Tactics Insurers May Use to Deny Disability Claims

Ian C. Langtree - Writer/Editor for Disabled World (DW)
Published: 2011/11/11 - Updated: 2025/05/17
Publication Type: Informative
Category Topic: Disability Insurance Claims - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This article details the strategies disability insurance companies use to deny benefit claims, highlighting how claimants often face significant obstacles even when entitled to coverage. It explains that insurers, seeking to protect their own financial interests, employ in-house medical professionals who may selectively review medical records, sometimes omitting key documentation that supports the claimant's case. The article also describes how insurers contact treating physicians and follow up with letters that may inaccurately summarize conversations, using non-responses as tacit agreement to potentially misleading statements. Additionally, it discusses the use of video surveillance to monitor claimants, which can misrepresent the fluctuating nature of certain disabilities by capturing only moments when the individual appears well.

This information is authoritative and useful for people with disabilities, seniors, and anyone navigating disability insurance, as it comes from an experienced disability rights advocate and editor, and it provides practical insights into the tactics insurers use, helping claimants better prepare and protect their rights when filing or appealing claims - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

To protect their businesses and their shareholders, disability insurance companies have made it hard for the average person to file a claim and obtain the benefits that they signed up to receive. When a successful person files for benefits on a disability insurance policy, it is long-term and costly to the companies.

Main Content

Because of the way laws governing disability insurance policies were written, there are no penalties when companies deny or delay claims.

If you have to fight for your disability benefits and it takes a year, during which time you lose your home and life savings, there is no punishment or penalty to the disability insurance company. If you win in a court case, you will receive what they were supposed to pay you in the first place. The only thing that the insurance company loses is the time of their in-house law firm, while people who are sick or injured can lose much more. That is why it is important to know as much as possible about disability insurance, the process of filing a claim, and the process of fighting for a claim to protect yourself.

Insurance companies employ many medical professionals to investigate claims.

They have a staff of nurses and doctors who do nothing but read medical records and review diagnostic tests to build cases against claimants. There are many instances where the medical reviewer only sees a small part of the person's medical file - important documents that verify a serious illness are left out. Is this deliberate or just poor record management? It is hard to know - but the bottom line is that disability insurance claimants have to fight to make sure that their complete medical records have been examined.

Insurance companies often use in-house medical staffers to contact treating physicians, review claims, and write letters that are not accurate to help build cases against claimants.

A typical Scenario:

A medical staffer calls the doctor's office, speaks about the claimant, and then the insurance company staffer sends a letter to the doctor's office confirming the conversation. The problem is that the letter is not entirely accurate and does not reflect the conversation. Some facts are twisted; others are left out entirely. The critical part is this: the letter will contain a statement that says, "unless we hear back from you by (a certain date), you accept the statements in the letter as fact."

Doctors, office managers, and their staffers are busy, and responding to this letter is not their top priority. When no one responds, or when the response comes after the date, the insurance company uses that as an agreement with the contents of the letter, even if the letter is inaccurate and contradicts every piece of information in the patient's medical record.

Today, it is inexpensive for insurance companies to use video surveillance to monitor claimant activities.

If you have filed a claim and a van or truck shows up on your block that does not seem to have any identifying marks or workers taking out equipment or making a delivery, surveillance may be taking place. If you have a disability like fibromyalgia, where some days you cannot get out of bed, and other days you feel almost normal, the videotape surveillance will only show you on a good day.

This can create a difficult situation. If, however, your medical records reflect the unpredictable nature of your illness, you have a better chance of fighting the challenge to your disability insurance claim - Fibromyalgia Disability Claims: Things To Consider Before Filing a Disability Insurance Application

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Author Credentials: Ian is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Disabled World, a leading resource for news and information on disability issues. With a global perspective shaped by years of travel and lived experience, Ian is a committed proponent of the Social Model of Disability-a transformative framework developed by disabled activists in the 1970s that emphasizes dismantling societal barriers rather than focusing solely on individual impairments. His work reflects a deep commitment to disability rights, accessibility, and social inclusion. To learn more about Ian's background, expertise, and accomplishments, visit his full biography.