What if I am Rejected for Social Security Disability (SSD)?

The accident victim still loses. Most medical examinations from social security doctors find that a person does not qualify for SSD. This result is due, in part, because the Social Security Administration uses a qualifying definition of “disability” that is higher and more difficult than states such as Michigan (Michigan requires car crash victims to meet the threshold requirement of a serious impairment of body function in order to receive money damages from a car accident). Additionally, doctors who perform SSD evaluations tend to be rather conservative. These doctors are evaluating people in regards to the more stringent requirements of long-term disability, and they tend to write medical evaluation reports that minimize the personal injury and likelihood of long-term disability. These reports can then be used by the automobile insurance companies to deny no-fault benefits. The insurance company thus manages to transplant the SSD definition of long-term disability into a Michigan claim where wage loss is supposed to be provided to people who are currently disabled.

Insurance companies win in another way too. Every accident victim that is forced by his or her insurance adjuster to apply for SSD subsequently allows the insurance company to reduce its claim reserves (the money that is kept in conservative investments to pay out to settle claims or lawsuits, such as to people injured in a car accident). For an insurance company, Lower Reserves = Higher Profits.

In Michigan, insurance companies often tell injured policyholders to keep applying and appealing Social Security’s rejections again and again, until some are finally accepted. Then the insurers can shift the responsibility of paying no fault PIP to you.

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