Petitioner seeks review of a Reconsideration Order of the Adult and Family Services Division terminating his General Assistance (GA) benefits as of May 31,1983. We hold that the record is inadequate for AFSD to evaluate the evidence properly and therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings.
Petitioner has received GA benefits since December, 1981, because of a number of physical and mental difficulties. At the request of AFSD’s medical review team (MRT) he had an evaluation on February 14, 1983, by Dr. Henderson, his treating psychiatrist, who reported that, among other problems, petitioner has a bipolar disorder, cyclic type, and that he was then in a hypomanic state. 1 He expects the disorder to last the rest of petitioner’s life. Henderson stated that petitioner was not then employable; he hoped that, with treatment, petitioner would be stablized sufficiently to be employable within two or three months. MRT, disagreeing with Henderson, found petitioner to be employable. Its analysis emphasized that his other problems appeared to be under control. It did not mention the manic-depressive disorder which was the basis for Henderson’s opinion. AFSD thereafter terminated petitioner’s benefits as of May 31,1983.
At petitioner’s request, AFSD held a hearing on the termination on June 16, 1983. At the hearing, petitioner presented a statement from Henderson indicating that he was not employable for another 60 days because of depression. Petitioner testified that he had mood swings from high to low but that he had been mostly low recently.
The hearings officer issued a final order on July 7, 1983, upholding the termination of petitioner’s benefits. Petitioner then filed a petition for review. After the submission of his brief, AFSD withdrew its order for reconsideration. ORS 183.482(6). On December 19, 1983, it entered a Reconsideration Order again upholding the denial. Petitioner filed an amended petition for review and a supplemental brief; we review only the Reconsideration Order.
*529 AFSD found that petitioner suffers from manic-depressive disorder, that his medical problems have remained essentially the same since 1981, that Henderson in February 1983, anticipated that he would be employable within 60 to 90 days, that Henderson reported in June that petitioner was not employable for 60 days because of depression and that MRT had not reviewed Henderson’s last report. The order also referred to petitioner’s physical problems, which appeared to be under control. It then quoted the MRT determination that there was no specific objective data to support petitioner’s claim of total disability, because he could engage in employment concurrently with his medication. It further held, however, that the benefits did not terminate until after the time when Henderson said in his February report petitioner would probably be stablized. Henderson’s June statement apparently played no role in the analysis.
We have previously noted that a hearings officer must make an independent determination of employability rather than relying on the MRT decision.
Amundson v. AFSD,
There is, however, a more basic problem with the opinion. Whether or not the hearings officer deferred to MRT, he clearly gave its conclusions considerable weight. Yet there is inadequte evidence in the record for him to determine what weight to give MRT’s disagreement with Henderson, claimant’s psychiatrist. MRT consists of three registered nurses and a program specialist. OAR 461-05-230(1). It consults physicians only when there is a “controversial or unusual”
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medical situation. OAR 461-05-230(4). There is no indication that it did so in this case. Petitioner relied on the expertise of a medical doctor; the hearings officer could not know from the record on what expertise — if any — MRT relied. He thus could not evaluate the evidence intelligently, for he could not know if MRT’s opinion was that of a psychiatrist or of a nurse. Weighing MRT’s opinion against that of Henderson is a determination of persuasiveness, but AFSD has not explained that determination nor has it indicated why it believes that there is sufficient evidence in the record to make it.
See Lewis v. Employment Division,
Reversed and remanded for reconsideration.
Notes
A more common term for petitioner’s condition is manic-depression. Hypo-mania is a mild mania.
We note a potential additional problem with the use of the MRT report in this case. MRT’s conclusions are contained in a memorandum from a person who is identified as a registered nurse. There is nothing to show whether she is a member of MRT, nor who the other members are, nor whom they consulted. There is nothing to show what special training, if any, the MRT members have had that qualifies them to make the decisions they make. It is therefore questionable whether the MRT report is “of a type commonly relied upon by reasonably prudent persons in conduct of their serious affairs” and thus admissible under ORS 183.450(1).
See Higley v. Edwards,