Prosch v. Apfel

• Decision Date: 20 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 99-1666,99-1666
• Citation: 201 F.3d 1010
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2000) Allen R. Prosch, Appellant, v. Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner of Social Security, Appellee. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1010

201 F.3d 1010 (8th Cir. 2000)

Allen R. Prosch, Appellant, v. Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner of Social Security, Appellee.

No. 99-1666

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: October 20, 1999

Filed: February 3, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Before WOLLMAN, Chief Judge, LAY and LOKEN, Circuit Judges.

WOLLMAN, Chief Judge.

Allen Prosch appeals from the district court's¹ judgment affirming the denial of his application for social security disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 401 et seq. We affirm.

I.

Prosch was born on February 4, 1941, and has a college degree in management and marketing. His past relevant work includes that of a multi-punch press machine operator, sheet metal worker, bus driver, and insurance salesperson. Prosch filed the current application for disability insurance benefits on April 18, 1994, alleging an onset disability date of June 1, 1993, which he later amended to February 9, 1991, the date of his 50th birthday. Prosch claimed that he was unable to work because of back pain caused by a series of back injuries and a degenerative back condition.

The Social Security Administration denied Prosch's application initially and again on reconsideration. Prosch then requested and received a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). The ALJ evaluated Prosch's claim according to the five-step sequential analysis prescribed by the social security regulations. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1520(a)-(f); see also Bowen v. Yuckert, 482 U.S. 137, 140-42 (1987) (describing the five-step analysis). The ALJ determined that Prosch was not presently engaged in substantial gainful activity and that he had severe impairments, including low back pain with degenerative disc disease and depression, but that his impairments did not meet the criteria found in the Listing of Impairments. See App. 1, Subpart P, Regulations No. 4. The ALJ further found that although Prosch was unable to perform any of his past relevant work, he possessed the residual functional capacity to perform a limited range of sedentary work.² Therefore, the ALJ, after receiving the testimony of a vocational expert, concluded that Prosch could perform a significant number of jobs in the national economy and thus was not disabled.

The Appeals Council denied Prosch's request for further review, and the ALJ's decision thereby became the final decision of the Commissioner. Prosch then sought review in the district court, which affirmed the Commissioner's decision. On appeal, Prosch contends that: (1) the ALJ failed to grant proper weight to the opinion of his treating physician; and (2) the hypothetical question posed to the vocational expert did not adequately reflect Prosch's physical impairments.

II.

"Our role on review is to determine whether the Commissioner's findings are supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole." Clark v. Apfel, 141 F.3d 1253, 1255 (8th Cir. 1998). Substantial evidence is less than a preponderance, but is enough that a reasonable mind would find it adequate to support the Commissioner's conclusion. See Cox v. Apfel, 160 F.3d 1203, 1206-07 (8th Cir. 1998). In determining whether existing evidence is substantial, we consider "evidence that detracts from the Commissioner's decision as well as evidence that supports it." Warburton v. Apfel, 188 F.3d 1047, 1050 (8th Cir. 1999). "We may not reverse the Commissioner's decision merely because substantial evidence supports a contrary outcome." Id.

A.

We first consider Prosch's contention that the ALJ failed to grant proper weight to the opinion of his treating physician, Dr. Paul Crowe. At the administrative hearing, Prosch submitted a residual functional capacity evaluation performed by Dr. Crowe in which Dr. Crowe opined that Prosch had been unable to perform any form of sedentary work since 1990. This evaluation, if given the controlling weight that Prosch claims was proper, would have required the ALJ to find that Prosch was unable to perform any job in the national economy and therefore was disabled. The ALJ, however, rejected Dr. Crowe's opinion in favor of the evaluations of three other physicians. Prosch contends that the ALJ failed to provide sufficient reasons for doing so and thus erred in rejecting Dr. Crowe's opinion.

The opinion of a treating physician is accorded special deference under the social security regulations. The regulations provide that a treating physician's opinion regarding an applicant's impairment will be granted "controlling weight," provided the opinion is "well-supported by medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques and is not inconsistent with the other substantial evidence in [the] record." 20 C.F.R. § 404.1527(d)(2). Consistent with the regulations, we have stated that a treating physician's opinion is "normally entitled to great weight," Rankin v. Apfel, 195 F.3d 427, 430 (8th Cir. 1999), but we have also cautioned that such an opinion "do[es] not automatically control, since the record must be evaluated as a whole." Bentley v. Shalala, 52 F.3d 784, 785-86 (8th Cir. 1995). Accordingly, we have upheld an ALJ's decision to discount or even disregard the opinion of a treating physician where other medical assessments "are supported by better or more thorough medical evidence," Rogers v. Chater, 118 F.3d 600, 602 (8th Cir. 1997), or where a treating physician renders inconsistent opinions that undermine the credibility of such opinions, see Cruze v. Chater, 85 F.3d 1320, 1324-25 (8th Cir.1996).

