Evaluation of the work capacity of individuals covered by the Brazilian Social Security System who file for disability benefits and sick leave is the responsibility of the Forensic Medicine Division of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS). Claiming such benefits requires proving the existence of the disease or injury and its repercussions on the individual's capacity to work, in the presence of the individual's coverage by the INSS. This article presents the results of a qualitative survey of a group of 13 physician-reviewers. Their work was studied using ergonomic analytical categories and interviews and self-confrontation techniques. The physician-reviewer decision-making process was studied based on the notion of judgment from the field of Law, with Ronald Dworkin's Legal Hermeneutics as the theoretical framework. Conflicts were found in physician-reviewer activity, resulting from the opposition between the demands by claimants and the normative ordering of the Social Security System. According to the results, physician review presupposes the establishment of an interpretative code consisting of underlying judgmental principles. This interpretative matrix depends uniquely on the physician-reviewer's activity and social insertion. Thus, the decision or review cannot be conceived independently of the political influences of a social practice.
Social Security; forensic medical reports; interpretation; decision; medical work