Opinion ID: 724046
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Three Phases of Step Four

Text: 19 Step four of the sequential analysis, at which the ALJ found plaintiff not disabled, is comprised of three phases. In the first phase, the ALJ must evaluate a claimant's physical and mental residual functional capacity (RFC), see SSR 86-8, Soc. Sec. Rep. Serv., Rulings 1983-1991, 423, 427 (West 1992), and in the second phase, he must determine the physical and mental demands of the claimant's past relevant work. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1520(e). In the final phase, the ALJ determines whether the claimant has the ability to meet the job demands found in phase two despite the mental and/or physical limitations found in phase one. See SSR 82-62, Soc. Sec. Rep. Serv., Rulings 1975-1982, 809; Henrie v. United States Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 13 F.3d 359, 361 (10th Cir.1993). At each of these phases, the ALJ must make specific findings. See Henrie, 13 F.3d at 361. 20
21 In determining a claimant's physical abilities, the ALJ should first assess the nature and extent of [the claimant's] physical limitations and then determine [the claimant's] residual functional capacity for work activity on a regular and continuing basis. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1545(b). Here, the ALJ concluded that plaintiff had the physical ability to do a full range of medium work. SSR 83-10 defines full range of work as [a]ll or substantially all occupations existing at an exertional level, and provides that [t]he considerable lifting required for the full range of medium work usually requires frequent bending-stooping ... [f]lexibility of the knees as well as the torso is important for this activity. Soc. Sec. Rep. Serv., Rulings 1983-1991, at 30. 4 Dr. Dandridge, an orthopedic surgeon who examined plaintiff in 1993 at the request of the Secretary, concluded that plaintiff could climb, stoop, kneel, balance, crouch, and crawl only occasionally, commenting that, [a]t this patient's age, flexibility and elasticity of tissues prevent frequency of activities. Tr. at 294. The ALJ credited Dr. Dandridge's opinion, but determined that it did not conflict with a determination that plaintiff could do a full range of medium work. The ALJ reasoned that, because kneeling and crouching are forms of bending, plaintiff's ability to stoop, kneel, and crawl occasionally meant that he could frequently bend-stoop. In her brief on appeal, the Secretary does not even attempt to justify this fallacious reasoning. 22 The ALJ's RFC determination also failed to take into account the physical limitations found by Dr. Combs, plaintiff's treating physician. Although the ALJ stated that he found entirely credible Dr. Combs' opinion that plaintiff would have difficulty loading cargo, pulling down doors and latching them, the ALJ did not include any of these limitations in his determination of plaintiff's RFC. Thus, the RFC finding the ALJ made at the first phase of the step four analysis did not accurately reflect plaintiff's exertional limitations. 5 23 The ALJ also erred in evaluating plaintiff's mental RFC. When there is evidence of a mental impairment that allegedly prevents a claimant from working, the Secretary must follow the procedure for evaluating mental impairments set forth in 20 C.F.R. § 404.1520a and the Listing of Impairments and document the procedure accordingly. Cruse v. United States Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 49 F.3d 614, 617 (10th Cir.1995). Documentation is made by completing a PRT form, which the ALJ must attach to his written decision. [T]he record must contain substantial competent evidence to support the conclusions reached on the PRT form[, and] if the ALJ prepares the form himself, he must 'discuss in his opinion the evidence he considered in reaching the conclusions expressed on the form.'  Id. at 617-18 (quoting Washington, 37 F.3d at 1442). Here, the ALJ repeated in the body of his written opinion the conclusions he reached on the PRT, but he did not relate these conclusions to the evidence. The ALJ also recited his conclusions as to those abilities that are the subject of the Medical Assessment of Ability to Perform Work-Related Activities (Mental) form. Again, however, the ALJ did not relate his conclusions to the evidence, other than to state that they were based on a reasonable understanding of the medical records, Tr. at 31. We note that the ALJ's conclusions as to plaintiff's abilities differed dramatically from Dr. Spray's conclusions; a difference which the ALJ did not explain. 24
25 At the second phase of the step four analysis, the ALJ must make findings regarding the physical and mental demands of the claimant's past relevant work. See Henrie, 13 F.3d at 361. To make the necessary findings, the ALJ must obtain adequate factual information about those work demands which have a bearing on the medically established limitations. SSR 82-62, Soc. Sec. Rep. Serv., Rulings 1975-1982, at 812. When the claimant has a mental impairment, 26 care must be taken to obtain a precise description of the particular job duties which are likely to produce tension and anxiety, e.g., speed, precision, complexity of tasks, independent judgments, working with other people, etc., in order to determine if the claimant's mental impairment is compatible with the performance of such work. 27 Id. Here, the ALJ made no inquiry into, or any findings specifying, the mental demands of plaintiff's past relevant work, either as plaintiff actually performed the work or as it is customarily performed in the national economy. 28 On appeal, the Secretary argues, relying on cases from outside this circuit, that plaintiff bore the responsibility for developing the record as to the demands of his past relevant work. Tenth Circuit law concerning the ALJ's duty of inquiry and factual development is, however, to the contrary. See, e.g., Washington, 37 F.3d at 1442; Henrie, 13 F.3d at 361. Further, the Secretary's own rule dictates that the ALJ make the necessary findings at phases two and three of the step four inquiry. See SSR 82-62, Soc. Sec. Rep. Serv., Rulings 1975-1982, at 813. 29
