The National Stroke Association encourages those who believe they or another are suffering stroke-like symptoms to act FAST in seeking medical treatment. For those who have been disabled by a stroke, you may be hoping that your insurance carrier will act with similar speed, but that may not be the case. Frank N. Darras, a disability insurance attorney with years of experience successfully fighting wrongful denials of valid disability claims offers several tips to those pursuing disability benefits after a stroke:
- Is short term disability or long term disability the appropriate benefit? If the individual has both coverages, consider which is the right type of benefit at this point in time. If you are only out of work temporarily, short term disability benefits may be sufficient.
- Be aware that the insurance process takes time. If you’ve made a claim for benefits shortly after suffering a stroke, your LTD insurance carrier may wait a period of time (often around three months) to determine how well you will recover before granting benefits.
- Don’t delay in claiming due benefits. We just said the process takes time and may take longer than you expect, but don’t use that as a reason to delay making a claim. Claim your place in line; file your claim in a timely manner so that the insurance company can get to work on determining your eligibility for benefits.
There are many more dos and don’ts of disability insurance available in the article linked below. If you are unaware of the FAST acronym for responding to stroke symptoms, it is:
- F – face. Look at the person’s face and ask them to smile. Does their smile droop on one side or only extend to half of their mouth?
- A – arms. Can the person lift both arms at the same time? Does one droop below the other?
- S – speech. Talk to the person. Ask him or her a simple question or to repeat a simple phrase. Does it come out slurred or otherwise sound strange?
- T – time. Time is of the essence in seeking treatment for stroke symptoms. Call 911 immediately; get the person to the emergency room.
The National Stroke Association has created a handy wallet-card for reference that lists stroke symptoms. You can download and print it here to keep with you just in case.
Learn More: Expert Beacon, “Successfully obtain disability benefits from the effects a stroke”