Whether the ALJ grants a treating physician's opinion substantial or little weight, the regulations provide that the ALJ must "always give good reasons" for the particular weight given to a treating physician's evaluation. 20 C.F.R § 404.1527(d)(2); see also SSR 96-2p. Prosch contends that the ALJ failed to do so in this case. We disagree, for we believe that the ALJ provided two good reasons for refusing to grant Dr. Crowe's opinion controlling weight.

First, the ALJ found that Dr. Crowe's opinion that Prosch had been disabled since 1990 was suspect in light of an opinion given by Dr. Crowe some three weeks earlier in which he concluded that Prosch had been "totally disabled . . . since May 13, 1976," a conclusion that he apparently reached after reviewing the very same information that formed the basis of his subsequent opinion. In evaluating the reliability of a treating physician's opinion, both the regulations and our case law require the ALJ to consider the opinion in light of the record as a whole. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1527(b)-( c); Bentley, 52 F.3d at 785-86. The ALJ therefore did not err in considering Dr. Crowe's first opinion--that Prosch had been disabled since 1976--in evaluating the reliability of his second opinion--that Prosch had been disabled since 1990. Contrary to Prosch's assertions, this remains so even though Prosch did not offer Dr. Crowe's first assessment in support of his disability claim but rather relied solely on Dr. Crowe's second evaluation. Dr. Crowe's first opinion was part of the record and thus was properly considered by the ALJ in weighing the reliability of Dr. Crowe's subsequent opinion.

Furthermore, we find that, in light of the contents of Dr. Crowe's first opinion, the ALJ did not err in discounting the reliability of Dr. Crowe's subsequent opinion. We have recognized that it is proper for an ALJ to accord a treating physician's opinion less deference when the treating physician offers an additional assessment that undermines the reliability of the opinion relied upon by the claimant. See Cruze, 85 F.3d at 1325 (according a treating physician's opinion less deference where the treating physician offered inconsistent opinions); see also Johnson v. Chater, 87 F.3d 1015, 1018 (8th Cir. 1996). In his first opinion, Dr. Crowe concluded that Prosch had been totally disabled since 1976, a conclusion that is wholly inconsistent with the undisputed evidence that Prosch performed substantial gainful activity, including full-time employment, throughout the 1980s and until 1991. The ALJ was therefore justified in finding that Dr. Crowe's first opinion undermined the reliability of his second opinion, given some three weeks later and apparently based upon the same information that Dr. Crowe relied upon in reaching the first opinion.

Second, the ALJ discounted the reliability of Dr. Crowe's opinion that Prosch had been disabled since 1990 because the ALJ found that Dr. Crowe's evaluation was inconsistent with the medical evaluations of three other physicians. It is well established that an ALJ may grant less weight to a treating physician's opinion when that opinion conflicts with other substantial medical evidence contained within the record. See, e.g., Haggard v. Apfel, 175 F.3d 591, 595 (8th Cir. 1999); Rogers, 118 F.3d 600, 602 (8th Cir. 1997). Moreover, an ALJ may credit other medical evaluations over that of the treating physician when such other assessments "are supported by better or more thorough medical evidence." Rogers, 118 F.3d at 602; see also Pena v. Chater, 76 F.3d 906, 908 (8th Cir. 1996); Ward v. Heckler, 786 F.2d 844, 846-47 (8th Cir. 1986).

Here, Dr. Crowe's opinion conflicted with the medical assessments of every other physician of record, all of whom concluded that Prosch was able to perform work activities beyond those required to perform sedentary work. Dr. Bruce Cameron, who treated Prosch in 1993 for lower back pain and a shoulder injury, found that Prosch was able to work so long as he did not lift more than ten pounds and did not bend, walk, or stand for more than three out of every eight hours. Dr. Paul Yellin, who examined Prosch in February of 1994, similarly found that Prosch was capable of performing a wide range of work activities provided that he did not regularly lift more than twenty-five to thirty pounds. Although...