Vanessa Ketron's blog

We here at Scott Davis, P.C. have noticed a rather troubling trend with our clients as of late. More and more people are showing up with substance abuse in their medical records (see my post “Your doctor knows more than you Think"). Most people think of substance abuse as just street drugs, but this can include alcohol abuse, and even prescription drug abuse.

In my previous blog post I talked about the difficulty several of our clients have obtaining any kind of medical treatment due to financial difficulties. It can certainly seem as if we as your representative are asking you to pull a rather large rabbit out of your hat by insisting you go see your doctor. Fortunately we have a small bag of tricks to help you out.

I have to admit - having worked for Mr. Davis for the last two years I have learned quite a bit about the medical field, and loads more about the Social Security disability process. I certainly know I haven’t heard it all yet (Kimberly Cole in our office probably has), but not too much surprises me at this point… except - what can end up in a client’s medical records. People don’t realize that a lot of the off-hand remarks they make to a doctor can often end up as part of their permanent record and in some instances could be detrimental to their claim.

One of the toughest questions I have to answer frequently from our clients is “How am I supposed to get medical treatment when I have no insurance, no income, and can’t even pay my bills?” This can be equally frustrating, more so for the client, obviously, but also for us as your representative, because the most crucial support for a Social Security claim is consistent medical treatment. We can receive a glowing letter from a treating physician, but if a person doesn’t have the medical treatment to back it up, he or she can lose a lot of credibility with a judge.