After 8 years, 3 months, 4 hearings, 2 remands from appeals council, I get a letter from odar about possible CE exam, anyone here have any reason why they would want this now so late in the ball game?

Did your original approval paperwork state when you would be reviewed?

I am under the impression that reviews are commonly scheduled for time frames of 3, 5, 7, years or some other time frame based on many factors. I believe age and conditions are some of the determining factors of when reviews are done and the frequency of them.

But, I am just as perplexed as you regarding a letter for a CE exam, without a review first, if I am understanding your post correctly. (Which I did not, so responding again in another post. For some reason my brain was NOT functioning when I read your post)

Hopefully someone with a lot more knowledge and experience will respond to you shortly.

Sorry I could not be of any help.

I went back and looked at a few older posts you made and now realize that I have mis-interpreted your post. MY fault. Sorry.

OK, what I first thought was that it took you 8 plus years to get approved which included 4 hearings and 2 remands.

Now, I am thinking that you are STILL not approved and are being sent for a CE, is this correct?

If so, I think they want an independent doctor to make an assessment to help them make a determination.

Under my current interpretation, a CE makes sense. Wishing you the best.

What concerns me, this person will see me all of 20 minutes, and yet my own doctors who have treating me for years don't mean anything. I follow this forum and others, and I have till yet to see someone subjected to this. It seems like a game, they're looking for some magical word like severe versus mild to moderate. You need a hearing to figure that out.

Your case is way too complex for me to give a full answer, but my guess is that there is some box that is unfilled, some question that is not answered, some small detail that has no answer in your existing medical records. No way of knowing if this would be favorable or unfavorable to you. Read the remand and see exactly why it was sent back and what the ALJ has to decide.