---
kind: "section"
citation: "20 C.F.R. § 220.115"
title: "20"
number: "220.115"
heading: "Need to follow prescribed treatment."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/20/220.115"
---

# §220.115. Need to follow prescribed treatment.

- (a) **What treatment the claimant must follow.** In order to get a disability annuity, the claimant must follow treatment prescribed by his or her physician if this treatment can restore the claimant's ability to work.
- (b) **When the claimant does not follow prescribed treatment.** If the claimant does not follow the prescribed treatment without a good reason, the Board will find him or her not disabled or, if the claimant is already receiving a disability annuity, the Board will stop paying the annuity.
- (c) **Acceptable reasons for failure to follow prescribed treatment.** The following are examples of a good reason for not following treatment:
  - (1) The specific medical treatment is contrary to the established teaching and tenets of the claimant's religion.
  - (2) The prescribed treatment would be cataract surgery for one eye, when there is an impairment of the other eye resulting in a severe loss of vision and is not subject to improvement through surgery.
  - (3) Surgery was previously performed with unsuccessful results and the same surgery is again being recommended for the same impairment.
  - (4) The treatment because of its magnitude (e.g., open heart surgery), unusual nature (e.g., organ transplant), or other reason is very risky for the claimant.
  - (5) **The treatment involves amputation of an extremity, or a major part of an extremity.**

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 45 U.S.C. 231a; 45 U.S.C. 231f.

### Source

Source: 56 FR 12980, Mar. 28, 1991, unless otherwise noted.