Medical Issues in Social Security Disability

Description

An Inside Look at SSA Medical Evaluations

Author Dr. David Morton has personally made more than 50,000 disability determinations for Social Security administration. As a Chief Medical Consultant, he hired, trained, supervised, and evaluated the work of both medical doctors and clinical psychologists.

Dr. Morton reveals in his newest book how the SSA judges your claimants’ medical data. Now you can have at your fingertips reliable guidance on:

• Documenting all essential medical proof elements
• Overcoming frequently-arising claim hurdles
• Guarding against common errors by adjudicators and treating doctors
• Delivering persuasive presentations of impairment

The sophisticated and practical advice in this ground-breaking work is organized by Listing, and all medical terms are defined in lay language. Also in this book:

• Little-known and revealing inside information that helps you take advantage of weaknesses in SSA evaluation and adjudication
• Helpful guidance on what symptoms, signs, and laboratory findings are required to meet a Listing
• Detailed descriptions of documentation challenges faced by both SSA and claimants’ representatives
• Candid assessments of your chances of qualifying your claimant, and what additional factors will help
• Practical advice, based on the author’s 14 years of making disability determinations for SSA, alert you to common errors by representatives
• Over 100 pages on 14 categories of mental disorders provide coverage available nowhere else
• Over 100 medical opinion forms help you efficiently gather medical evidence persuasive to SSA

These insider tips are extraordinary in both detail and number.

REVISION 20 HIGHLIGHTS

This 20th revision of Medical Issues in Social Security Disability adds new sections and updates throughout, including updates to various listing discussions that address evaluations in light of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection. New and updated sections include:

New and Updated

• Chapter 1, §1.16.1.a, §1.16.2, spinal stenosis prevalence and RFC.
• Chapter 1, §1.15.1.a, the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation for relief of back pain.
• Chapter 1, §1.15.2, psychological treatment (“pain reprocessing”) for chronic low back pain.
• Chapter 2, §2.07.1.a, vestibular schwannomas and prognosis after surgery.
• Chapter 4, §4.01.1.b, coronary artery calcium score
• Chapter 4, §4.02.1.a, COVID-19 long term cardiovascular effects.
• Chapter 5, §5.06.1.a, inflammatory bowel disease being accompanied by psychological problems through effect on choroid plexus of brain from inflammatory products of IBD.
• Chapter 7, §7.08.1.a, possible upcoming genetic treatment for hemophilia A and B.
• Chapter 7, §7.08.2, fatigue from idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura.
• Chapter 8, §8.06.1.a, surgical results for hidradenitis suppurativa.
• Chapter 11, §11.14.1.a, Long COVID producing peripheral neuropathy.
• Chapter 11, § 11.09.1.a, the importance of recognizing clinical worsening in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in the absence of new MRI brain inflammatory lesions, because these individuals still have progressive brain atrophy.
• Chapter 11, §11.09.1.a, the cause of multiple sclerosis being strongly associated with the Epstein-Barr virus.
• Chapter 12, §12.02.3, COVID-19 infection evidence for brain damage.
• Chapter 12, §12.02.1.a, the new Lumipulse test to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease that may appear in medical records.
• Chapter 13, §13.24.1.a, § 13.24.2, prostate cancer.
• Chapter 14, §14.02.1.a, discovery of the defective gene that causes most or all of systemic lupus cases.

AND MORE!

ABBREVIATED TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM AND GROWTH IMPAIRMENTS
CHAPTER 2 SPECIAL SENSES AND SPEECH
CHAPTER 3 RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
CHAPTER 4 CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
CHAPTER 5 DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
CHAPTER 6 GENITOURINARY DISORDERS
CHAPTER 7 HEMATOLOGICAL SYSTEM
CHAPTER 8 SKIN DISORDERS
CHAPTER 9 ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
CHAPTER 10 MULTIPLE BODY SYSTEMS
CHAPTER 11 NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS
CHAPTER 12 MENTAL DISORDERS
CHAPTER 13 CANCER (NEOPLASTIC DISEASES – MALIGNANT)
CHAPTER 14 IMMUNE SYSTEM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David A. Morton has degrees in both psychology (B.A.) and medicine (M.D.). For 14 years he was a consultant for Disability Determination for Social Security Administration in Arkansas, and he was the Chief Medical Consultant during the last 8 years of that time. In his capacity of Chief Medical Consultant, he hired, trained, supervised, and evaluated the work of both medical doctors (M.D.’s), and clinical psychologists (Ph.D.’s) in the medical determination of mental disability claims. He also supervised medical disability determinations of physical disorders and personally made more than 50,000 determinations of both physical and mental disorders in both adults and children in every specialty of medicine pertaining to disability. Since 1983, Dr. Morton has authored several books on Social Security disability used by attorneys and the general public.