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  • Physical Disabilities and Impairments, Psychiatric and Mental Disorders, Bipolar, PTSD, Deafness, Blindness, HIV/Aids, Cancer, Epilepsy, Schizophrenia, Depression, Mental Retardation, Cerebral palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Herniated Disk, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Arthritis, Stroke, Seizures, Hepatitis, Heart and Lung disease, Meniere's Disease, Crohn's Disease, Colitis, L.B.S., Myasthenia Gravis, Severe Headaches and Sleep Disorders, Amputation, Vocational Disabilities, MRSA who have wrongfully been denied their benefits.
Home :: FAQ :: Physicians Issues and Answers

What about what a claimant can or cannot do in a competitive work situation?

As a result of the Claimant's impairments, we request our client’s physician to further opine that if the Claimant were placed in a competitive work situation, the Claimant’s functional limitations.  For example how long can the Claimant walk. How many minutes, or city blocks without rest or severe pain, and how long could the claimant sit at one time before needing to get up. We ask how long The Claimant could stand before needing to sit down, walk around, etc., and how long the Claimant could sit at one time without having to get up and finally.  We also ask the physician to evaluate the total time of stand/sit/walk in an 8-hour working day (with normal breaks) as this effects sustained employment situations.  We also ask whether our claimant would need to include periods of walking around during an 8-hour working day and how often that this would happen and at what frequency of that the Claimant (on average) would have to rest before returning to work.  Again, these are important opinions to have in determining whether there are any jobs out there in the national economy that the claimant could reasonably do. It is also important that the responding physician opine whether or not a Claimant would need a job that permitted shifting positions at will from sitting, standing or walking and would or would not sometimes need to take unscheduled breaks during an 8-hour working day, and how often that this would happen and at what frequency and the duration of time that the Claimant (on average) would have to rest before returning to work.

Because there are so few jobs available in the national economy that allow employees to work with restrictive limitations it is also important for a reliable physician to opine that with prolonged sitting, the Claimant's leg(s) need to be elevated and as to how high should the leg(s) be elevated and what percent of an 8 hour work day this restriction would apply.  This is especially important for diabetics with foot problems, people with lower extremity lesions or surgeries that have failed to be cured with surgery or people with failed back syndromes and arthritic knees.

Additionally, if the physician who is so kind as to complete one of our Questionnaires also sets additional postural limitations, or If the reporting physician opined that while engaging in occasional standing/walking, the Claimant would have to use a cane or other assistive device, so much the better for proving the disability case, as the use of a cane denotes a person who has trouble walking up steps and across sandy or uneven surfaces and who cannot walk long distances.  If crutches or two canes are necessary, the claimant’s residual use of his/her hands may be impaired as well further compelling a determination of disability.