Disability Claimant’s Bill of Rights
As a direct party, or participant, to a disability contract involving insurance coverage or income replacement, you are entitled to generally recognized rights of expectation that the provisions agreed to in the Plan or policy contract are adjudicated in a fair,...
New White Paper – Managing Personal Phone Interviews
I’ve just updated a White Paper I wrote entitled “Managing Personal Phone Interviews”. I am happy to email it to anyone who makes a Donation in any amount from my website.I will also require a email stating that you will not publish my work...
Don’t Let Questionnaires And Narratives Rattle You
Every insurance company has their own versions of multiple questionnaires and narratives. These requests are NOT an opportunity for insureds to reduce their handwriting and printing to microscopic letters. In fact, while many of the questions on the...
Are You OVER SPEAKING Your Claim? Careful
There are still many insureds who choose to speak to insurance companies on the phone even when doing so is not an insurance claim best practice. Today, for some reason, insureds and claimants seem to “believe” exactly what they are told by insurers even...
The Issue Of SSDI Overpayments
As most ERISA claimants know, LTD group policies contain a provision allowing for the reduction of monthly benefits by any amounts received from SSDI. This means your disability insurer has been allowed by law to use the social security system to “finance” part of...
Just A Surveillance Reminder – Memorial Day
We are roughly two weeks away from Memorial Day, the holiday of picnics at the lake, home barbecues, and road trips. Please remember that insurance companies will be out, looking for those who exceed their medical restrictions and limitations. This is no joke. Please...
The State of Fibromyalgia and Lyme disease Claims Today
Several decades ago, physicians were still prescribing morphine drips for insureds diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Other physicians recommended their patients to “just get up on the treadmill and exercise, and you’ll be fine”. The disease abbreviated,...
Manage Assets NOT People – Thought For The Day
One of the most profound lessons I learned in my early career came from an Assistant Professor teaching Introduction to Business at a two-year business college. As the Dean of Faculty, I was auditing/reviewing one of his courses, and I’m glad I did. The lecture...
As The Saga Continues “What Do I Do Now?”
“After maximum duration” claims continue to call DCS looking for answers as to what to do for income when claims end at 65/67. Actually, a few of the stories are pretty tragic, and my heart goes out to those who will be left with nearly half, or nothing,...
What Is Your Plan B?
Whenever I start writing about “planning” my readers tend to throw rocks at me. I get it, planning ahead is not something people necessarily want to talk about. Although I was writing about having a Plan B many years ago, the absolute urgency of doing it...
Unum Claim Alert!
Although I’ve been informing the public about the inefficiency of the insurance industry, Unum remains an excellent example of the “goof ups” that occur. In the last two weeks I’ve received many calls about Unum sending out letters alleging...
It’s Important To Pay Attention To Changes
In the last six months or so I’ve been writing one article after another about the changing disability claims process so that insureds know how to handle things. Still, I am receiving phone calls from insureds and claimants sharing their anxiety when things...
Topics Of Interest – Short – Shorts.
One of the major claim management errors insureds make is NOT realizing, “the process isn’t YOUR show.” In other words, insureds and claimants do not call the shots, nor can they tell an insurance company what to do. Oftentimes, this is quite...
Why Do You Give Me The Bad News?
I was speaking with one of my clients recently who shared with me that I seem to always report “bad news.” “It was quite frightening”, she said,” learning about all the bad things insurers are now doing.” From the perspective of...
Topics Of Interest – Short Shorts
Insurance companies have resurrected using what I refer to as “third-party paper chasers. Please Point is just one of the companies who are hired to chase medical paperwork for disability claims. Clamify is another one. These companies have always harassed...
Unum Claim Denials -“Bad Apples, Again”
As my readers are aware, I’ve been writing articles about insurance companies and recent tendencies, particularly Unum, to deny claims using “retro” or “old” unfair claims practices. On Friday, I had the opportunity to review two...
Claim Fear – Why Am I So Afraid?
I haven’t written about “fearfulness” in quite some time. Over the last few years, it seemed to me that most insureds were dealing with the anxiety associated with their claims fairly well, and I hadn’t felt the need to mention it. However,...
If You Go The Attorney Route- Be Careful
Within the last 6 months or so, several people who have called (non-clients) to say they hired an attorney and they want my help because the attorney isn’t doing anything. Attorneys are retained for claim appeals, or possible settlements, but I found out today...
Know What You’re Eating
My readers may, or may not know, that I am an absolute fanatic, (granola head, really), about food additives and toxic food. No, I’m not a skinny rail, nor vegetarian or vegan, but careful about what goes into the food I serve my family. If you’re asking...
Good Passover, Easter Or Other Observance
I would like to wish everyone a great holiday this weekend. Given the times in which we live, for me, each holiday brings a family observance and spiritual remembrance of times past that I try to keep alive as best I can. I wish everyone all things good, and may...
