Cynthia Carrillo-Yeras v. Michael Astrue

Cynthia Carillo-Yeras appeals the district court’s decision affirming the Social Security Administration’s denial of her applications for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income. Because the SSA took nearly two years to investigate whether to reopen a favorable determination on one of Carillo-Yeras’s applications, much longer than the presumptive time of six months, 20 C.F.R. §§ 404 .991a(a), 416.1491(a), and because the record does not show that the investigation was “diligently pursued,” id., we reverse.

I. Background

In 1996, Carillo-Yeras fell and fractured her coccyx. The fracture did not heal properly and she underwent surgery to remove a fragment of the bone. She continued to suffer from low back pain after the surgery, which worsened following the birth of her son in 1999. Carillo-Yeras’s doctors treated the pain with prescription painkillers and a muscle relaxant. She received a series of epidural steroid injections and underwent a brief course of physical therapy. In July 2001, after these treatments failed to eliminate her pain, Carillo-Yeras had another surgery. The surgery, a bilateral laminotomy-foraminotomy, appeared to help relieve…