Section 220.45 - [Effective 11/25/2024] Providing evidence of disability(a)General. You are responsible for providing all evidence of the claimed disability and the effect of the disability on your ability to work. You must inform the Board about or submit all evidence known to you that relates to the claimed disability. This duty is ongoing and requires you to disclose any additional related evidence about which you become aware. This duty applies at each level of the administrative review process, including the appeals level, if the evidence relates to the period on or before the date of the hearings officer's decision. The Board will assist you, when necessary, in obtaining the required evidence. At its discretion, the Board will arrange for an examination by a consultant at the expense of the Board as explained in §§ 220.50 and 220.51 .(b)Kind of evidence.(1) You must provide medical evidence proving that you have an impairment(s) and how severe it is during the time you claim to be disabled. The Board will consider only impairment(s) you claim to have or about which the Board receives evidence. Before deciding that you are not disabled, the Board will develop a complete medical history (i.e., evidence from the records of your medical sources) covering at least the preceding 12 months, unless you say that your disability began less than 12 months before you filed an application. The Board will make every reasonable effort to help you in getting medical reports from your own medical sources when you give the Board permission to request them. Every reasonable effort means that the Board will make an initial request and, after 20 days, one follow-up request to your medical source to obtain the medical evidence necessary to make a determination before the Board evaluates medical evidence obtained from another source on a consultative basis. The medical source will have 10 days from the follow-up request to reply (unless experience indicates that a longer period is advisable in a particular case). In order to expedite processing, the Board may order a consultative exam from a non-treating source while awaiting receipt of medical source evidence. If the Board asks you to do so, you must contact the medical sources to help us get the medical reports.(2)Exceptions. Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this section, evidence does not include:(i) Oral or written communications between you and your representative that are subject to the attorney-client privilege, unless you voluntarily disclose the communications to us; or(ii) Your representative's analysis of your claim, unless you or your representative voluntarily disclose it to us. Your representative's "analysis of your claim" means information that is subject to the attorney work product doctrine, but it does not include medical evidence, medical source opinions, or any other factual matter that we may consider in determining whether or not you are entitled to benefits (see paragraph (b)(2)(iv) of this section).(iii) The provisions of paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section apply to communications between you and your non-attorney representative only if the communications would be subject to the attorney-client privilege if your non-attorney representative were an attorney. The provisions of paragraph (b)(2)(ii) of this section apply to the analysis of your claim by your non-attorney representative only if the analysis of your claim would be subject to the attorney work product doctrine if your non-attorney representative were an attorney.(iv) The attorney-client privilege generally protects confidential communications between an attorney and the attorney's client that are related to providing or obtaining legal advice. The attorney work product doctrine generally protects an attorney's analysis, theories, mental impressions, and notes. In the context of your disability claim, neither the attorney-client privilege nor the attorney work product doctrine allows you to withhold factual information, medical source opinions, or other medical evidence that we may consider in determining whether or not you are entitled to benefits. For example, if you tell your representative about the medical sources you have seen, your representative cannot refuse to disclose the identity of those medical sources to us based on the attorney-client privilege. As another example, if your representative asks a medical source to complete an opinion form related to your impairment(s), symptoms, or limitations, your representative cannot withhold the completed opinion form from us based on the attorney work product doctrine. The attorney work product doctrine would not protect the source's opinions on the completed form, regardless of whether or not your representative used the form in an analysis of your claim or made handwritten notes on the face of the report.(c)Your responsibility. You must inform us about or submit all evidence known to you that relates to whether or not you are blind or disabled. When you submit evidence received from another source, you must submit that evidence in its entirety, unless you previously submitted the same evidence to us or we instruct you otherwise. The Board may also ask you to provide evidence about: (2) Your education and training;(3) Your work experience;(4) Your daily activities both before and after the date you say that you became disabled;(5) Your efforts to work; and(6) Any other evidence showing how your impairment(s) affects your ability to work. (In §§ 220.125 through 220.134 , we discuss in more detail the evidence the Board needs when it considers vocational factors.)Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control numbers 3220-0002, 3220-0030, 3220-0106 and 3220-0141