27 October

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Multiple Sclerosis and Your Long Term Disability Claim

In Multiple Sclerosis there are a number of mobility challenges you may experience because of weakness, spasticity and balance problems. Weakness is often accompanied by a stiff and heavy feeling in your legs. This weakness and spasticity in your trunk and legs can reduce your balance. It’s important that your medical records and physical therapy notes document the problems that you are having with weakness, spasticity, and balance problems, as those are important parts of your functionality....

27 October

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Surveillance Pre-Texting and Your Claim for Long Term Disability Benefits

Posted by Nancy Cavey

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Sometimes investigators will conduct a pretext contact before beginning surveillance. That will include a telephone call to your house, or even contact with your neighbors. Some surveillance companies will go so far as to even call your doctors, place of employment or any other place that you regularly associate with to determine if you are present. They also in the context of this call or contact will ask questions about your activities so that they can be better prepared to conduct surveillance. Be careful of calls that you might receive from people you don’t know asking questions about whether you are home...

27 October

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Refusing to Sign a Medical Authorization

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in Uncategorized

Long Term Disability carriers commonly ask you to sign blanket medical releases that allow them to have any type of contact with your medical providers. This is much more than simply allowing them to get your records, the release allows their peer review doctors, nurses or even the adjuster to contact your doctors in an effort to have their medical provider agree that you can return to work in some capacity. At The Law Offices of Nancy L. Cavey, we instruct our clients to sign releases but we limit to them to securing medical records only. We put an addendum in the...

27 October

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How Can the Surveillance Company Positively Identify the Long Term Disability Claimant?

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in Uncategorized

Long Term Disability carriers spend a lot of money to get pictures of Long Term Disability applicants or recipients so that they can ultimately deny Long Term Disability benefits. They have to make sure they have the right person! How do they do that? The Long Term Disability carrier may provide the surveillance company with a picture of you. The surveillance company will then attempt to match your photo and do at least six other things: 1. Overhear you state your name to someone. 2. Overhear someone else call you by name and you acknowledging your name being called. 3. Exiting a residence...

27 October

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How Long Will You Be Surveyed?

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in Uncategorized

Surveillance cases are normally scheduled for a ten hour work day, 6am to 4pm. Most Long Term Disability carriers require investigators to check in with police or law enforcement on a daily basis. Upon arrival, investigators normally take a time shot of your resident for at least 30 seconds. If it’s a gated community they’ll try to make special arrangements to gain access to your community on the pretext doing “work.” Thereafter, most Long Term Disability carriers require that the investigator take time shots of 15 seconds at the beginning of every hour and a final time shot of thirty seconds at...

27 October

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Depositions and Discovery in Wrongfully Denied Long Term Disability Claim

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in Uncategorized

The ability to take depositions in the long term disability cases is, unfortunately, limited. That allows of insurance companies like LINA to hide the conflict of interest in its reasons for denying disability benefits. For example, Medhav-Harahwaj is a repeat offender. Ms. Harahwaj has never seen a long term disability claim that she could pay. Fortunately, the court agreed that in Alleen V Lina Ms. Harahwaj could be deposed on topics including LINA’s internal growth procedures, or if LINA took steps to promote accuracy in its claim’s administration, the actual review of the claim filed, whether LINA had a history of large...

27 October

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Claims and CIGNA

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in CIGNA Insurance Company

If you are a CIGNA disability policy holder, you should know that CIGNA has internal guidelines for chronic fatigue syndrome that CIGNA long term disability adjusters are supposed to follow in evaluating a claim. Unfortunately, more often than not, CIGNA ignores their own internal guidelines and makes a concerted effort to deny valid claims. If you are a CIGNA policy holder who has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, contact Nancy Cavey prior to filing you claim for legal advice about how to be successful with your chronic fatigue syndrome claim; learn about the games that CIGNA will play in denying your...

27 October

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Are you the Victim of UNUM Surveillance?

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in UNUM Insurance Company

UNUM, one of the world’s leading employee benefits providers, offers long-term disability coverage to more than 25 million people. UNUM routinely selects long-term disability cases for surveillance and has practices and protocols for the surveillance companies that it hires. One of the primary companies that UNUM uses for surveillance is Global Options. If you are a UNUM long term disability policy holder, we prepared a special book regarding Long Term Disability surveillance methods. To order your free no obligation copy contact our office today at 727-894-3188. You will have to give us your name and contact information and we will verify that you aren’t in anyway...

27 October

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Hartford Scams and Your Treating Physician

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in Hartford Insurance Company

Long Term Disability carriers collected your premium to make money not pay your benefits. One of the ways that Long Term Disability carriers, such as Hartford, set up and scam you is by asking your treating physician to check off boxes on attending physician statement forms and submit progress notes. Hartford then pays big bucks to its peer review doctors to review your physician’s progress notes and attending physician statements in response to a completely different set of questions from the claims manager. These questions include such infamous questions such as: 1. Are your complaints supported by objective evidence? Answer: The insurance company...

25 October

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How Long Term Disability Carriers Ignore Pain in Determining Own Occupation Eligibility

Posted by Nancy Cavey

in Uncategorized

Many Long Term Disability carriers use the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, they search and stretch definitions of “sedentary” and “light,” close to the relevant plan definition. Additionally, carriers like Standard also ignore side effects of medication, sometimes concluding that you can discontinue the medication and be able to work. A Long Term Disability plan’s administrator abuses its discretion when it fails to consider how the side-effects of clients’ medication impacts the client’s ability to perform their own occupation. See Draby vs. Bell South Telecom, Inc, (89F3d, 755, 741 11th Circuit 1996). Some carriers even reject claims of side effects of medication because of...

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