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How “Unremarkable” Treatment Notes can Sink Your Social Security disability case

A supportive medical opinion can help a disability case enormously. But your doctor’s statement that you cannot work does not stand on its own. Social Security reads it against your doctor’s own treatment notes, the examination findings, your reported activities, and everything else in the file.

Your testimony gets the same treatment. You can testify honestly and convincingly about fatigue, pain, or anxiety, and an administrative law judge can still discount what you said because other parts of the record look inconsistent with it.

A recent Ninth Circuit case, Yandrich v. Bisignano, No. 25-4027 (9th Cir. Aug. 11, 2026), shows both problems in one decision. It is unpublished and nonprecedential, so it does not bind Social Security judges outside the 9th Circuit (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Orgeon and Washington). I am writing about it anyway, because in my opinion the rules it applies are national rules that reach every claim in every state.  Thanks to my colleague Adriana de la Torre who wrote about the Yandrich case on her excellent LinkedIn feed.

A strong opinion can be undermined by routine treatment notes

Mr. Yandrich’s attorney submitted favorable opinions from three treating providers – Dr. Jamito, Dr. Wingate, and PA Bolden. The ALJ found all three unpersuasive: they were inconsistent with the “longitudinal record,” including those same providers’ own “unremarkable treatment notes.” The ALJ then credited the opinions of three other sources, Drs. Sacks, Ahn, and Melamed, as better supported. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.

That sequence is the shape most of these cases take. The claimant’s own treating sources lost out to agency sources who never actually treated him, and what beat them was their own charts.

That should worry anyone with a pending claim. An opinion can look airtight in isolation. A doctor writes that you cannot maintain attendance, cannot stay focused, cannot get along with coworkers, cannot finish a normal workday. This seems compelling.  But you can still lose if the ALJ looks at the treatment notes and asks whether anything in them supports those conclusions. Continue reading →

Skilled Worker With Circulation and Respiratory Problems Considers Disability

Hi.  Last year I had a stint and have been on medication since.  My employer is eliminating my position (a technical, computer related job) in order to force me to retire.  I have circulation issues in my legs and breathing issues and bruise extensively .  Do I have any chance of qualifying for disability?

Jonathan Ginsberg responds:  Here is how I would analyze your situation.  Based on what you have written, I would develop two different theories of disabiltiy. Theory one would ask whether you meet a listing.  If you look at the adult listings, Listing 4.00 (Cardiovascular System) and Listing 3.00 (Respiratory System) would seem to hold the most promise.  If you look at Listing 4.00, there are sublistings for Chronic Venous Insufficiency (4.11) and Peripheral Arterial Disease (4.12).  I would discuss with your cardiologist whether or not your condition rises to listing level.

Similarly, you could look at the sublistings for respiratory problems.  My concern here is that the respiratory listings look to specific breathing tests and the resulting measurements.  My experience has been that breathing issues need to be pretty severe to meet a respiratory listing.

Theory two would be to argue that your functional capacity for work has been so reduced by your multiple medical problems that you would not be able to sustain competitive work as a result of these problems.  Generally, when arguing for disability based on functional capacity, you implicitly acknowledge that your condition does not rise to listing level severity, but you contend that the overall impact of your conditions, side effects of medications, associated fatigue and depression – all taken as a whole – leave you unable to work.

In order to win a functional capacity argument, you will need help from a treating physician who would be willing to go on record (by completing a functional capacity form) about the specific limitations arising from your condtion.

Without knowing anything about the severity of your condition or what the medical records say, I would not be in a position to evaluate your case, but assuming that you have medical support and that your job reliability and attendance would be a problem, I think you would have a reasonable agrument for disability.

One final thought – the Americans With Disabilities Act (the ADA) requires larger employers to make "reasonable accomodations" for individuals with disabilities.  Here, you imply that your employer is not willing to take these steps.    Therefore, it might be worth a call to an employment attorney to evaluate the viability of an ADA claim.

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