If an administrative law judge fails to give the treating physician’s opinion controlling weight in a disability hearing, they must explain why the analysis was rejected, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has ruled. The federal court’s decision remanded a military veteran’s denied disability claim back to the administrative law judge, or ALJ, to explain how much deference the treating physician’s opinion should have received.
“Where an ALJ finds that a treating physician’s opinion does not merit controlling weight, the ALJ must perform a specific analysis to determine how much weight to afford the opinion,” said U.S. District Judge Sue L. Robinson of the District of Delaware. “To that end, the ALJ must consider the treatment relationship, the length of the treatment relationship, the frequency of examinations, the nature and extent of the treatment relationship, supportability of the opinion offered by the medical evidence, consistency of the opinion with the record as a whole, and the specialization of the treating physician.”
