At the initial stage and Reconsideration, the process is based upon rules and procedures. SS has worked very hard to make sure that their decisions are uniform in every state via the QC process.

Reconsideration is exactly the same as the initial stage, with the only difference being another case worker reviews it. The odds of a case worker making an error and it not being caught by a supervisor or by QC, is very, very low. The small percentage of claimants that are approved during Recon, almost without exception have discovered that not all their medical records were submitted, which they rectify, or the addition of new medical documentation makes the difference.

Your attorney should be able to look at your medical records and determine why you were denied at the initial stage. (Many attorneys won't even sign clients until they've been denied Recon and most won't do much to expedite an approval since their compensation comes from their clients backpay, but let's assume yours will review your file for you.)

There are only a few Listings that are based upon objective tests, which are very predictive: Chronic Respiratory Disorders, statutory blindness and hearing loss are the most notable.

When a case worker has enough medical documentation to award an approval, they stop the process. If you currently had enough medical documentation, your case worker wouldn't be asking if you're going to have more breathing tests performed soon. But, if the case worker didn't believe that an additional test might provide the documentation, they would just deny you and close the case.

It would be a shame for you to narrowly miss an approval and have to wait for an ALJ hearing, or even deal with the long delay of an OTR request.