Red Tape Series: 5 Tips for Organizing Disability Paperwork and Appointments

Welcome to the Red Tape Series, where we help you understand important topics about disability insurance and how to cut through the bureaucratic red tape. Today, we will be talking about different tips that will help you keep track of your appointments and paperwork.

Tip 1: The first tip is to make sure you record all deadlines and important dates in your calendar. Whether you use a digital or actual paper calendar, you should always triple-check that you have dates and important information about deadlines or appointments written down. This simple action will ensure you do not miss an important due date or appointment date.

Tip 2: Second, you should keep all medical records. This includes doctor’s office visits, prescriptions, hospital records, and all other medical-related records. You should even keep things that you think may not be important. If in doubt – keep it! When dealing with large bureaucracies such as the Social Security Administration, Veterans Affairs and others, things can sometimes get lost in the system and you never know what they might ask you for throughout the claims or legal process.

Tip 3: In addition to simply keeping medical records, you should also organize them. The most common way to organize medical records is chronologically, but you can customize to what makes the most sense for you (such as by doctor, hospital, appointment type, etc.). Keeping records well organized will help if you ever need to access them.

Tip 4: The fourth tip we would like to share is to keep a correspondence file. The same goes for organizing this information as well as medical records – you should have an ordering or grouping system. A common way of organizing correspondence is to separate them by correspondence from your doctors, your attorney, the Social Security office, and others.

Tip 5: Finally, you should keep all your paperwork in an extremely safe place. We recommend that you store physical papers somewhere that is fireproof and waterproof (e.g., file cabinet or a small locked safe), and electronic records in a protected back-up folder or on a removable jump drive. If you store your records on a jump/thumb drive, be sure to store it in a fireproof/waterproof location. These records are especially important and should be kept where they will not be damaged or lost.

Cutting through procedural red tape often means dealing with large amounts of records and information. Keeping and organizing your records will certainly help you in the long run.

Our Recommended References:

Gathering Medical Records