In order for an SSA approval to have an impact upon a Federal disability retirement application, the Social Security Administration’s decision letter granting benefits must provide a detailed explanation as to the basis for the approval, delineating the medical basis, the medical conditions upon which the decision was made, etc. Thereafter, the applicant can submit the decision letter, but this is where it is important to have an attorney provide the proper legal & foundational argument — to provide the contextual applicability.
The legal basis, to start with, is found in Trevan v. Office of Personnel Management, 69 F.3d 520, 526-27 (Fed. Cir. 1995), in which the Federal Circuit Court found that in making a determination of eligibility for disability retirement, the Board (and thus, by analogy, OPM) must consider an award of SSA disability benefits together with medical evidence provided by the appellant to OPM, and other evidence of disability. This is when an attorney’s tools of “argument by analogy” and pointing out the significant contextual language in an SSA decision letter comes in handy. Next: What if an SSA decision letter is not immediately forthcoming, or does not address the same medical conditions as that applied for in one’s disability retirement application?
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Application, Appeals, and Other Medical Documentation Submitted To the OPM, Federal Disability Judge-Made Decisions Quoted, Important Cases, Legal Updates and/or the Current Process Waiting Time, OPM Disability & SSA Social Security Disability Benefits | Tagged: additional evidence to sustain your fers disability claim, Application, Appeals, and Other Medical Documentation Submitted To the OPM, argument by analogy, attorney for US government employees, being careful with the medical documentation you submit to opm, case law citation in federal disabilities cases, civil service disability, civil service disability retirement, CSRS disability lawyer, disability retirement fers, disability retirement for federal employees, disability retirement laws under FERS & CSRS, documents you should not always submit to the opm, emphasizing quality in submitting opm medical records, federal disability law, federal employee turning over medical evidence to the opm, federal workers disability, FERS disability attorney, FERS disability lawyer, law firm for federal disability retirement, medical condition(s), medical evidence, medical evidence submitted to the opm for disability purposes, nationwide representation of federal employees, nexus between medical disability and job performance, OPM disability application tips, opm disability law firm, OPM disability lawyer, opm medical documents, opm supportive medical documentation, OPM's methodology, postal workers owcp rights attorney, pragmatic methodology, precedent and analogy in opm law legal reasoning, Social Security and OPM disability relationship, statutory requirements in OPM disability law, supporting substantial medical evidence to OPM, the applicant's methodology, the attorney's methodology, the opm must consider a ssa's decision if submitted, Trevan v. Office of Personnel Management, usps medical retirement, when to use a SSA disability decision, wyoming opm federal disability retirement |
OPM Disability Retirement 
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