Are you a Unum policyholder who is experiencing problems getting your claim for disability benefits approved? The Unum Disability Denial attorneys at Marc Whitehead & Associates are here to help.
People purchase group and/or individual long term disability insurance to provide a source of income in the event that they are unable to work as a result of a serious illness or injury.
Insurance companies sell group and/or individual long term disability insurance to make money.
If you have a legitimate disability claim, you should be able to receive the benefits you’ve been paying. Unfortunately, denial is often the result of an insurance company’s strategies to finesse the law, manipulate the facts of your case, and exploit the claims process.
Case in point: Unum, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, provides group short-term and long-term disability benefits, life insurance, and supplemental health insurance to hundreds of thousands of employees in the U.S. and UK. The company is also ranked as one of the top deniers of benefits claims, with a long history of history of delaying and denying claims.
Unum Disability Denial Tactics
Here are just a few of Unum’s disability denial tactics they utilize in hopes that a policyholder becomes so discouraged and tired of the company’s endless demands that they just can’t take it anymore and give up:
- Requiring an Independent Medical Examination. Many Unum policies include a provision stating the claimant must undergo an independent medical examination (IME) by a doctor selected by Unum. These types of third party IMEs are common in disability claims. However, it’s not common when such evaluations show bias by routinely contradicting the claimant’s physician and finding the claimant to not be disabled.
- Exploitation of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Unum has a standard practice of requiring claimants to apply for SSDI benefits. When the claimant’s application for SSDI is approved, Unum either benefits from the SSDI offset (reducing the amount Unum has to pay on the claim), or Unum may still deny the claim by discrediting Social Security’s approval on the basis of new information (such as the findings of an IME conducted after the SSA’s decision) that the SSA did not have.
- Disability denial based on video surveillance. Unum has a team private investigators who covertly record disabled claimants as they go about their day. This is legal as long as they don’t enter your property. The goal, of course, is to catch a claimant “in the act” of performing tasks that may be misrepresented as activities that could justify their ability to work, and therefore justify a claim denial. This material is often withheld from the claimant’s claim file.
- Unum representative field visits to support disability denial. Even though it’s not required under the terms of your Unum will insist that the claimant meet with a Unum claim representative in their home for a “field visits (in their home). The disabled claimant, hoping the field rep is there to help with their claim, don’t suspect the field representative is actually a trained interrogator trying to covertly obtain further information to use against you and deny your claim.
- Relentless, repeated requests for medical records. Once Unum receives everything they have asked for in the way of medical records and doctors’ notes, they will often demand additionally medical records and more doctors’ notes. They can stretch this out for months.
Don’t Let Unum Denials And Delays Discourage You From Obtaining The Benefits You Deserve.
The law firm of Marc Whitehead & Associates is here to fight for your rights to get the full amount of benefits to which you are entitled. We have extensive experience when it comes to countering Unum’s strategies to deny their policyholders’ claims.
Appealing a denial is a complicated process — one mistake could cost you your benefits. Let our experienced Unum disability attorneys help you prepare a successful appeal. We are willing and able to represent you through the entire process — even if it means fighting for your benefits in a state of federal court.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to the experienced disability appeal lawyers at Marc Whitehead & Associates to discuss your claim and learn how we can help somebody in your situation. Since 1992 we’ve been successfully helping clients all over the U.S. pursue the disability benefits they are owed by Unum and other insurers. If you need help today, call us at 800-562-9830 for a free case evaluation.