How Your Online Health Records Can Bolster Your Disability Case
June 8, 2022
This is one of the most important things to know about getting the Social Security Disability benefits you have rightfully earned: Complete medical records are crucial to winning disability benefits.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) relies on accurate and complete medical records from doctors, clinics and hospitals to determine your medical diagnoses. These records, along with your doctors’ opinions, will form the basis for the SSA’s decision. For more on this see our blog article “The Secret to Winning Your Disability Case.”
These days, collecting information about your doctors, medical visits, and test results has become easier. Most medical providers maintain electronic, online health records using software like MyChart, FollowMyHealth, Salesforce Health Cloud or similar programs.
If you are applying for disability benefits, or appealing a denial of benefits, save your login credentials for your online health records. Doing this helps make sure your disability lawyer and the SSA have complete information about where you have seen the doctor.
Keep in mind that these programs usually will not contain your full medical records, and the SSA or your attorney will likely still need to request them directly from your providers. However, these “unofficial records” can be very helpful in identifying the names of your treating providers, and what tests or procedures you had done.
Nash Disability Law attorney Lawrence Mabes notes, “Clients often call us and when referring to medical records, say something like, ‘You should have all of that.’ Unfortunately, there is no supercomputer giving us that type of access. The only way we will know if one of our clients is treated at a certain place is if they tell us.”
The process of winning the disability benefits you have earned can be frustrating, confusing and difficult, but we’ll fight for your rights. Contact your local Chicagoland Social Security disability lawyers at Nash Disability Law today to discuss your unique situation.