Comments on: "Failing The Disabled"

Investigation: Disability Benefits System Harbors Culture Of Denying Help To Even The Most Unfit To Work

[molly119]

My husband is waiting for his SS disability hearing(1 year now). He has been denied because of a SS ordered phychiatric test because his doctor put him on anti depressents. He does suffer from depression at times because he was such an active man and now because of 2 major back surgeries and rhuematoid arthritis, he cannot work. He never claimed to be mentally incompetent! However he was found competent enough to work and thus denied. His medical condition and records were not taken into account - just the phychiatrist''s report. Stupid, stupid, stupid! We have claimed bankruptcy, sold my dream house and moved to another state(KY).My husband did his job. He was a hard working man and deserves better. We know a 27 year old woman who was approved the first time she applied. Her diagnosis - fibromyalgia. She jogs, rides horses and goes clubbing with her friends.

[ssadds123]

Yes, the system is broken. I think we''ve established that. The way to fix it is to redo the listings to where you don''t have to be on death''s door to get benefits (or beyond it in some cases). Someone mentioned here that we look at the listings first and then consider other factors. It''s the listings that need an overhaul. Medicine has advanced to the point where if someone was in as bad a shape as the listings, they could sue for malpractice. Not to mention, most doctors don''t keep records to the detail required in the listings. Another needed overhaul is to the quality review. Examiners are not able to allow cases without fear of the dreaded OQP. I don''t care what evidence you have, but if you allow someone, OQP will rake your case over the coals. I had to fight hard to make some of my allowances stick. Sometimes though, you just can''t take that risk. Part of our job performance is rated on our quality. Every OQP return you get counts against you. Anyway, you denials out there have every right to be mad. Don''t hate the examiners though. They aren''t in any position to change things. Most of us want to help you guys, but we just can''t.

[iluvgod7]

I am afraid to post how doctors and others have harmed me. I am also afraid to describe everything that is happening to me because I am afraid Social Security will deny me benefits in my reconsideration phase as every past time I have reported everything that is happening to me, people I report to make things harder on me and my family cannot handle the stress my family is being put through. I am also afraid to discuss because I have reported to many people and no one will provide me with any protective services.

Please anybody out there, please reply to my post and identify that you are responding back to me by saying "YOU ARE REPLYING TO: " iluvgod7 " " and provide me with protective services or direct me to someone so I will be safe and get help with everything that is happening to me.

I also need medical care and I am suffering with life threatening conditions.

I also need help in getting my social security disablility benefits as I am disabled and cannot work and haven''''''''t for years now and I have a wife and a young child.

Everyone, please respond to my " iluvgod7 " post and when I am made safe and protected to report things, I will inform you of everthing that is happening to me which can happen to you. If I can get more voices along with mine, maybe people will listen to and act and protect you, me, and everyone.

Please respond back to me. I want everything that is happening to me to stop and I don''t want anything that is happening to me to happen to you.

[life_writer]

CBS chose to focus on one person, and just a very few flaws within the system. What they didn''t even touch on was the human element. I feel when gathering information on stories of this nature, reporters need to focus on talking to people who will tell the truth, not power players who get paid to hide the truth. I''m not impressed with this report at all. I fought this system for 3 years, lost everything I worked for, nearly lost my kids, tried to take my life because the whole system was just too much to wade through and try to deal with being disabled after working for so long, and felt pressured into giving up a full year of disability for a check which is about one fourth of what I was earning at my job of ten years before I became disabled. After three years of fighting, I just this month received my first monthly check only to learn today that now I''m without health insurance and food benefits because "I make too much money" on disability. I''m supposed to support myself and 2 children on $1,000 a month, plus see my doctor and take 5 expensive medications every month with no insurance. What a joke! When are these human issues going to be addressed instead of the usual spew we''re so used to from the news?

Here''s a real story from a real person fighting the disability system, life, and struggling just to survive another day. Does anyone care to report about that?

http://tinyurl.com/27k8sz

[iluvgod7]

I am afraid to post how doctors and others have harmed me. I am also afraid to describe everything that is happening to me because I am afraid Social Security will deny me benefits in my reconsideration phase as every past time I have reported everything that is happening to me, people I report to make things harder on me and my family cannot handle the stress my family is being put through. I am also afraid to discuss because I have reported to many people and no one will provide me with any protective services.

