The medical source may have prescribed treatment at any time, even in the distant
past. However, you evaluate whether the individual failed to follow the prescribed
treatment only during the relevant claim period from the earliest of the alleged onset
date, potential onset date, or established onset date. If the prescribed treatment
is not relevant to the adjudicative period in the claim, do not make an FTFPT determination.
Do not consider whether the individual failed to follow prescribed treatment prior
to the first possible date of entitlement.
EXAMPLE: On August 2, 2018, an individual files for disability benefits based on an impairment
related to a lower-extremity amputation. The individual is no longer wearing prostheses
that their medical source prescribed in 2016. You determine that the individual meets
all of the other criteria for disability. Even though the individual’s own medical
source prescribed the treatment in the past, and the individual may no longer see
the medical source who prescribed the prosthesis, it meets condition 2.