Disability Insurance Benefit Tips

Disability Insurance Attorney Cesar Gavidia discusses a common question asked by every person that files a short or long term disability insurance claim.A disability insurance claimant should always continue to pay premiums until such time that their disability insurance carrier advises that they do not need to do so. The reason to continue paying is that if your policy lapses and the insurance company den...

Disability attorneys Gregory Dell and Stephen Jessup discuss what a disability claimant can expect when they are asked to attend an independent medical examination requested by their disability insurance company.Attorneys Dell & Jessup share detailed information that every claimant should be aware of prior to attending an IME exam....

If you purchased your long-term disability policy through your employer or received your long-term disability coverage as an employee benefit, then your disability policy is almost always subject to the restrictive ERISA regulations.The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, also known as "ERISA", is a federal law that sets the minimum standards for pension plans and disability insurance plans in...

Mass Mutual, an insurance company that sells long term disability insurance products, recently hired the international law firm of Shutts & Bowen in an effort to prohibit Dell Disability Lawyers from displaying blank Mass Mutual long term disability insurance claim forms on their website. More specifically, Mass Mutual hired attorney Jeffrey Landau, one of the leading insurance defense attorneys in the Uni...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses whether a physician claiming long term disability can treat themselves.The answer to this question is that even if you are a physician and you may know every single thing about your medical condition, you absolutely cannot treat yourself in order to qualify for long-term disability benefits. We have represented nume...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses how an approval from Social Security for beneifts relates to a claim for disability insurance benefits.Just because the Social Security Administration has approved you for benefits under their standards, it's not a guarantee that you're going to get your long-term disability situation. There's different standards,...

Long term disability attorneys Gregory Dell and Rachel Alters provide tips on things that can be done if your disability insurance company is delaying the payment of disability benefit payments. Contact any of our disability insurance attorneys for a free review of your long term disability claim.  ...

Disability attorney Cesar Gavidia discusses what it means when a claimant receives payment under a "reservation of rights".Payment under reservation of rights can continue from up to three months to six months, even up to a year, depending on how long the insurance company is taking to evaluate your claim. They could either, after reservation of rights have ...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses some of the most common disabling medical conditions in a claim for long term disability benefits.There are generally two sources of disability. Number one is accidents and number two is illnesses. 91% of long-term disability claims are caused by illness and not by injury. There was a recent study by the Disability ...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses what type of doctor a claimant should be treating with in order to claim long term disability benefits.Disability claimants often call us and ask what type of doctor they should be treating with in order to seek long-term disability benefits. The answer to this question is really that you can treat with just about a...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses how receiving workers compensation benefits may affect your disability insurance benefits.If you are receiving workers' compensation benefits, the likelihood is that your disability carrier is going to claim an offset or an overpayment for any disability benefits that you've received. This would be the case if you h...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses what options a claimant has if their disability insurance company does not respond to their ERISA appeal within 45 days.If you don't have a decision back on your appeal within the 45 days, there's a golden opportunity on day 46 to file a lawsuit. In doing so, you put your claim in a light most favorable for you; i...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses if a claimant is able to earn income while receiving long term disability benefits.Disability claimants often ask me if they can earn money through some other method besides just collecting their long-term disability benefits. The answer to this question really depends on the language in your policy. If you have an ...

In the unfortunate event that a disability insurance claimant dies while on disability, there is no right to continue to collect the disability benefit on an ongoing basis for the remainder of the policy. However, many policies do provide a "survivor" benefit that will pay a certain number of months' worth of the benefit to the eligible survivor. The survivor benefit is usually 1-3 months of disability benefit...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses why a disability insurance company will request a claimants tax returns.The insurance companies are going to ask for your tax returns for a handful of reasons. First and foremost, it's just to make sure you're not working if you're telling them that you are not working. Secondly, they may ask for them and if you h...

A Functional Capacity Exam (FCE) consists of a series of tests that ideally will provide objective evidence of a nexus between your medical condition and your inability to perform your job duties. This applies to whether you can perform the material duties of your own occupation or of any occupation for which you are qualified based on your education, training, ...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses a disability insurance companies right to deny a claim even though the claimant has not been released to return to work by their doctor.We get a lot of calls from people who say their claims have been denied even though their doctors haven't told them they can go back to work; they haven't been "released for work....

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses whether you have to file an appeal prior to filing a lawsuit once your disability claim has been denied.If your policy is a private policy or one that you purchased on your own, you do not have to file an appeal before bringing lawsuit. However, if your policy is governed by ERISA, you do have to exhaust administr...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses whether or not a claimant can continue to receive disability benefits while their appeal or lawsuit is pending.Once a long-term disability carrier has made a decision to deny your claim for benefits, they will not pay you any benefits until such time that you prevail on either an appeal or following a lawsuit....

Unfortunately, there are thousands of people that are disabled and unable to work as a result of suffering from fibromyalgia. Long term disability companies are notorious for challenging the claims of people suffering from fibromyalgia. Hopefully some new medical research will help doctors solidify a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.The 19 point pain index, a new way to diagnose fibromyalgiaDiagnosing fibromy...