Section 2 of Public Law 98-460 (The Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984) provides a new standard of review for determining whether disability continues. Under this standard, either medical improvement must have occurred or one of several limited exceptions must apply and , in most cases, the beneficiary must currently be able to engage in substantial gainful activity before disability can be found to have ended. One of the exceptions involves situations where “new or improved” diagnostic or evaluative techniques show that the beneficiary is not as disabled as was originally thought. For this exception to apply, the new or improved technique must have become “generally available” since the beneficiary's most recent favorable decision.

This subchapter contains a cumulative list of the medical diagnostic or evaluative techniques (or tests) which have come into use since 1970, which the Social Security Administration (SSA) may use in determining a person's eligibility or continuing eligibility for Social Security disability benefits and/or Supplemental Security Income benefits based on disability. These tests may permit a more accurate evaluation than the clinical findings or test previously used to evaluate severity. This list also provides the dates each technique became generally available.