I believe my readers might be mildly surprised at how many insureds just don’t want to make their insurance company mad at them. Actually, I hear this all the time, “Will Unum be mad if me if I do this?”, or, “I don’t want to make my insurance company mad, so I better take their call.” Although this phenomena was bad enough prior to CO_ID, the idea of ticking off people today is exaggerated to the max, and is NOT the best way to handle disability claims.
I call this tendency of insureds and claimants “the give in”, or “complacency” way of doing business. Complying with Unum’s every demand, for example, won’t guarantee benefits. It’s a losing game that starts with “gotcha” and ends with denial.
I take issue with attorneys who advise their clients to “just go ahead and do the field interview” even when the requirement to do so is not in Plan or contract provisions. There are times when it seems to me attorneys allow their clients to do certain things, hinting, “we wouldn’t want the insurance company to do worse to you.”
Although some attorneys might buy into this “do whatever they want you to do” stuff, this Consultant does not. A contract is a legal document that says itself. If an action is not specifically spelled out in Plan or contract provisions, the requirement doesn’t exist. Another example might be requiring insureds to communicate on the phone. There IS no such requirement in any Plan or policy, and the right of the insurance company to require it doesn’t exist.
Insureds who are afraid of making any insurance company angry, have personalized a corporation. Unum, Hartford, Sun Life, Guardian etc. are entities, not humans, and they don’t get angry – ever. Although I say this often enough, I’ll repeat myself, “the only thing insurance companies care about is “how much you are costing them, and when they can get rid of your claim.”
All of the above is reflective in numbers, and finances, economics, financial reserves – objective summations. There is no human behind the objectivity principle to say, “by golly that insured makes me mad!”
Therefore, it seems prudent to conclude that the insurance companies “have got your number.” Claims handlers know you’re scared about losing benefits and will likely do whatever they want, even when it violates the Plan or Policy.
On a slightly different topic, another example is the term “manage employees.” I used to teach on this subject every time I taught a college Business Administration course. “Management” is a thing word. People manage their assets, their money, planners etc., but it should never be associated with people. Poor management constructs fail to realize that “people should not be managed, they are lead.” The importance of good Leadership in a company is invaluable.”
I mention this now because the entity (corporation), always uses people (claims handlers), to be the human fronts for the business. This is why it may seem as though “someone is angry at you”, when in fact it’s really a management “directive” to performance manage their staff.
However, have no fear. To successfully manage a disability claim it is very important to defend policy provisions, abide by them, and forget about the fact you may make the company angry at you. Frankly, I don’t really care about that, and neither should you. Always do what you believe is consistent with policy provisions.
