Aetna Life Insurance Company has attracted significant judicial scorn of late in the manner in which it adjudicates disability benefits.Two recent decisions are illustrative – Jalowiec v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 2015 WL 9294269 (D. Minn. December 21, 2015) and Granville v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 2015 WL 9026025 (M.D. Pa. December 15, 2015). In […]
Pain is often a key factor in disability claims. The Social Security Administration has established guidelines for the assessment of pain as a factor in determining disability (20 C.F.R. Section 404.1529), and the influential Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (6th edition 2008) published by the American Medical Association looks to the following: Congruence […]
The Department of Labor has proposed new regulations for disability benefit claims that will provide better protections for claimants.
A recent ruling issued by a federal court in Philadelphia illustrated a number of issues relevant to disability insurance claims brought under ERISA. In Charles v. UPS Long Term Disability Plan, 2015 WL 6600399 (E.D. Pa. October 29, 2015), after first finding the plaintiff was limited to part time work and thus unable to work […]
Although death and taxes are both viewed as inevitabilities, when it comes to disability insurance benefits, taxes may be avoidable.
According to Revenue Ruling 2004-55 (June 28, 2004), long-term disability insurance premiums paid on an after-tax basis result in a non-taxable benefit. Hence, many employers structure their group long-term disability benefit plans in that manner to provide a nontaxable benefit to their employees in the event they become disabled.
A recent decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals presented a checklist of issues that were found to have demonstrated arbitrary and capricious conduct in the denial of disability benefits. The case of Shaw v. AT&T Umbrella Plan No. 1, 2015 WL 4548232 (6th Cir. July 29), involved Raymond Shaw, a 39-year-old customer […]