- (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.