if you lose your disability benefits as a result of a CDR. You must file an appeal within 60 days of receiving the termination notification. If you file an appeal within ten days, your benefits may be extended until a final decision is made on your case, but you may be required to reimburse the money if the revocation of benefits is sustained.
Here are some reasons why you might lose your benefits:
In the event that you are still considered disabled by the Social Security Administration, your benefits will continue.
You will lose your benefits around two months following the decision if your condition has improved sufficiently to allow you to return to work.
- You may also be losing benefits if Social Security discovers
- You have not followed a doctor-recommended treatment plan that could result in medical improvement.
- When you first claimed disability social security benefits, you provided inaccurate information.
- You are not collaborating with the examiner who is looking into your case.
- You can work because of job training or breakthroughs in medical treatment or vocational technology.
- Your payments may also be terminated if you are already working and your wages exceed the Social Security restrictions for disabled recipients.
- Make copies of the documentation you submit to the SSA every time you go through a continuing disability review.
- Ask your doctor how to get copies of your medical records to show your compliance. Maintain an active relationship with your physician and specialists
Wrapping Up:
The procedure of Continuing Disability Review can be complex and stressful. Decisions about your legal entitlement to government aid should be based on accurate and consistent information, not on fragmentary data that do not accurately reflect the plaintiff’s genuine status.
Without the assistance of a seasoned disability lawyer can make an error that will lose them time and effort and substantial payments. Roeschke Law has focused on disability law, with its principal attorney being one of the nation’s best experts on disability law and process. Our Social Security Disability lawyers are here to help you with your Social Security Disability Case. The laws and regulations that regulate Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) are a complexity of general principles. Don’t settle for anything less than the best legal counsel available.
