One woman’s federal lawsuit recently filed in Pennsylvania against Cigna is all about her on and off, 21-year struggle to keep her long-term disability benefits. Her story is a good example of why it is necessary to keep a disability insurance attorney like Greg Jones on hand to help you make sure that your disability insurance benefits are never terminated.
Teann J. Scoggins’ case begins with her employment at Densply Inc., back in 1987. Her employment had Teann participating in a long-term disability income policy (LTD) that was paid for and administered by Cigna. In August, 1989 Teann suffered from injuries that left her needing two surgeries and unable to work. Her policy with Cigna gave her 180 days to wait for her elimination period to end before she could start receiving her LTD benefits. Her payments began in February, 1990.
In 1994, Cigna had her benefits terminated, claiming that her case no longer met the definition of being disabled because she wasn’t incapable of doing all of the tasks involved in “any job” that she was trained in or had experience in. Teann ended up filing a lawsuit against Cigna in the Court of Common Plea of York County Pennsylvania. That suit was eventually moved to District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. In December of 1994, Cigna starting paying her benefits again after agreeing that she was, in fact disabled.
In 1999, Cigna terminated her benefits again by saying that she could at least do some light work even if she couldn’t perform heavy duties. In March, Teann asked for a review of that decision by Cigna. Teann’s lawyer found many flaws in Cigna’s case and after a 9-month-long review, the company resumed her LTD benefits again. Cigna also included retroactive payments for Teann. In March 2010, her LTD benefits were terminated again when she got a letter from Cigna claiming that starting in April, she would not receive benefits because she was again capable of doing some light work. They based this choice on her volunteer work with charities that occurred on half days in 2007 and 2008.
Teann again called her lawyer to appeal on March 26, 2010. Then in July and August she asked for copies of Cigna’s documents that supported their terminations. The insurance company refused to give it to her, but did tell her that her claim was denied. She filed another appeal in September that included 63 pages of medical evidence to prove her conditions was getting worse, but she was again denied.
If you don’t want to end up fighting a constant battle with Cigna like Teann has, contact Greg Jones today for a free consultation.