Opinion ID: 2976436
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dr. Bozeman

Text: We now review whether MetLife’s eligibility determination was supported by the evidence. Huffaker contends that she provided MetLife with objective evidence of disability, and refers to three sources: Dr. Thomas, the neurologist; Dr. Bozeman, her family practitioner; and Anita Ferris, the physical therapist. In her argument on appeal that she is disabled under the Plan, however, the documentary evidence that Huffaker relies on from these sources consists of forms submitted to MetLife after MetLife’s February 10, 2005 denial of her internal appeal.3 We decline to consider this evidence, because in our review of MetLife’s decision, we are “strictly limited to a consideration of the information actually considered by the administrator.” Killian v. Healthsource Provident Admin., Inc., 152 F.3d 514, 522 (6th Cir. 1998). MetLife argues that the evidence considered by MetLife prior to its denial of her internal appeal on February 10, 2005, supports its finding that Huffaker was not disabled under the Plan. MetLife argues that Dr. Thomas’s findings do not support a finding of disability, referring to Dr. 3 The medical evidence from Dr. Bozeman consists of a medical information form addressed to the Social Security Administration, dated March 22, 2005. The medical evidence from Dr. Thomas consists of a medical information form supplied by Huffaker’s attorney, dated June 6, 2005. The medical evidence from Anita Ferris consists of a medical information form supplied by Huffaker’s attorney, dated June 8, 2005. -12- Thomas’s physical examination of Huffaker on May 18, 2004, in which she is described as “a wellnourished individual in no apparent distress.” Although Dr. Thomas’s treatment notes mention that the purpose of the consultation was to address Huffaker’s complaints of muscle cramps and pain described as “excruciating,” the medical documentation from Dr. Thomas under consideration by MetLife supports of its finding that she was not disabled. MetLife explains that it failed to accord great weight to Dr. Bozeman’s opinion that Huffaker was disabled because his opinion was “based on Huffaker’s self-reported complaints of pain, nothing more.” MetLife contends that his opinion is not supported by a functional capacity evaluation, and was contradicted by Dr. Bozeman’s findings that Huffaker’s muscle strength was normal in all extremities and that she had full range of motion in all joints, and by the negative results of the battery of tests that she underwent. MetLife did not discredit the findings of Anita Ferris, the physical therapist, on appeal. In Yeager, we observed that “complaints of fatigue and joint pain” are “types of subjective complaints [that] are easy to make, but almost impossible to refute.” Yeager v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 88 F.3d 376, 382 (6th Cir. 1996) (holding that absent any “definite anatomic explanation of [a claimant]’s symptoms,” an administrator’s decision to deny disability benefits due to fibromyalgia was not arbitrary and capricious); cf. Cooper, 486 F.3d at 174 (Sutton, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part) (“[S]ubjective complaints of back pain by themselves do not compel an administrator to grant disability benefits”). MetLife did not arbitrarily refuse to credit Dr. Bozeman’s findings given the inconsistency between Huffaker’s subjective complaints of pain and Dr. Bozeman’s findings of normal muscle strength and range of motion. -13-