Public Health – Disability benefits

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Public Health – Disability benefits

Where a claimant suffered from a variety of medical conditions, including degenerative discs, spinal stenosis, sleep apnea, hypertension, arthritis, atrial fibrillation, and restless leg syndrome, his claim for disability benefits was improperly denied.

“We now reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings. In our view, the ALJ’s methodology was flawed in several respects. The ALJ impermissibly ignored a line of evidence demonstrating the progressive nature of Mr. Scrogham’s degenerative disc disease and arthritis. As a result, the ALJ inappropriately undervalued the opinions of Mr. Scrogham’s treating physicians, whose longitudinal view of Mr. Scrogham’s ailments should have factored prominently into the ALJ’s assessment of his disability status. Second, even if we confined our review of the record to the snapshots of evidence that the ALJ considered, we do not think that this limited evidence builds the required logical bridge to her conclusions. Specifically, the ALJ seems to have misapprehended or at least to have considered only partially some of the evidence about Mr. Scrogham’s daily activities, rehabilitation efforts and physicians’ evaluations.

This lapse affected both the ALJ’s credibility determination and her residual functional capacity assessment. Because the ALJ’s opinion reflects a flawed evaluation of the record evidence, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

Reversed and Remanded.

13-3601 Scrogham v. Colvin

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Pratt, J., Ripple, J.

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