This is probably one of the more difficult articles I need to write. I don’t know if it’s the overall effects of CO_ID, or just the normal progression of fear taking over the emotions of those with disability claims. Whatever the reason, I’m finding some insured are letting their emotions get the best of them, with everyone remotely connected to their disability claims.
The truth is, there is nothing to be gained by getting “huffy” with an insurance company, representatives, or anyone else connected with your claim. Although admittedly having a disability claim can cause high levels of anxiety, it is also true that negative attitudes in combination with rants and reaction, do not a successful disability claim make.
To be clear, I understand entirely why claimants are perhaps more reactive to negative emotions, but at the end of the day I identified several phenomena that seems to happen when insureds react negatively toward those who are involved with their claim.
First, insurance representatives document irate/negative insureds as “crazy.” A suspicion, or “red flag” follows the claim throughout the duration, and even if you have a good point consistent with the policy, you will not be listened to, or taken seriously. I’ve actually read claims handler documentation that refers to claimants and insureds as, “out of control”, “in need of mental assistance”, and “difficult to deal with.”
The truth is, in order to have a successful claim, insureds need to know how to “position” claims, and work their way through the system with citations from their Plans or policies that proves insurer wrongdoing. This cannot be accomplished when insureds suddenly get “huffy” and lose their tempers. The loss of credibility happens quickly and is usually permanent.
Although some claimants try to put themselves forward as the “Clarence Darrow” of their own cases”, claims handlers are instructed to ignore specific court case citations and they would be correct. In general, court citations are only important in COURT, and only when used by an Attorney who knows how to use them. It’s really arrogant for insureds to use court case citations found on the Internet in the claims process when they don’t apply there. Most insurers view those who use court cases in the claims process as attempting to control the process and show themselves to be more knowledgeable about the claims process than they really are. It doesn’t work.
Your words to a claims representative are never documented the same way you say them. Even though insurers inform you they are recording phone conversations, they probably aren’t. Why not? Because they don’t want YOU taping them. In fact Unum goes absolutely ballistic when there is even one mention of a claimant recording a phone call.
Some insureds become so angry and frustrated they look for retaliation in the form of “making the insurance company pay for everything they did to me.” Really? I am one of perhaps 5 people who worked with Eliot Spitzer, John Garamendi, the US Department of Labor, and many other regulatory agencies 20 years ago to bring Unum to its knees.
Ultimately, Unum was made to bend its elbow, paid fines, and in 2008 re-branded itself as a worse company than UnumProvident. The insurance industry will never be changed because of what happened with just one claim – your claim. And, one person, or attorney, will not be able to change an entire industry gone bad.
DCS clients are always positioned (by me) to be “the good guys”, happy to comply with reason, congenial, and responsive in ways that makes the average claims handler’s job a lot easier. There is a better way to counter the insurance “oddities” without you becoming the “odd fellow out.”
Bottom line? It does not pay to get huffy with an insurance company. What does pay, is knowing how to deal with the often corrupt systems now in place and working within the claims process to appear as a cooperative player in the chaos. Getting “huffy” gets you nothing.
