Do I need to send the "medical authorization release" form to the disability insurance company?

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses why a claimant must be careful when returning the “medical authorization form” to their disability insurance company.

You need to be extremely careful in returning these medical authorization forms to the long-term disability carriers. The disability carriers have the right to obtain any of you medical records that they want. The problem is, and what I consider to be a trick that they’re looking to play on disability claimants, is that these medical authorization forms are not just “medical authorizations.”

What they actually include in them, if you read them closely, is they ask for all of your financial information, they ask for permission to speak with any of your employers, they ask for tax records, they’ll ask for any kind of employment records, they’ll ask for the right to pull your driver’s license, and they’ll also ask for the right to pull your credit report. Many of these things have absolutely nothing to do with your long-term disability claim, and you do have the right to modify the medical authorization form should you desire to. So I would encourage you to read your medical authorization form very closely and cross out anything that you do not want the long-term disability carrier to get.