Independent medical exams requested by disability insurance companies can be dangerous
Disability insurance companies will often rely on either an Independent Medical Exam (IME) or an External Medical File review without examination in order to deny a long term disability claim. I never consider a an IME exam to be independent because you are required pursuant to the terms of your disability policy to appear at the exam and the allegedly independent exam is being paid for by the insurance company.
You should not think that your claim will be automatically be denied because an IME exam has been requested; however you must be prepared to adequately handle your IME Exam and all of the event both before and after the IME exam.
Unlike an IME exam in which a disability claimant is actually examined by a doctor, the insurance companies will often hire outside doctors to review your file and renders opinions about your physical abilities without ever examining the claimant. This process is known as external medical file review without examination.
In this episode disability insurance attorneys Gregory Dell, Stephen Jessup and Cesar Gavidia of Attorneys Dell & Schaefer discuss IME exams, the biases of many disability insurance companies that request these exams, and the “whore” doctors that regularly find that claimants are not disabled. In an effort to further educate disability claimants about IME exams and External File Reviews we will answer the following questions:
- Do I have to attend an IME exam requested by my disability insurance company?
- Why is my disability insurance company requesting an IME exam?
- Will my disability insurance company give me a copy of the IME report?
- Can my disability claim be denied if my disability company never conducted an IME exam?
- Are independent medical examiners hired by a disability insurance company truly independent?
- Are the outside companies hired by disability insurance companies to locate IME doctors independent?
- What can I do to protect myself during an IME exam requested by my disability insurance company?
If you had an experience with a disability insurance or an IME doctor, please post a comment so that the thousands of people that visit our website each month can learn from your experiences. The sharing of information can help stop the unreasonable claims handling practices of many disability insurance companies.
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Standard insurance just dropped me with no communication with me.
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What a mess
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I was disabled 2003 by SS. I got SSDI 7 years too late.
Only care about $$$$$
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They falsify documents and avoid contact as much as possible.
This company is a scam!
California State Disabilty "OFFSET" never mentioned or outlined when enrolling for STD coverage.
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