Disability Insurance Clauses You Don't Want to See
What You Don’t Want to See in Your Long-Term Disability Policy
While many employers do provide good, solid long-term disability insurance coverage some policies aren’t worth the cost of the fancy paper they are printed on. People are often shocked to find that even though their doctors fully support their disability and, in some cases, they have been awarded disability benefits by the Social Security Administration, their employer’s plans are so bad that the insurance company does not have
to pay benefits. We believe that the vast majority of these bad policies represent employers who simply have been duped by the insurance companies. Our experience is that employers and human resource personnel often have no real idea of how bad their own
disability program is.
Remember, the law does not require an employer to provide long term disability coverage, nor does it mandate the terms of any coverage that is provided. Basically, there is no federal or state oversight over policies insurance companies can offer through employers. While states can and do regulate the terms of so called “private” policies that
are offered to individuals there is no corresponding oversight of employer-sponsored
policies.
Check your disability insurance policy right now. If you see any of the following language in your policy, either run and scream to your human resources department or run and go find a private policy—your policy is not protecting you the way you might think it
should:
* Language granting the insurance company discretion to determine benefits
* A definition of disability that requires that you not be able to perform “each and every” important function of your job before being paid benefits
* An “own occupation” period of less than two years
* Income protection of less than 60% of prior earnings
* Language terminating all benefits if you are “able to work part time but don’t”
* Blatant discrimination against the mentally ill
* Limitations on disabilities caused by so-called “self reported symptoms”
* Benefits which are contingent on securing social security disability benefits
* A limitation on benefits for Fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue
Want to know more about disability insurance cases? If you live in Virginia, Maryland or
the District of Columbia you can get a free book by Virginia disability insurance attorney
Ben Glass. Just fill out this form.
