March
March v. Department of Health & Human Services
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Ronald March appeals the denial of his application for Social Security disability benefits. Reviewing the decision of the administrative law judge (“ALJ”) for substantial evidence and legal error, Tackett v. Apfel, 180 F.3d 1094, 1097 (9th Cir.1999), we affirm.
March argues that the ALJ gave insufficient weight to medical opinions that he suffered from panic attacks and marked limitations in functioning associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”), that it was error to conclude at step three of the five-step evaluation process that none of March’s impairments met or equaled the criteria for presumptive disability listed in Social Security regulations, and that the ALJ erred at step five by relying on the vocational expert’s answer to a hypothetical that did not include limitations imposed by panic attacks.
(1) The ALJ followed Social Security Regulations in giving greater weight to the opinions of the physicians who treated March during his six-week stay at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center treatment program, and who found his PTSD-induced limitations to be moderate, than to the statements of examining and nonexamining physicians who reported more…