CDR is short for Continuing Disability Reviews. If you’re a disability beneficiary, you should expect to undergo a CDR every three to seven years. But how long does a long-form CDR take?
A long-form continuing disability review can take up to six months to complete. During this period, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will carefully evaluate your eligibility to determine whether you are still entitled to disability benefits or not.
Keep reading below as we discuss how long it takes to complete a long-form CDR in more detail.
What is a Continuing Disability Review?
Applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits can be a complicated process, and once you finally get approved for benefits, you might feel like it’s the last of your worries. But in reality, it really isn’t. Every disability beneficiary is required to undergo a process known as continuing disability review, or CDR.
According to the SSA’s website, during a CDR, the SSA will also review your income, resources, and living arrangements to ensure that you continue to meet the non-medical program requirements. They call this periodic review a redetermination.
A continuing disability review is a reevaluation process to determine whether you continue to be eligible for disability benefits. The SSA is required to conduct a CDR for every disability beneficiary to make sure that they are still eligible for the program(s).
There are two main processes involved during a CDR:
Medical Evaluation
During this process, the SSA will look at your medical records from the last 12 months to make sure that you still fit the medical criteria for disability. The SSA is looking for things like:
- Whether you are following the prescribed treatment
- Whether your condition has improved
- Whether you are regularly seeing your primary care physician
To verify this information, the SSA may also request medical documents or records from your primary care physicians. If the SSA feels that the evidence is conflicting or not enough, it may request that you undergo a consultative exam with an SSA-approved physician. This consultative exam will be at no cost to you.
Redetermination
The medical criteria are just one of the many requirements of the SSDI program. It also has criteria pertaining to the beneficiary’s income, living conditions, assets, etc. So, while the SSA will surely look at your medical records during the CDR, it will also look at other technical details, such as whether there have been any changes in your income, living conditions, or assets.
If you are found to be making more than the income limit set by the SSA for SSDI beneficiaries, then your benefits will be terminated. Additionally, if you fail to get back to the SSA with the information that they requested, the SSA also has the right to terminate your benefits.
How Often Do I Have to Undergo a CDR?
Expecting a CDR soon can be frightening, but it shouldn’t be surprising since each and every disability beneficiary must undergo a CDR at some point.
Age and the likelihood of medical improvement are a couple of factors that affect how frequently a beneficiary must go through a CDR. However, in general, the SSA will conduct a CDR once every three to seven years for most beneficiaries.
Disability beneficiaries are divided into three categories:
Medical Improvement Possible
Medical Improvement Expected
If the SSA expects your medical condition to improve, then it may conduct a CDR once every three years. It might also conduct them sooner, like once every two years, based on what the medical evidence suggests.
Medical Improvement Unexpected
If the SSA finds that it is unlikely for your medical condition to improve, then it will only conduct a CDR in your case once every seven years. This is quite common in cases where the medical condition is chronic with no cure, such as blindness, Alzheimer’s, etc.
The SSA also conducts CDRs at different intervals based on age. Of course, with age, medical conditions become more severe and less likely to improve, reducing the frequency of CDRs for applicants aged 50 years or older.
Furthermore, cases with children are reviewed differently, too. There are different criteria based on which children’s disabilities are evaluated.
And if the condition is likely to improve, such as in cases of low birth weight, then the SSA can conduct a CDR as soon as 1 year after disability confirmation. Once a child turns 18 years old, their disability is evaluated based on the disability criteria set for adults. Since the medical determination for children’s cases uses different criteria, you should take into account that additional forms are required to complete the CDR.
Short vs. Long Form CDR
Once the SSA has started your CDR, it will notify you by letter. You should also expect to find a form in the mail that requests information regarding your case, such as details about your medical condition and employment.
There are two kinds of forms, and the one you receive will be based on the circumstances of your case.
Disability Update Report
This is the short form that is sent to the majority of beneficiaries whose conditions are unlikely to improve. The SSA sends this type of form to most adults getting SSDI or SSI benefits.
It mostly asks for details about things like whether your medical condition has seen any improvement, whether there are any changes in your ability to work, whether you’ve been visiting a doctor or hospital for your condition regularly, if you’ve received any kind of education lately, etc.
It is likely that once you’ve submitted this form, the SSA will not require you to provide any further information.
Continuing Disability Review Report
If the SSA finds that there is a high chance that your medical condition will improve, then it will send you the long form. This indicates that the SSA is conducting a full medical review of your case.
In this form, the SSA will ask you for more detailed information about your medical condition, such as whether your condition has seen any improvement, whether you’ve rejoined the workforce since your previous review, and what your day-to-day activities look like.
