While Unum has become synonymous with the term “disability insurance claim denied,” policyholders in Michigan are feeling the pinch all the more these days. Many Unum policyholders in the state have found that their claims have been approved — at first. However, within 6 months to a year, their claims are being denied again.

This alarming trend has some people believing that the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is to blame, saying that the act was enacted with the insurance companies in mind and not the policyholders. They do this by allowing insurance companies like Unum and its subsidiaries sell group policies that offer very little coverage. ERISA was initially designed to help protect employee pensions, but it unknowingly also gave the insurance companies the upper hand.

Unum Provident has been accused of taking advantage of ERISA and using it to illegally deny disability insurance claims and to terminate long term disability claims they already approved. The lawsuit claims that Unum used bad faith insurance practices to cut costs. Some of the things they were accused of doing include:

  • Paying their own independent doctors to rubber-stamp their previous decisions
  • allowing older independent doctors of their choosing to alter the written reports of any of their other independent doctors that didn’t write what they wanted them to so that they could use the report to either approve, deny or terminate a claim
  • stopped paying on the claims without telling policyholders why

While Unum Provident has already agreed to look into 200,000 claims that have been denied, the company could face a $145 million fine in just the state of Maine. If you feel that your disability insurance claim has been unjustly denied due to bad faith practices, talk to a disability insurance lawyer like Greg Jones today. The consultation is free and I will work hard to help you get every dime that you may be entitled to. Don’t try to take on the insurance companies alone; tell me about your case and let my experience in fighting insurance companies work for you.