Why You May Enjoy SSA Disability Benefits Despite Your Lapse In Treatment

The Social Security Agency (SSA) has the right to deny your disability benefits claim if you have not been complying with your treatment demands or doctor's instructions. However, there are a few exceptional situations in which the lack of compliance may not hinder your disability benefits application. Here are some of those exceptions.

You Have Tomophobia     

SSA may excuse your failure to comply with medical treatment if you have an extreme fear of the medical treatment, and it is this fear that is keeping you from getting the treatment. However, this shouldn't just be any ordinary fear; it must be extreme fear, such as tomophobia, which is described as an unhealthy fear or anxiety occasioned by an upcoming medical intervention or surgery. Of course, your doctor will have to confirm the existence and severity of the fear.

You Are Unable to Comply

SSA may also excuse your failure to comply if you are truly unable to comply with the treatment directives, and not that you don't want to comply. There are two main circumstances in which a patient may be unable to comply with medical directives:

Severe Mental Illness

There are several ways in which mental illness may prevent you from complying with your doctor's instructions. For example, your mental illness may make it impossible for you to understand the instructions. Some medical conditions also cause memory problems that may prevent you from recalling your doctor's instructions.

Physical Disability

Physical disability may also make it impossible for you to comply with your doctor's orders. An example is a case where you are required to apply an ointment on an injured part every few hours or so, but you are paralyzed and can't handle the application. 

You Don't Have the Money

Your failure to comply with treatment may also be excused if you are willing to get the treatment and can handle it, but you don't have the requisite funds to pay for it. This may be the case if you have exhausted your savings and medical insurance, and you don't have any other means of paying for the treatment. This is usually the case with expensive medical treatments, such as surgeries.

You Have Conflicting Treatment Instructions

Lastly, SSA may also look past your failure to comply if the failure is occasioned by conflicting instructions you have been getting from different medical officers. This may be the case, for example, if different medical specialists are treating you and one of them has prescribed a drug that the other believes you shouldn't take because it may impair your other treatments.

For more information, contact a lawyer like Scott E. Shaffman Attorney At Law.

Share