Disability hearing—procedures

(a) General. The disability hearing will enable you to introduce evidence and present your views to a disability hearing officer if you are dissatisfied with an initial or revised determination, based on medical factors, that you are not now blind or disabled, as described in § 416.1414(a)(2).

(b) Your procedural rights. We will advise you that you have the following procedural rights in connection with the disability hearing process:

(1) You may request that we assist you in obtaining pertinent evidence for your disability hearing and, if necessary, that we issue a subpoena to compel the production of certain evidence or testimony. We will follow subpoena procedures similar to those described in § 416.1450(d) for the administrative law judge hearing process;

(2) You may have a representative at the hearing appointed under subpart O of this part, or you may represent yourself;

(3) You or your representative may review the evidence in your case file, either on the date of your hearing or at an earlier time at your request, and present additional evidence;

(4) You may present witnesses and question any witnesses at the hearing; and

(5) You may waive your right to appear at the hearing. If you do not appear at the hearing, the disability hearing officer will prepare and issue a written reconsidered determination based on the information in your case file.

(d) Favorable reconsidered determination without a hearing. If the evidence in your case file supports a finding that you are now blind or disabled, either the component that prepares your case for hearing under paragraph (c) or the disability hearing officer will issue a written favorable reconsidered determination, even if a disability hearing has not yet been held.

(e) Opportunity to submit additional evidence after the hearing. At your request, the disability hearing officer may allow up to 15 days after your disability hearing for receipt of evidence which is not available at the hearing, if:

(1) The disability hearing officer determines that the evidence has a direct bearing on the outcome of the hearing; and

(2) The evidence could not have been obtained before the hearing.

(f) Opportunity to review and comment on evidence obtained or developed by us after the hearing. If, for any reason, additional evidence is obtained or developed by us after your disability hearing, and all evidence taken together can be used to support a reconsidered determination that is unfavorable to you with regard to the medical factors of eligibility, we will notify you, in writing, and give you an opportunity to review and comment on the additional evidence. You will be given 10 days from the date you receive our notice to submit your comments (in writing or, in appropriate cases, by telephone), unless there is good cause for granting you additional time, as illustrated by the examples in § 416.1411(b). Your comments will be considered before a reconsidered determination is issued. If you believe that it is necessary to have further opportunity for a hearing with respect to the additional evidence, a supplementary hearing may be scheduled at your request. Otherwise, we will ask for your written comments on the additional evidence, or, in appropriate cases, for your telephone comments.