DCS Carrot And Stick Awards
Although Unum has taken the high road on working through the national pandemic, the company still remains the most egregious insurance company in the U.S. Information reported to me is that Unum is chasing denied claimants for retroactive SSDI overpayments and...
One More Time……..
Over the last twenty or so years I have been writing articles cautioning claimants and insureds from speaking directly on the phone to claims representatives. Unfortunately, I repeatedly get calls from insureds telling me they are speaking with insurance companies on...
Attorneys Are Not Experts In Claims Management!
Over the years I’ve heard, or have been provided with enough misguided advice from attorneys fill volumes. Not surprisingly, some of the inaccurate information involving disability claims management came from attorneys. Due to the fact that the topic of...
The Insurance Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
As we all know it has been quite a realignment change ,,to manage disability claims during these challenging times. The last two weeks I’ve spent most of my time communicating with insurers concerning insureds’ inability to submit forms and other...
COVID-19 Comments
Please see the link at the top of this Home Page. If you have anything you want to say (anonymously), or update us with the situation in your state, please send me an email and I will add it to this page. I think it’s great that people want to share, and stay...
Revisiting Unum’s History – Take A Moment To Read – First Published 2015
PROLOGUE It was told to me very early on that a person’s importance as an Unum employee was indicated by the size of his/her office, and whether or not they were allowed to have a table, one or two chairs and in particular, a vase. This fact was indeed verified...
Insurers Not Functioning Well
I am writing this article to re-emphasize that although insureds are scared and are, in some cases, demanding that the claims process move forward as usual, everyone seems to be biting at the same pickle, including insurers. The United States has not had to go through...
Unum Cautions Against Filing Disability Claims On Phone Menu
I had an opportunity to call a Unum claims handler today and was surprised to listen to a recorded message advising those who want to file claims to discuss it with their employers first. This is consistent with the view that Unum, in particular, will be denying...
MetLife And The Hartford Threatening Insureds During Lock-Down Pandemic
Although I’ve been reporting that most insurance companies are flexible with deadlines, I probably spoke too soon. Today, I’ve reviewed information that suggests both The Hartford and MetLife in particular are still sending out threatening letters with...
COVID-19 Stimulus And Other Important Information – A Must Read
DCS, Inc. has been receiving many calls and emails concerning whether or not the federal stimulus recovery checks will be an “offset” from disability benefits. As always, to ensure accuracy I made inquiries to a few prominent attorneys to solicit their...
Third-Party Paper Chasers – A Conglomerate of Inefficiency
As most of my readers are aware (hopefully…), disability insurers have outsourced most of the functions required to investigate claims, including medical and occupational review, financial review, and “paper chasing.” Notable companies are PMSI,...
MetLife – A “Wacked” Company For Sure
For the last 20 years I’ve always described MetLife as a “bottom feeder” insurance company. My opinion was at first derived from the company’s complete lack of customer service and fair appeal procedures, but recently my opinion is based on...
Hanging In There…. Good News! 3/23/2020
God bless to everyone who has been hanging in there for the past couple of weeks. DCS, Inc. continues to work through may logistic problems with insurers, but please be advised that every claims handler I’ve spoken to has been very helpful and willing to work...
Crisis Update For Insureds – 3/19/2020
Information I have is that most insurance companies have shut their doors and have asked employees to work remotely from home. Although I have still been able to reach, and speak to, claims reps, I’ve had to be persistent with phone calls. Some handlers are only...
No More Answering Service For DCS, Inc.
As most of you are aware DCS, Inc. utilized an answering service to help with the numbers of calls received from readers of the blog. Clients and non-clients have mixed reviews about the value of an answering service, particularly for a disability Consultant. There...
Disasters, Pandemics and Disability Insurers
Quite a few people are contacting me with questions concerning the current coronavirus outbreak. As you all know, I am not a public health official, nor am I a doctor and cannot give anyone specific advice regarding “what do do.” I probably know as much...
Friday Q & A 3/13/2020
Can Unum take money out of my bank account? Not unless you give it permission to. Electronic deposits allow Unum (and other insurers) to put money in, but not take it out. Authorizations to watch are those connected with third-party SSDI Advocates such as Genex,...
Unum Denies Mental Health Claim In Violation of Multi-State Settlement Agreement
Sometimes I get the impression that some of my readers feel I am exaggerating the “bad faith” insurers engage in to create fear and hype about disability claims. While I have said over and over again my motives are to, “provide knowledge at least...
Is There Such A Thing As Privacy For Disability Insureds?
For Americans, lack of personal privacy has been going on for quite some time now. I don’t know if it’s just that people are finally waking up to what they don’t have anymore, or that the environment of disability insurance progressed along with new...
2020 Insurance Surveillance Is Worse Than Ever!
Several insureds called me this past week to fill me in on their experiences with surveillance. One gentleman described surveillance teams following his children for several days in addition to following him. His opinion was that it must be illegal for an insurance...
