While the Conference has examined the other federal disability programs and believes that these recommendations hold valuable lessons for the agencies administering those programs, these recommendations are addressed solely to the Social Security Administration. There is no doubt that medical personnel can offer valuable assistance in making disability determinations called for by the Social Security Act. Notwithstanding the mixed medical and legal content of the Social Security Act's disability standards, most disability determinations require the resolution of medical issues in one form or another. At the same time, it must be recognized that doctors cannot simply apply their general medical expertise to the work of determining disability under a complex and multi-faceted statutory disability standard. These recommendations are intended to help reconcile the needs of the Social Security Administration disability determination process for medical expertise and the ability of the medical profession to meet those needs.
Medical personnel perform three main functions in current practice.
First, they assist in developing the medical records on which disability decisions are based. Second, they provide medical evidence for the record, including medical findings and opinions relating to an individual claimant's impairments and explanations of other medical evidence already in the record. Third, they participate in making disability decisions at the initial and reconsideration levels based on the record. Each of these functions suggests models for using medical decisionmakers in Social Security disability determinations. The first model would increase the responsibility of medical personnel for compiling all relevant medical evidence.