Medical records play a crucial part in showing whether someone is eligible for Disability Insurance Benefits and Supplemental Security Income. Your records are the primary source used by the Social Security Administration, the state-level Disability Determination Services (DDS), and the SSA Administrative Law Judges to determine whether you are disabled under the SSA’s rules. The SSA does ask claimants to provide any records the claimant may already possess, but claimants do not have the primary responsibility to gather medical records.
The SSA has the duty to gather a claimant’s relevant medical records both under the United States Code and SSA’s own regulations. Once a claimant has given the SSA permission to request medical records, the SSA and DDS will request medical records from the medical providers named by the claimant (such as hospitals, clinics, and mental health professionals). The regulations also require ALJs to work toward clarifying a claimant’s medical records if the records already gathered are too incomplete or deficient to provide a basis for a determination of disability.
Unfortunately, the SSA and DDS are not always able to fully update a claimant’s medical records for a variety of reasons. In those situations, a claimant can gather his or her own medical records and submit them to the SSA and DDS. A claimant who is represented by an attorney does have an easier option: the claimant can have his or her attorney gather and submit the medical records on his or her behalf. Gathering medical records is only one of the many tasks our attorneys perform for our clients; we also provide legal advice to our clients regarding Social Security benefits and we use our experience and education to make compelling legal arguments for our clients to help ensure they receive benefits.
