Recording A CE

Regardless of what the medical records reveal, the State agency tells a Social Security Disability (“SSD”) claimant to go for consultative examinations ("CE”). CEs almost invariably contain fraudulent findings. For example, the CE report will say that the claimant had no trouble getting on and off the exam table, when the claimant only sat in a chair. This has been happening for many years.

To guard against fraudulent findings, I advise my clients to video record the CE, which are performed by ­IMA. Because there is no law, rule, or regulation that prohibits a SSD claimant from recording the CE, IMA claims that it is against their policy. However, in IMA offices, they have signs stating that claimants can record their exams, so their “policy” is specious at best. 

I represent a 52 year old former teacher for the deaf whose SSD application was approved by an ALJ today. The State agency had denied the claim on the grounds that the claimant refused to attend the CE. The claimant testified that when the IMA doctor saw the claimant’s spouse recording the exam, the doctor threw a fit, left the exam room, and refused to return. The claimant further testified that she never refused to answer any question or submit to an exam by IMA. If the reports of IMA doctors actually reflected what transpired during their exams, then there would be no reason for IMA’s “policy.”