Coach745 - Update

[Lockdown2020]

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[coach745]

The medical opinion not being discussed & CE - Inadequate Support/Rationale for Weight Given Opinion.

[Lockdown2020]

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[Lockdown2020]

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[coach745]

I didn't know her psychiatrist could have done the mental ce exam at the time. My wife had only seen her psychiatrist  3-4 months when she had the ce exam. That was a long 29 months ago. 

[Just Me]

Most doctors will not perform CE for their patients. The reason is because SSA does not pay much for the exam. The doctor must go by SSA rules if they perform the exam.

[coach745]

I read the ac brief today. Lawyer went in a totally different direction  but it might work. That’s why they’re the experts. He’s going to argue the alj decision isn’t supported by substantial evidence. Alj said my wife could do unskilled work with simple, routine instructions and tasks; make simple work related decisions. The alj has a duty to identify and resolve conflicts between dot data and ve testimony. Ve recommended 6 jobs. 1 job has a reasoning level of 3, 4 jobs have a reasoning level of 2, the last job with a reasoning level of 1 only has 4,000 jobs in the United States. So that job does not have a sufficient job numbers. Lawyer has all the case references from past decisions he’s using to make his points. The brief is 4 pages but I tried to sum it up as quickly as possible.

[Just Me]

Where did you get the 4,000 number? Perhaps that information is located in another reference.

https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1566.htm

[Lockdown2020]

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[coach745]

The ve stated that the level 1 job had 4200 jobs in the United States. The lawyer referenced another decision that stated anything less than 10,000 jobs was to few.  The lawyer basically said the RFC the alj gave my wife she could only handle a job with a level 1 reasoning. The lawyer referenced other cases to knock out the other 5 jobs which were level 2 reasoning or higher.

As the apparent conflict between Claimant’s residual functional capacity and the demands of the stated jobs was not resolved, the ve testimony cannot be considered as substantial evidence.

VE testimony cannot be considered substantial evidence as there are not significant job numbers that exist in the national economy.

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[coach745]

The ve testimony during the hearing was 4200 jobs. It’s also in the alj decision. 20 CFR § 416.966. Isolated jobs that exist in very limited numbers in relatively few locations outside the region the claimant resides is not considered work which exists in the national economy. We are in Louisiana I’m sure there are not many of that job down here.

[Lockdown2020]

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[coach745]

The ALJ went with reasoning level 1 for my wife’s RFC. The ve only named one level 1 job. That job only has 4200 jobs in the whole United States. That’s not a sufficient number of jobs in the national economy. Hopefully this is enough for a remand. Something I never thought of while looking at her case. Hope it can help someone else get a remand in with the same circumstances.

Below are the text of the bottom 3 reasoning levels in DOT:
1-Apply common sense understanding to carry out simple 1 or 2 step instructions. Deal with standardized situations with occasional or no variables in or from these situations encountered on the job.
2-Apply common sense understanding to carry out DETAILED but uninvolved written or oral instructions. Deal with problems involving a few concrete variables in or from standardized situations.
3-Apply commonsense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral or diagrammatic form. Deal with problems involving several concrete variables in or from standardized situations.