They will also inquire about any limitations that you experience and ask you to provide details about your visits to the doctor or hospital.
You will also be required to provide the SSA with details about your primary care physician so that your medical records can be requested. The SSA will then conduct a full medical review (FMR) of your disability.
How Long Does a Long Form CDR Take?
A short-form CDR does not take long (only one to three months) because the SSA finds that your medical condition is unlikely to improve and thus does not look into your case in too much detail.
A long-form CDR, on the other hand, requires extensive details about your case. The SSA first asks you to fill out an extensive form that you have up to 30 days to submit. It then contacts your doctor(s) for your medical documents.
The SSA will then conduct a full medical review of your case, where it will look into your medical condition in detail to determine your eligibility for the program. This entire process can take up to three to six months.
The duration of your CDR can be stressful as you wait for the SSA to notify you whether you will continue to receive your benefits or not. Thankfully, there is an appeals process in place that will let you contest the SSA’s decision in case your benefits are terminated (more on this later).
Will I Lose My Benefits After a CDR?
Regardless of whether you receive the long or short-form CDR, you can rest easy because it is highly unlikely that the SSA will terminate your benefits after a CDR.
According to Social Security data, only a small fraction of beneficiaries had their benefits terminated following a CDR (approximately 8% in 2021).
Keep in mind that if you only receive the short form and a reply from the SSA stating that a review is unnecessary, your payments will not be cut off. A long-form CDR (which requires completing the extensive form) is required before Social Security decides to discontinue your benefits.
Those who go through the long-form CDR and children have a slightly higher risk of having their benefits terminated, but really anyone can lose them. Your disability payments may end if, after undergoing a comprehensive medical examination, the claims examiner determines that your health has improved after approval.
However, benefits are terminated in a relatively small number of adult cases, although the exact percentage varies from year to year. In 2013, for example, 13% of individuals had their benefits discontinued following a comprehensive medical evaluation. In 2017, that figure increased to almost 16%; by 2020, it had dropped back down to around 13%.
Those who have had their disability benefits cut off as a result of a review should know that there is still some good news on the horizon. Appeals successfully overturn more than 50% of CDR benefit terminations.
When comparing SSI and SSDI, after a thorough medical examination, significantly more adult SSI recipients than SSDI recipients will have their payments terminated.
The likelihood that a child’s payments will be cut off following a CDR is higher in general.
For instance, 51% of babies who received SSI based on being classified as disabled due to low birth weight had their benefits terminated, and 52% of children who received SSI had their benefits terminated upon reaching the age of 18. In 2021, a total of 22% of all SSI-eligible children had their benefits cut off.
How to Pass a Continuing Disability Review
In the vast majority of cases, continuing to receive benefits after a CDR is way more likely than first being approved for disability benefits. If your disability has not improved to the point where you can return to work, Social Security will finish the evaluation and continue paying you benefits as usual.
The Social Security Administration will inform you that your benefits will end if it determines that your health has improved to the point that you are able to go back to work. In such a case, you have the option of filing an appeal. You have the option to keep receiving benefits even while your appeal is being considered.
Getting routine healthcare and keeping the SSA updated on your medical records is the most effective way to ensure a smooth CDR process.
The SSA will want proof that you are keeping up with your medical appointments, considering any therapies suggested by your doctors, and making progress toward your goal of returning to work.
If you do not provide the Social Security Administration with any medical documents suggesting that you have been receiving treatment, the agency may conclude that your health has significantly improved to the point that you no longer require treatment and may therefore terminate your benefits.
Appealing a CDR Decision
If the SSA terminates your disability benefits because of a CDR, you will only be eligible to receive them for a maximum of two more months unless you appeal the decision. You have sixty days from the day you were notified of the denial to make a request for reconsideration.
In the event that this request for reconsideration is turned down, you will have the opportunity to submit a request for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).
You have the same option to apply for continued benefits while you await the hearing as you do when you submit a request for reconsideration. Your benefits will stop if the ALJ rules against your case, but you can request a hearing with the Appeals Council.
It is important to note that if your appeal is denied, the Social Security Administration will determine whether or not you have been overpaid and may require you to repay the payments. If you need help disputing or obtaining a waiver of this overpayment request, a disability benefits attorney can be of great assistance.
Conclusion
So, although the long-form CDR can take a long, stressful three to six months, you can rest easy knowing that you can always appeal the SSA’s decision if you believe that your benefits were wrongfully terminated. If you are unsure of how to navigate the process, it is recommended that you seek help from an advocate or an experienced attorney to help you through the appeals process.
