Joan PETRONE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, Defendant-Appellee

I respectfully dissent.

I

As a general rule, disability benefits may be terminated when evidence shows that the disability has ceased. See 42 U.S.C. § 423(f). Prior to 1980, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services employed the “medical improvement” standard to make this determination; under this standard, the Secretary would not find that a disability had ceased unless the claimant’s condition had improved since the last determination of disability. Rhoten v. Bowen, 854 F.2d 667, 668 (4th Cir.1988). In 1980, the Secretary announced that he had abandoned the medical…