Year: 2013

As devastation storms the Midwest, it’s become clear this week that disaster season is upon us. The fury started in North Texas last week when at least 10 twisters hit, leaving 6 people dead, dozens injured and hundreds of homes destroyed. Then, several more tornados struck parts of Oklahoma and Kansas this weekend, killing at […]

The Commissioner of the California Department of Insurance recently announced that it has reached a settlement with the CIGNA Group regarding potentially wrongfully denied claims. The insurer has agreed to revisit denied long term disability applications from California residents that were filed between 2008 and 2010. California is one of five states who have been […]

A board jointly made up of NFL management and representatives from the players’ union has amassed a 60 percent denial rate for disability claims. As many as 3,000 former players are in some kind of contested benefits case with the National Football League, mostly in workers’ compensation cases. Former NFL Man of the Year Reggie […]

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month… a month to show our love for disability insurance. To celebrate, I thought I’d join in and add my thoughts about why disability insurance is so important. As an insurance lawyer, who has handled tens of thousands of disability cases, I work with clients everyday who are wrongfully denied […]

Two college football standouts recently sought disability insurance against a the possibility of a career ending injury disabling them while still in college. One of them, Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M, a Heisman Trophy winner, likely has a promising and potentially lucrative professional career ahead of him, but he’s not forgetting about the day-to-day risks […]

CalPERS recently announced that it expects to increase premiums on long-term care coverage by 85 percent over the next two years. With one of the largest long-term care programs in the country promising a dramatic increase in costs to insureds, it’s very likely a harbinger of what’s to come from private insurers who also offer […]

U.S. Representatives from Iowa and Pennsylvania have proposed an amendment to the Social Security Act that would exempt disabled service members from the five-month waiting period for Social Security Disability benefits. The Recovering Service Members Disability Benefits Act would not change eligibility criteria for SSDI benefits for returning military personnel, but would speed up the […]

Arbitrary limits on psychotherapy sessions for mental health patients has put UnitedHealth Group on the defensive. The New York State Psychiatric Association (NYSPA) and three individual plaintiffs have filed a class action lawsuit against the insurer for allegedly violating the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act by refusing to pay for necessary treatment for […]

Most people cannot even fathom what one billion dollars means. What about $215 billion? It is an astounding number that is connected to the lives of many Americans. It is likely that every person at least knows someone suffering with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Collectively, the treatment necessary to help those with […]

The Council for Disability Awareness (CDA) released the 2012 Long-Term Disability Claims Review earlier this month. In a nutshell, the study found that while disability claims continued to rise, fewer working Americans are adequately protecting their incomes through disability insurance. This is a shocking and disturbing finding considering that a 25-year-old has a 12% chance […]