Many people are covered through group or private short-term and long-term disability insurance policies. These are intended to replace your income while out of work due to an accident or illness. Frequently, disability insurers request more and more medical information, and may eventually deny the claim. Other times, the claim may be approved only to be denied later because the insurer says you can go back to work before you actually can. If your application is not immediately approved, you should seek the advice of a lawyer. If proper information is provided early on, it makes it very difficult for the insurance company to deny a legitimate claim. However, medical reports are need to properly address the disability definition contained in the policy. If the reports from your doctors don’t address the key issues, then it will be much harder to convince the insurer to pay the benefit later on. For that reason, it is useful to involve a lawyer in the early stages.
Medical and travel insurance claims seem like they should be straight forward, but the devil is in the details. Like disability claims, it is key that the proper information be provided to the insurer early on.
It is not unusual to face a situation where you thought that you had the coverage you needed and when you are disabled, you are told by the insurance company that your claim is not covered by the policy. This also comes up in Life Insurance cases. If that happens, you should consult a lawyer right away. Interpretation of the policy is a difficult and technical issue that requires a lawyer with experience in the field to make sure that you get the benefits you are entitled to. Sometimes, you learn that the policy that you bought does not provide the kind of coverage you thought you had. When this happens, you may have a claim against the broker or the insurance agent if they were negligent in advising you of the type of coverage you needed, or the types of coverage available under the particular policy.
If you are in doubt, don’t hesitate to call. We do not charge for an initial consultation.