30 Having failed to complete phase two appropriately, the ALJ was unable to make the necessary findings at phase three about plaintiff's ability to meet the mental demands of his past relevant work despite his mental impairments. The Secretary glosses over the absence of the required ALJ findings, by relying on the testimony of the VE that plaintiff could meet the mental demands of his past relevant work, given the mental limitations found by the ALJ. This practice of delegating to a VE many of the ALJ's fact finding responsibilities at step four appears to be of increasing prevalence and is to be discouraged. 31 At step five of the sequential analysis, an ALJ may relate the claimant's impairments to a VE and then ask the VE whether, in his opinion, there are any jobs in the national economy that the claimant can perform. This approach, which requires the VE to make his own evaluation of the mental and physical demands of various jobs and of the claimant's ability to meet those demands despite the enumerated limitations, is acceptable at step five because the scope of potential jobs is so broad. 32 At step four, however, the scope of jobs is limited to those that qualify as the claimant's past relevant work. Therefore, it is feasible at this step for the ALJ to make specific findings about the mental and physical demands of the jobs at issue and to evaluate the claimant's ability to meet those demands. Requiring the ALJ to make specific findings on the record at each phase of the step four analysis provides for meaningful judicial review. When, as here, the ALJ makes findings only about the claimant's limitations, and the remainder of the step four assessment takes place in the VE's head, we are left with nothing to review. 33 We are not suggesting, as has the Fourth Circuit, see Smith v. Bowen, 837 F.2d 635, 637 (4th Cir.1987), that the ALJ may not rely on VE testimony in making the necessary findings at step four. As SSR 82-62, and SSR 82-61, Soc. Sec. Rep. Serv., Rulings 1975-1982, 836, indicate, a VE may supply information to the ALJ at step four about the demands of the claimant's past relevant work. Id. at 811-12, 838. For example, if the ALJ determines that the claimant's mental impairment affects his ability to concentrate, the ALJ may ask the VE for information about the level of concentration necessary to perform the claimant's past relevant work. The VE's role in supplying vocational information at step four is much more limited than his role at step five, where he is called upon to give his expert opinion about the claimant's ability to perform work in the national economy. Therefore, while the ALJ may rely on information supplied by the VE at step four, the ALJ himself must make the required findings on the record, including his own evaluation of the claimant's ability to perform his past relevant work. 34 Here, the ALJ's error in relying on the VE to give an opinion about plaintiff's ability to do his past relevant work was compounded by the fact that the VE's testimony did not establish that plaintiff could perform his past relevant work as it is generally performed in the national economy. Although the VE initially testified that plaintiff could do his past relevant work, even given the mental limitations found by the ALJ, he later qualified this opinion when questioned by plaintiff's counsel. 35 Specifically, the VE concluded that, in light of plaintiff's successful employment with Roadway Express for twenty-one years, plaintiff's mental impairments would not negatively affect his ability to return to work at Roadway Express, because he would be working with people that he's used to being with as well as supervisors, co-workers, and things like this, [and] it would not be like he's going into a new situation to where he would have new work adjustments to make. Id. at 135. If, however, plaintiff had to change work locations, the VE was of the opinion that his mental impairments would have a negative effect, such that plaintiff would probably be discharged from the job if he could not maintain a certain production level.... It wouldn't mean he couldn't work, it would mean--[h]e wouldn't be able to keep the job. Id. at 137. 36  'A finding that a claimant is able to engage in substantial gainful activity requires more than a simple determination that the claimant can find employment and that he can physically perform certain jobs; it also requires a determination that the claimant can hold whatever job he finds for a significant period of time.'  Washington, 37 F.3d at 1442 (quoting Singletary v. Bowen, 798 F.2d 818, 822 (5th Cir.1986)). Thus, the VE's opinion that plaintiff's mental impairments would negatively impact his ability to hold a job somewhere other than at Roadway Express is significant, because the ALJ specifically found that plaintiff could return to his past relevant work only as it is generally performed in the national economy, not as plaintiff performed it at Roadway Express. The ALJ, however, did not ask the VE whether the customary demands of the occupation of truck driver include meeting a production level. In the absence of evidence that truck drivers are not customarily expected to meet a production level, the VE's testimony cannot constitute substantial evidence supporting the ALJ's conclusion that plaintiff can return to his past relevant work as it is generally performed in the national economy. 37 In sum, the ALJ's analysis at step four was flawed in several respects. In the first phase of the analysis, the ALJ failed to include all plaintiff's exertional limitations in his RFC finding and failed to relate the conclusions he recorded on the PRT about plaintiff's mental RFC to the evidence. In the second phase, the ALJ failed to develop the record on, and to make the required findings about, the mental demands of plaintiff's past relevant work. This failure infected the third phase, where the ALJ abdicated his fact finding and evaluation responsibilities to the VE. This error, in turn, was compounded by the ALJ's failure to elicit sufficient information from the VE to support the ALJ's ultimate conclusion that plaintiff could return to his past relevant work as it is generally performed in the national economy.