Are you running into roadblocks with your doctor as it relates to asking for disability? In this video and article, disability insurance Attorneys Gregory Dell and Cesar Gavidia discuss how to ask your doctor for disability, how to get your doctors to complete disability insurance documentation, and the importance of keeping your doctors informed of your daily struggles, symptoms, and the limitations that effect the requirements of your job.

GREG DELL: Hi, I’m Greg Dell with attorneys Dell & Schaefer here with Cesar Gavidia. And today’s disability insurance question is, “How do I ask my doctor for disability?” And this is probably, Cesar, one of the most challenging aspects of any disability claim because you know that if you don’t have medical support, you’re never getting approved for disability. That’s the way it goes with any of these disability claims.

So claimants think, oh, I can handle this on my own. This shouldn’t be a problem. And then they get in there with the doctor. And the doctor’s goal is to get a claimant back to work, right? Or at least feel better.

I mean, I shouldn’t say back to work. But they want to make you feel better and return to your normal life, which for most people, it involves having a job. So how does a claim and go about then asking a doctor to approve them for disability or support their claim?

CESAR GAVIDIA: It’s not always easy. And like you said, the doctor’s goal is to try to get you back to work, to try to get you functional, to try to cure you, or to try to alleve your symptoms, your pain, whatever it is. So their mindset isn’t necessarily well, how do I keep this person out of work? How do I keep this person from functioning in everyday life? That’s not usually their objective.

So when you’re seeking your doctor’s support to submit your disability claim or to or to assist you in your disability claim, it’s really imperative for them to understand the struggles you’re going through day-to-day, to understand the symptoms you’re experiencing, to understand the limitations you have, and quite importantly to understand your occupation. Because if they don’t understand what it is that you do, OK, then they may think that what they’re signing off is for Social Security disability or for disability from basically functioning in everyday life.

And that’s not what you’re asking them for. At least, that’s not what you’re asking them for here at this point with his disability insurance policy. You’re asking them to provide their medical opinion regarding your limitations, and how they impact you from doing your job that requires a certain degree of physical functionality or intellectual or mental functionality.

GREG DELL: And so what is the technique that you suggest when someone says, OK, I’m going to see my orthopedic doctor or my neurologist, whatever, my internal medicine doctor. How do I get this doctor to fill out this paperwork?

CESAR GAVIDIA: That’s also a struggle, even sometimes for us. And if you find that your doctor is just completely refusing to assist you in completing these forms– and we’re not asking you– what we’re not asking for is for him to pass it off to his medical assistant or his nurse to complete it because that could be a problem. That could be catastrophic to your disability claim if that’s not properly filled out from them.

But what I often request, or the technique that I would suggest is for the claimant to take the forms in with them, to present them to the doctor while they’re there on their visit– and they’re being paid for that visit, you know? So that they could go– you could have a conversation with them over specifically what’s being asked for on these forms. The more that they understand about what you’re asking for; the more likely they are to cooperate and complete these forms for you.

GREG DELL: And so that’s where I believe we help claimants all the time apply, continue claim, appeal stay, every stage you can think of in a disability claim. And that’s where it’s often easy for a claimant to go into the doctor and say, look, I’m filing for disability, or I’ve been on disability. This is my livelihood. I can’t work because of this medical condition.

And I’m seeing you. And this disability insurance company is not just accepting your medical records. They also want me to submit these attending physician statements. I’m nervous from these companies. They have somewhat of a bad reputation for denying claims.

I hired a professional. He’s an attorney who only deals with these claims. Here’s the form that he– suggestions for things that need to be in this form. Do you agree or disagree with these things? Can you work with me and my attorney to help get this done in the right way?

Because if I get denied, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m not going to help support my family or do anything. So I really need your help. And I hired a consultant. And here’s what they’re suggesting.

CESAR GAVIDIA: Guides are a great idea. And most doctors appreciate them because again, they’re clueless as to what they should be expressing on these forms. And you’ll find that most doctors are going to be willing to cooperate. You just have to kind of lead their hand a little bit so that they understand what they’re completing and what needs to be expressed to the insurance company.

GREG DELL: Right. So a big part of the service that we offer in assisting claimants is to helping the doctors to complete these claim forms– and not just the attending physician statements and the ongoing claim forms, but also educating our clients to then educate the doctors about the importance of properly documenting the medical records so that when the records get submitted to the disability company, it looks strong because your case is only as strong as it looks on paper.

And if the doctors are scratching down a few things because the doctor has a good relationship with the claimant and really knows the claimant, which is a beautiful relationship when the doctor really knows you and doesn’t necessarily have to rely on the chart. But when the chart lacks– and that’s what the disability company is relying on– then the claimant says, I don’t understand, doc. You told me this, this, and that. You know everything.

And now, the disability company is saying I don’t have appropriate medical support. And we go back and look at the records. And we often say, well, it doesn’t say half the things in there that you’re telling us, and that you may have told your doctor. And that’s a common basis for denial that I see all the time.

So if you have a claim with any of the disability insurance carriers, we want to provide you with a free consultation to discuss your claim, let you know how we can help you. Whether you call Cesar, myself, or any of our lawyers, we’re available all over the country to assist you with your claim. It’s a very easy process where you’ll send us a copy of your policy, possibly your denial letter if you’ve been denied.

We’ll review it right away. We’re going to let you know how we can assist you. We’ll tell you about our attorneys fees. And we’re going to make it a very simple process for you.

Another thing you may find helpful is to subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can get regular video updates from us in which we talk about disability insurance-related issues, how-two issues to help you improve your claim, cases that have come out recently from the disability insurance companies all over the country, which really gives you a consistent understanding of what’s going on in the disability insurance world, which is really important if you’re a person who’s relying on staying on claim and needs these disability benefits. So we look forward to the opportunity to speak with you. And we thank you for your time.

If you have questions regarding medical documentation our disability insurance lawyers are available nationwide to provide you with an immediate FREE consultation to discuss your disability insurance claim.