Managing STD vs. LTD – Very Different
Let’s start the new year off right with another “educational” article concerning the differences between managing STD vs. LTD. Short-Term Disability In the past, most insurers considered STD a mere “shoo-in” and really didn’t...
Top Ten Worst Disability Insurance Companies In 2020
Clearly, Americans saw 2020 as a very difficult year with changes that no one could have expected. However, disability insurance, and the processing of claims continued, and on a much larger scale, stretching resources and financial committments to the hilt. The...
Relationships With Mental Health Providers
<p class="just")In 2020, my own statistics indicate that more mental health practitioners such as psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists were reluctant to support disabilities due to depression, anxiety and other lesser DSM-5 identified illnesses....
Group LTD 101
I’ve just updated a 98 page mini book I wrote entitled Group LTD 101. If anyone is interested, I’m happy to email the writing to you as a reference. The book had been published on my website for many, many years, but i don’t believe it was actually...
Friday Q & A
What is Unum Aspire? I’ve already written an article entitled “ASPIRE to be Great and Go To Disneyland”. You may want to check out more detail using the Home Page Search for the article. Unum’s Aspire program sends specially chosen claims...
Insurance Robber Barons White Paper By Linda Nee 2018
Statistics published by the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) report three out of ten American workers file disability claims before retirement. Of the thousands of disability claims filed in the United States, excluding Social Security, approximately 20%...
Article By Anonymous Former Client
Investigation of Your Claim: Fraud is Not Always the Focus Disability insurance fraud is where a person, alone or in collusion with others, willfully makes a false statement or misrepresentation, or withholds a material fact for the purpose of collecting benefits. ...
Disability Claimant’s Bill of Rights – 2021
As a direct or indirect party to a disability contract involving insurance coverage for disability or income replacement (IDI), you are entitled to generally recognized rights of expectation that the provisions agreed to in the Plan or policy contract are adjudicated...
GROUP LTD POLICY REVIEW WORKSHEET – REVIEW YOUR PLAN!
To begin this year with a more knowledgeable perspective, I put together the template below to guide you when reviewing your Group LTD Plan. This template will be particularly helpful to new claims as well as ongoing claims....
Are You Ready For 2021? – Designing A Successful Game Plan For The New Year
The following are the most common reasons why a group long-term disability claim may be denied by any disability insurer. You aren’t eligible. There are many “eligibility” criteria which must be met in order to meet the provisions of your Plan–you must be in an...
A New Year – A New Mindset
Happy New Year to all readers of Lindanee’s Blog! While DCS, Inc. had a great year in terms of successfully managing claims with continued benefits for the majority of clients, a new outlook moving into 2021 indicates successful claims can be achieved by...
What’s In Store For DCS, Inc. For 2021?
This year has been an extraordinary year for DCS, Inc. and clients. Despite changes in the claims processing procedures of insurers, and an alleged national pandemic, we were able to increase our success rate to 99%, meaning the majority of clients coming on board in...
2020 Recap And Future Outlook for 2021 – Editorial by Linda Nee
Here we are on the precipice of Christmas and a new year, 2021. The year 2020 was indeed a challenge with COVID and the uncertainty that went along with it. From a private disability perspective, many of the internal COVID procedure changes had already been taking...
The Dangers Of Website Portals And Why You Actually Go There
Several years ago, most insurers designed online “website portals” as a solution to communicating with insureds by email/onliine while exercising some sort of privacy tags acceptable to HIPAA. While the idea seemed efficient at the time, website portals...
Are Readers Listening, Or Am I Just A Broken Record?
Several days ago I posted an article about doc-to-doc calls, which is a very important topic for all claimants to consider. I was informed of yet another Unum doc-to-doc call that may not work out well for a claimant because the physician refused to abide by the...
Aristocracy And Using “Self-Blame” To Deny Claims
An issue was brought up with one of my clients last week that reminded me of a topic I don’t think I’ve ever written about. Lloyd’s of London, the ultimate EU royalty insurance company, takes a dim view of obesity, pregnancy, smoking, and in some...
Urgent! Nix To Doc-to-Doc Calls….What Are You Thinking?
The issue of doc-to-doc calls is something I’ve been writing about for over 20 years, including recently in an article about end-of-year unfair claims practices. Still, I’m getting phone calls from non-clients and clients telling me their physicians are...
Reminder – Late Checks Normal For Unum During Holidays
Just wanted to remind everyone that we are coming up on the Christmas holiday season when Unum is known for late benefit checks. Therefore, there is no reason to panic claims have been denied if benefit checks aren’t on time around the holidays. This is the only...
Friday Q & A
I have a Lloyd’s of London disability claim that is taking more than 6 months to do a review. Is this normal for this insurer? Lloyd’s of London insurance is generally considered the “kingship” of disability products that also hefts a large...
The Christmas Grinch – How Insurers Steal Christmas – Sunday Editorial by Linda Nee
While there are so many disability “issues” brewing for year-end 2020, I decided to write my usual Sunday Editorial about investigative actions taken by insureds that potentially can cause claims to be denied for year end profitability. While some of the...
