About Short-Term Disability

The “You Can’t Apply for Long-Term Disability Benefits Because We Denied Your Short-Term Disability Claim Game” That Lincoln, and Other Carriers, Are Playing, and How to Fight Back

Disability carriers or plans will go to great lengths, including lying, to prevent disabled policyholders or plan participants from filing a claim for Long-Term Disability benefits.

The typical scenario is that an employer offers its employees Short-Term Disability benefits either through a disability carrier, or through a self-insured plan. Because the employer and / or carrier doesn’t want to deal with an application for Long-Term Disability benefits, they deny the Short-Term Disability claim at some point, and then say that the policyholder or plan participant isn’t eligible for Long-Term Disability benefits because they haven’t been paid their Short-Term Disability benefits.

You would think that the employer would know better, but that is often not the case.

What you can and can’t do is based on what the Long-Term Disability policy or plan says. Some Long-Term Disability policies or plans require that you receive full payment of your Short-Term Disability benefits, while others don’t.

The truth is that many Long-Term Disability policies or plans do not require that you be paid Short-Term Disability benefits, or be paid out all of the Short-Term Disability benefits. What you’ll probably find is that there are two separate policies or plans, two separate standards of disability, two separate premiums being paid, and a Long-Term Disability policy or plan that does not require that you be paid Short-Term Disability benefits as a prerequisite to filing the Long-Term Disability claim.

How to Fight Back

If the disability carrier or plan says, “too bad so said, we won’t let you apply for Long-Term Disability benefits,” you should:

1. Appeal the denial of the Short-Term Disability benefits,
2. Submit certified mail, return receipt requested, a generic Long-Term Disability application, or
3. If the disability carrier or plan does not timely respond to the application, file a lawsuit once the appeal on the Short-Term Disability benefits has been decided. If the Short- and Long-Term Disability plan or carrier are the same, you can file just one lawsuit claiming both benefits. On the other hand, if the Short-Term Disability plan is self-insured, or through a disability carrier, you’ll have to file two different lawsuits. One will be for the Short-Term Disability benefits, and a second will be for the Long-Term Disability benefits.

Don’t let a disability carrier or plan’s refusal to give you a Long-Term Disability application, or pay Short-Term Disability benefits, interfere with your rights to get your Long-Term Disability benefits.