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…
The Standard Insurance Company recently agreed to reverse its decision to deny LTD benefits to a client of the firm who had ongoing and persistent back problems. The Standard denied the claim ostensibly because “the medical records do not provide substantiation of a significant Physical or Mental Disease process which…
SMDA was fortunate enough to receive another favorable decision from the federal court finding that the Long Term Disability insurer again wrongfully denied our client’s claim for benefits. In Deloach v. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) the Judge reversed the claims denial decision finding that the client…