While Unum isn’t unique among its peers in how it manages claims, in my opinion, it is by far the worst example of fair and equitable claims reviews that I am aware of. Since demutualization in the mid 80’s the company’s claims process has been involved in bad faith scams, and egregious claims practices at various levels. It never changes.
Admittedly, Unum touted a somewhat improved claims process through the Multi-State reassessment process, but attempts to improve public perception by renaming itself from UnumProvident to Unum Group in 2008 has been largely unsuccessful. Unum was and still is an unfair claims reviewer, although other companies, such as Lincoln, are coming up a close second.
Has anyone noticed that Unum is now on a first name basis? CIGNA used to only give first names, which at times was very difficult in trying to get to the right person. Asking the question, “why would Unum now only give the first names of its claims handlers?”, I concluded that if the majority of Unum’s claims staff works at home, disclosing a “whole name” could help insureds locate actual addresses of the claims handlers, or at best locate their FB pages. Apparently, it’s too much information in a world where open disclosure is an issue. Unum is now hiding the last names of its claims handlers. This would seem unfair since insureds and claimants certainly can’t hide their last names.
During COVID Unum actually gave insureds a break and the claims process slowed down, including less surveillance and field visits. From 2020 -2022 Unum actually became a compassionate entity and gave people a break. However, in 2023, all gloves are off. Unum did the same thing shortly after 9/11 and paid the majority of claims. Two years later, 9/11 claims were targeted for denial. Unum doesn’t really change its spots.
The guiding strategy of all disability insurance companies is that money is made by NOT paying claims. And, I’ve written about this many, many times. No insurance company will ever pay the claims that should be paid, and deny the claims that should be denied because they can’t make money that way. In order to be profitable, all disability insurers devise strategies to deny legitimate payable claims over 60% of premium. Disability insurance isn’t profitable doing the right thing.
Therefore, just after the first quarter profitability reporting, it’s pretty obvious that Unum is once again aggressively managing claims. Insureds really need to keep on top of things because this company is an expert on “stacking the deck against insureds.”
