How Functional Capacity Evaluations Impact
Your Disability Insurance Claim
Our last post discussed what to expect during a functional capacity evaluation (“FCE”), as well as the intended purpose of an FCE. Though FCEs can be a useful tool for measuring your abilities, FCEs do not always provide results that are truly indicative of your ability to do your job on a regular, consistent basis. Many courts have recognized the weaknesses and limitations of FCEs in the disability insurance claim context.
Weaknesses and Limitations of FCEs
There are approximately 10 different types of FCEs, each with its own program, measurement methods, and possible evaluative outcomes. Because FCEs can be influenced by many factors, such as physical ability, beliefs, and perceptions, FCEs need to “be interpreted within the subject’s broad personal and environmental context.”[1] Thus, the FCE “process and its administration are only as good as the examiner.”[2]
Disability insurers often stop paying benefits based on FCE results, even when you can’t actually meet the demands of your former job duties on a consistent basis. This is due to an inherent limitation of FCE testing: the FCE can only measure your capacity to do a certain task for a limited amount of time on a certain day. For instance, you may be able to push and pull ten pounds for a few minutes during the FCE, but that doesn’t mean you can do the same task all day, every day.
Another important limitation of FCE testing is how effort is measured. The FCE examiner normally monitors the subject’s heart rate to determine if he or she is putting forth full effort. If your heart rate isn’t high enough, the examiner will say you didn’t try your hardest, so you can probably do more than you demonstrated during the testing. However, there are factors that affect your effort level that can’t be measured by your heart rate alone. For example, heart rate monitoring doesn’t measure the impact of migraine headaches, kidney failure, or other non-exertional limitations (such as interference with attention and concentration due to pain and fatigue).
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