Jerome Caiati

Jerome Caiati is a doctor who needs to make a living by examining claimants who have applied for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits. Apparently, for good reason. 

Caiati received the lowest possible rating from ratemds.com, which commented “As a new patient I sat at the office waiting for 3 hours and when I complained I was told he was a good doctor and if I didn't like the wait time I could leave that this was normal.” According to different comments on Vitals.com, Caiati “is a very nasty man and should not practice on a dog; ” and “Waited 2hrs each visit. Cancelled on twice. Would not recommend this practice.” Caiati also received the worst possible rating from yelp.com and healthgrades.com. No wonder he resorted to Groupon! 

My colleagues say that when Caiati does a consultative examination (“CE”), he never opines that a claimant is unable to work. It seems that even the Administrative Law Judges (“ALJ”) are getting fed up with Caiati, and are rejecting his opinion. ALJ Wexler concluded that “It strains credulity that, given the claimant's significant medical history and the positive examination findings for high blood pressure, the claimant would have had absolutely no physical limitations as opined by Dr. Caiati. I just had another case where Caiati’s opinion strains credulity.

I represent a 38 year old bartender, whose feet were amputated after suffering complications from a dissected aortic aneurysm. Nonetheless, Caiati concluded that the claimant would only have a “minimal to mild limitation” standing, walking and climbing. Not surprisingly, ALJ Crawley gave Caiati’s opinion “little weight,” and approved his SSD benefits.