Social Security Medical Exam - the purpose

If you apply for social security disability or SSI disability benefits, there is a fairly good chance you will be scheduled to go to a medical exam. Typically, this happens when an individual who applies for disability has not been seen by a doctor in recent weeks or months.

Should you be concerned if you are notified by mail that you will have to go to a social security medical exam? Not at all. Such exams are really only for the purpose of obtaining recent medical evidence that will, in essence, allow the social security administration to close a case, i.e. to make a decision on a claim.

The following article provides information about social security medical exams, but here are a few initial points to keep in mind:

1. The exam will not be conducted by a doctor who works for the social security administration. Instead, it will be conducted by a doctor who has agreed to perform such exams, but, otherwise, is engaged in private practice.

2. The exam will usually last less than thirty minutes, and sometimes as little as ten minutes.

3. The exam will seldom ever provide the basis for either an approval or a denial of a disability case. In most instances, it is simply a procedural formality to go through when an applicant has not been to a doctor recently.


Additional information: Social Security Disability Claims and Medical Exams







For information on Social Security Disability, visit the

Social Security Disability SSI Resource Center