How Long Does It Usually Take To Get Social Security Disability After I see Their Medical Examiner?

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

Unfortunately, there is no direct correlation between when a person attends their consultative examination with a Social Security physician and when they get their disability. Consultative examinations are scheduled by disability examiners to get current medical information for a person who either has no medical records, or has older medical records but none that are considered current.

The only other situation that might require a consultative medical examination would be if the disability examiner needed clarification of the severity of an individual’s condition. Generally, consultative examinations that are for clarification purposes are scheduled with a specialist (i.e. neurologist, orthopedist, etc).

Once an individual has gone to their consultative examination, their disability decision will be made shortly thereafter. The disability decision can be an approval or denial, consequently the mere attendance of an examination with a Social Security medical examiner does not mean that an individual is guaranteed their disability benefits.

In fact, the vast majority of disability applicants who attend a consultative examination will be denied disability benefits, simply because most initial disability claims are denied whether the applicant is sent to a consultative examination or not.

The question might be better stated as “How long does it usually take to get a disability decision after I see their medical examiner?” Social Security consultative examination physicians have thirty days to give their report to Social Security. Once the medical examination report is received, the disability examiner can make their medical disability decision.

Remember this decision does not have to be an approval, so it does not mean there is a specific time frame for an individual to get disability after attending one of the examinations.

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SSD and SSI are Federal Programs

The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here:

Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state

Special Section: Disability Lawyers and unnecessary claim denials