Background

This transmittal amends chapter I-2-5 of the Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to update procedures relating to vocational experts.

Explanation of Content and Changes

HALLEX I-2-5 is updated as follows:

I-2-5-31 – We changed the title to “Blanket Purchase Agreements – Obtaining Expert Evidence” to more accurately reflect the content of the section. We defined blanket purchase agreement in general terms and made other editorial and formatting changes. We added updated information regarding invoicing that was previously in HALLEX I-2-5-52.

I-2-5-38 – We changed the title to “Scheduling a Medical Expert for Hearing” to more accurately reflect the content of the section. We reformatted the information, titling subsection A “Determining Availability” and incorporating information that was previously missing. We titled subsection B “Notifying ME of Selection” and incorporated information previously in the section. We removed outdated information and made other editorial and formatting changes.

I-2-5-39 – We changed the title to “Obtaining Medical Expert Opinion at Hearing” to more accurately reflect the content of the section. We removed outdated instructions and information that were duplicative of HALLEX I-2-6-70, inserting instead a reference to those instructions. We also moved some of the information to HALLEX I-2-6-70 as the information was more appropriately placed in that section.

I-2-5-48 – We added the regulatory authority for using vocational experts, as well as a reference to Social Security Ruling 00-4p. We made other editorial and formatting changes. We incorporated general information previously in HALLEX I-2-5-52 that was more appropriately included in this section.

I-2-5-52 – We moved general information previously in subsections A, B, and C to HALLEX I-2-5-48 and removed other information that was duplicative of instruction in HALLEX I-2-5-30. We moved information previously in subsection D to subsection A titled “Selecting Vocational Expert (VE) from Regional Office (RO) Roster.” We moved information previously in subsection E to subsection B titled “Selecting a VE Not on RO Roster.” We incorporated information previously in subsection A in subsection C titled “Notifying the Claimant of the Selection.” We made other editorial changes throughout the section.

I-2-5-54 – We changed the title to “Scheduling a Vocational Expert for Hearing” to more accurately reflect the content of the section. We reformatted the information, titling subsection A “Determining Availability” and incorporating information that was previously missing. We titled subsection B “Notifying VE of Selection” and incorporated information previously in the section. We removed outdated information and made other editorial and formatting changes.

I-2-5-55 – We changed the title to “Obtaining Vocational Expert Opinion at Hearing” to more accurately reflect the content of the section. We removed outdated instructions and information that were duplicative of HALLEX I-2-6-74, inserting instead a reference to those instructions. We also moved some of the information to HALLEX I-2-6-74 as the information was more appropriately placed in that section.

I-2-5-61 – We updated the information and made editorial and formatting changes throughout the section.

Date: June 16, 2016