Please anybody out there, please reply to my post and identify that you are responding back to me by saying "YOU ARE REPLYING TO: " iluvgod7 " " and provide me with protective services or direct me to someone so I will be safe and get help with everything that is happening to me.

I also need medical care and I am suffering with life threatening conditions.

I also need help in getting my social security disablility benefits as I am disabled and cannot work and haven''''t for years now and I have a wife and a young child.

Everyone, please respond to my " iluvgod7 " post and when I am made safe and protected to report things, I will inform you of everthing that is happening to me which can happen to you. If I can get more voices along with mine, maybe people will listen to and act and protect you, me, and everyone.

Please respond back to me. I want everything that is happening to me to stop and I don''''t want anything that is happening to me to happen to you.

[b-easy63]

o b-easy63, you''''re a pinhead. Yes, all the SSA workers go home, make dinner, watch tv and go to bed but we cant sleep because all we can think about is how best to deny a claim and look for loopholes in a persons disability allegations. We have better things to do. The way it works is we actually try to meet the listing frst to approve and go from there. Its not our fault people keep applying for disability that are in reality not in any way disabled. Just looking for the easy way.

Posted by inaccurate at 05:50 PM : Jan 16, 2008


You''ll do whatever it takes to keep your job--no doubt you lose no sleep over it and do not agonize over it at home--that would imply a conscience--with a head so full of yourself and *******--no doubt there is no room in there for empathy or self recriminations--you sure sound like a nice, wonderful, person who would help out anyone who''s down...NOT.

[b-easy63]

Fibromyalgia is hypochrondria, nothing more, nothing less.
Posted by MrKrabs5 at 12:33 PM : Jan 16, 2008

Fibromyalgia is NOT hypochondria. It is the catch all term used to describe indescriminate pain within mucles that can not be traced to disease or maladies of the joints or nerves. In other words--the doctors do not know what causes it and so use it to describe pain that fails a specific diagnosis. I worked in the Pharm , industry for years. Drs are only as good as the drugs the industry invent and diagnosis is only as good as the equipment invented to find locate and study disfunction. This means that 15 years ago, people thought asthma was a hypochondriac''s malady. Certain lukemias and cancers were also thought to be fake diseases as did Sarcardiosis, Histoplasmosis and even mad cow disease, and Lupus.

The sad fact is, many diseases exist that have not been discovered because the equipment and knowledge does not exist to dev. the etiology. Only the truly ignorant would label a malady as hypochondria these days--and even then...a malady exists in the mental health if not in the physiology of a person. Grow up.

[inaccurate]

Also, yes we actually prefer claimants to go to their own doctor when they file for diability. It saves us time to get the claim through and who knows the claimant & all their illnesses better than their own doctor? The reason claimants are sent to the CE doctors in the first place is becasue sometimes these claimants dont have doctors or havent been to the docotr in awhile. We require current evidence which means 3mo or less for us. After all a lot can happen in 3mo. You could feel better or worse. So we require ''current'' evidence. Thats why these people are set up for the exams. How can we make a decision if we dont have any medical records? So yes at times we send people to our doctors. But these doctors are not ''skewed; in their perceptions. They just do the exam and give their report as they find it to be. Then we examine ALL of the claimants medical records. We dont make a decision on just one report. Whether that claimant is denied or approved doesnt really affect that doctor either way.

[inaccurate]

to b-easy63, you''re a pinhead. Yes, all the SSA workers go home, make dinner, watch tv and go to bed but we cant sleep because all we can think about is how best to deny a claim and look for loopholes in a persons disability allegations. We have better things to do. The way it works is we actually try to meet the listing frst to approve and go from there. Its not our fault people keep applying for disability that are in reality not in any way disabled. Just looking for the easy way.

[b-easy63]

We had Bush''''s former Chief of Staff call voting Americans 10 year olds in 2004. What you have done is further promote this sense of contempt for the American public and their government created to insure we remain a society that promotes a minimal level of well-being and fairness instead a free-for-all where only the fittest thrive.

Posted by mgrpa76 at 12:00 PM : Jan 16, 2008

have you or have you helped anyone apply for SS disability? if not, then you don''t actually know what the truth is. Most of the posts are anectdotal--you will have to forgive people and CBS for not writing what you want to hear, but what they may actually have experienced. Not to say there is not another point of view or reasons, but you certainly cannot say you and you alone can vet the truth or even know bias--because to do so would mean you had been the fly on the wall, the tap on every phone and the recipient for every case that was handled--no one has been in that position.