SMDA recently convinced Long Term Disability Insurer Cigna to reverse its original claims denial decision by filing a comprehensive administrative appeal. SMDA was retained by a very nice client who was having significant mental health problems that were significantly aggravated by stress. The client retained our firm after Cigna rejected…
SMDA recently convinced Long Term Disability Insurer, Lincoln Financial Group, to reverse its decision to deny Disability Benefit payments to a Physician. Our client had developed a degenerative orthopedic condition that resulted in several joint replacement surgeries. Lincoln Financial voluntarily paid Total Disability benefits while the client was recovering from…
SMDA recently convinced an LTD insurer to overturn its claims denial decision by filing a comprehensive administrative appeal on behalf of our client. SMDA’s client had filed a claim for disability benefits as a result of serious depression and anxiety. The LTD insurance company originally denied the claim contending that…
The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services released its list of complaint ratios for 2013 recently. Leading the pack by a wide margin, with 101 complaints, State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Company had more than twice the volume of complaints than its nearest competitor. Although, to be fair, if…
Lincoln National Life recently overturned its decision to deny an SMDA client’s claim after we filed an administrative appeal of Lincoln’s claim’s denial decision. Our client had worked for FoMoCo for more than a decade when the facility where she worked was sold as part of a corporate restructuring. She…
SMDA prepared a comprehensive administrative appeal on behalf of a gentleman who had been forced to stop working as a press operator as a result of ongoing orthopedic problems with his neck. He had underwent cervical discectomy surgery as a result of his serious neck pain and radiculopathy. The surgery…
The 6th Circuit recently granted a request for en banc review of the Rochow v Life Insurance of North America case where a three judge panel determined that the claimant could recover for unjust enrichment the profits the insurance company had earned on the wrongfully denied LTD benefits. As most…
As a follow up to the last post, the US Supreme Court sided with the Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company enforcing its contractual limitations period. In Heimeshoff v Hartford Life and Acc. Insur. Co., ______S.Ct. _______ (2013). the Court concluded that: Because proof of loss is due before a…
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the Heimeshoff v Hartford Life case. The question considered by the Court was when does the statute of limitations start to run? Ms. Heimeshoff (and the Department of Labor who filed an amicus brief) argued that the limitations period should not…
HartfordBusiness.com is reporting that LTD Insurer Cigna has agreed to pay $77 million dollars to settle claims brought by regulators in four states for improperly handling long term disability claims. While it is not clear what initiated this particular dispute, it has been this firm’s experience that we see more…