Sequential Evaluation Step 2: Whether an Impairment is “Severe”
The second step of the sequential evaluation process requires the SSA to determine whether your impairment is “severe.” In order to be severe, an impairment must reduce your residual functional capacity (the work you can still do even with your impairment). Therefore, medically determinable impairments are either “non-severe” or “severe.” An experienced Montana disability lawyer can help you determine whether you are entitled to benefits for a medical impairment affecting your ability to work.
Determining whether an impairment is severe eliminates trivial cases involving either:
- No medically determinable impairments, or
- Slight medically determinable impairments that impose only trivial limits on work ability.
When determining whether an impairment decreases your ability to do basic work activity, the SSA must take into account all your subjective symptoms (such as aches and pains or dizziness), as long as they arise from a medically determinable impairment. If the SSA cannot definitively determine whether an impairment affects your ability to do basic work activities, the SSA must go forward to the next step in the sequential evaluation process. In other words, the SSA must decide close cases in favor of finding an impairment to be severe.
Of course, you must be suffering from some medically determinable impairment in order to get past this second step of the evaluation process, no matter how real your complaints may appear to be. However, generally, if you have enough symptoms for a doctor to provide a legitimate diagnosis, you have a medically determinable impairment. In fact, you are seen to have a medically determinable impairment even if doctors do not agree on which of several diagnoses is correct.
If you believe you are entitled to benefits for a medical impairment affecting your ability to work, contact experienced Montana disability lawyers at Bulman Law Associates, P.LL.C.
