Disability Benefits – Supplemental Security Income

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Nancy J. Thomas v. Carolyn W. Colvin

Case No.: 15-2390

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and KANNE, Circuit Judges

Focus: Disability Benefits – Supplemental Security Income

ALJ improperly omitted ailments from appellants list of impairments and improperly denies appellant request for benefits.

“Thomas also criticizes the ALJ’s failure to grapple with records from Thomas’s physical therapy sessions in his assessment of what the objective medical evidence says about her limitations. Even though a physical therapist is not an acceptable medical source for determining a claimant’s impairments, this evidence may be used to show the severity of an impairment and how it affects a claimant’s ability to function. See 20 C.F.R. § 416.913(d)(1); SSR 06-03p, 2006 WL 2329939, at *2 (Aug. 9, 2006). The second physical therapist’s initial evaluation and a progress note contained detailed discussions of Thomas’s pain and movement limitations, including that Thomas had difficulty with heel and straight leg raises and bending. The ALJ ignored those statements, however, and noted only that “a resulting progress note indicated that the claimant’s complaints of pain were rather vague” and that, “on at least two occasions, the claimant refused to do more than lay [sic] in a prone position, reportedly secondary to ‘pain all over’ and dizziness” (even though these are symptoms associated with fibromyalgia as well, see SRR 12-2p, 2012 WL 3104869, at *3, nn. 9). Although the ALJ was not required to mention every piece of evidence, providing “an accurate and logical bridge” required him to confront the evidence in Thomas’s favor and explain why it was rejected before concluding that her impairments did not impose more than a minimal limitation on her ability to perform basic work tasks. Roddy, 705 F.3d at 636; see Denton v. Astrue, 596 F.3d 419, 425 (7th Cir. 2010); Indoranto v. Barnhart, 374 F.3d 470, 474 (7th Cir. 2004).”

Reversed and Remanded

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