Insurance denial

June 6, 2019

The Importance of Being Timely

Missing a deadline in your ERISA claim is deadly to your claim.

Accordingly, it is extremely important that any and all deadlines are met. One deadline of particular importance is the 180-day deadline by which to submit an appeal of a denial of benefits covered by ERISA. The federal regulations that govern ERISA require insurance companies to allow claimants 180 days to submit an appeal of a denial of benefits. While the regulations state that the claimant is to be allowed 180 days from the date of receipt of the denial, the safest course of action is to calculate the deadline from the date of the letter denying the benefits. This is one of many good reasons to come to Kantor & Kantor with your claim.

Six Months Will Fly By

May 2, 2019

May is Mental Health Awareness Month – You Can Start a #RealConvo

by Kantor & Kantor LLP

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month 2019, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (“AFSP”) has launched a public awareness campaign called #RealConvo. The goal of the campaign is to inspire people to

shares their stories;
have conversations about mental health; and

April 16, 2019

May is Lupus Awareness Month

by Kantor & Kantor LLP

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years.

In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs (“foreign invaders,” like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues (“auto” means “self”) and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.

Lupus is also a disease of flares (the symptoms worsen and you feel ill) and remissions (the symptoms improve and you feel better).

March 12, 2019

The Trump Administration Wants to see Your Facebook to Show You are Not Disabled.

by Kantor & Kantor LLP

On March 10, 2019, the New York Times reported the Trump administration has been working on a proposal to use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to help identify people who claim disability benefits without actually being disabled. The example the Times gave was if a person claimed disability benefits due to a back injury but was shown playing golf in a photograph posted on Facebook, that social medial post could be used as evidence that the injury was not disabling.

While the Trump administration’s concern is related to Social Security disability benefits, in the private long-term disability world it has long been known that the likes of Unum, MetLife, Aetna, Hartford, or Mutual of Omaha have a keen interest in the social media of disability claimants. This is based on the belief that social media is a goldmine of information about people applying for or receiving long term disability benefits.

It is not impossible for this to be true. But as with many things related to long term disability insurance, the topic has layers. Social media is often an outlet for the disabled. A place where a person unable to work goes to socialize and post pictures of themselves in better times or when they are having a good day (not a bad day). Sure, some of our client’s use social media to share with the world their struggles with MS, or back pain, or fibromyalgia, or lupus, but it’s the exception.

March 11, 2019

Dealing with Insurance Companies: Managing a Disability Claim on Your Own

by Kantor & Kantor LLP

While we certainly do not recommend it, you may choose to handle your own short term disability or long term disability claim. A side note: we strongly recommend you do not handle an STD or an LTD appeal without legal representation.

If you decide to make a disability claim on your own, there are a few things you should keep in mind when dealing with an insurance company: (1) insurance companies are for-profit businesses with an eye on profits; (2) everything you provide to them during your claim goes into your claim file; and (3) you cannot rely on an insurance company to obtain documentation to support your claim.

Why are these things so important?

February 27, 2019

Nothing Ever Happens “Always”, aka The Dangers of Speaking in Absolutes About Your Medical Conditions and Symptoms

by Kantor & Kantor LLP

Long before I became a lawyer, all the way back in childhood, I hated when people spoke in absolutes. For those who don’t know, speaking in absolutes is using all or nothing terms like: always/never; best/worst; everybody/nobody; can’t; nothing/everything; all the time; all/nothing; constantly; definitely; etc. I dislike absolutes because while on the surface they appear to make a message stronger (“this always happens to me” or “my mom’s cooking is the best”), they actually do the opposite by weakening your credibility.

Does anything happen “always”?

Think about it. Does anything happen “always”? Can you definitively say there’s no one on the planet who cooks better than your mom? Of course not! But in addition to saying something that you can’t prove, you have also opened yourself up to allow people to be able to prove – very easily I might add – that you are a liar. And once they can prove you lied about that one thing, they can then turn around and use that lie to cast doubt on everything else you say.

March 3, 2017

If you have insurance, you need to know about the “notice-prejudice” rule!

by Kantor & Kantor LLP

Every insurance policy requires that you give notice of your claim for benefits to the company before benefits can be paid. It doesn’t matter if the claim is for medical services, disability benefits, life insurance, fire, flood, theft, etc. Obviously, notice and information about your claim is necessary before the insurance conpany can process and pay the claim. Policies also usually require that notice of a claim be given within a specified time period following the loss, for example, “30 days,” or “as soon as practicable,” or “as soon as reasonably possible,” etc. Again, this is fair because evidence related to the claim is fresh, and most readily available nearer the time of the event.

But, what happens if you can’t, or don’t comply with the policy notice requirement? What happens if don’t give notice until months, or even years after your claim accrued?

Good questions.