social security application

Thanks to my congresswoman's office, I now have (a PDF of) the letter saying that Social Security is denying my application for disability benefits. That is dated June 6th. The only thing that's clear about reasons (beyond that they turn down a lot of people) is that they couldn't reach the psychiatrist I was seeing for three years. However, it took me about three minutes this morning to find a phone number for her at the VA hospital, so I can provide that information.

I sent messages to two attorneys who handle this sort of case in the Boston area, and hope to hear back from one of them in the next day or so.

ETA: One of them has already called me back about an hour ago. He will be sending me paperwork so I can designate him as my representative, and other paperwork so he can talk to my doctors. He has an office in Braintree, but when I said I'd rather do a video appointment, he said we could do that or over the telephone, so we will schedule a call or zoom or something.

Also, looking at it again, they not only didn't find Dr. Segal, I don't know whether they talked to my current neurologist. It says they got information from "Mt Auburn neurology" and from one previous neurologist, Dr. Katz.

social security disability: appeal filed

This morning, Rep. Pressley's office sent me a PDF of the denial letter.

With that in hand, I sent messages to two law firms that handle denials of social security disability applications and are in or near Boston.

One of the lawyers called me back at about a quarter of two this afternoon. I talked to him, and then he sent me forms to sign and send back, authorizing him to act on my behalf about my disability claim; giving permission for him to see medical records that would otherwise be protected by HIPAA; and agreeing that if the appeal succeeds, he will be paid a percentage of any back benefits.

Then he called me back, and asked me a bunch of questions about my medications, doctors, and what if anything had changed since I filed the application, and used those to file the appeal online.

So, I can stop worrying about that 60-day deadline.

The next step is that the agency will assign a new examiner. Then they will send me more forms to fill out, and send the lawyer copies of everything because I have designated him as my representative. I figure that part of what I would be paying for is persistence: he won't get discouraged by delays or bad news, and he doesn't have executive function issues to interfere with getting things done. (For unsuccessful appeals, all the can charge is "reasonable" costs, determined by the agency, not the law firm.)