To qualify for Social Security disability benefits, a claimant must prove an inability to engage in “any” meaningful work, a standard considered extremely difficult to meet. However, as a recent case shows, the FedEx disability benefit plan imposes qualification standards that are even harder than Social Security’s. In Oliver v. Aetna Life Insurance Co., 2015 […]
Paying restitution to victims is an important aspect of the criminal justice system.
In evaluating a disability insurance claim from the perspective of whether the claimant can perform his or her own occupation, what must an insurer consider? That question was recently answered by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In McDonough v. Aetna Life Insurance Co., 2015 WL 1684079 (1st Cir., April 15), plaintiff Joseph McDonough […]
Although health plan exclusions for pre-existing conditions are no longer permissible under the Affordable Care Act, disability insurers may still lawfully invoke such exclusions in their policies. But the exclusions must be applied narrowly. This was illustrated in Meyer v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42092 (D.Kan., March 31). John […]
A recent ruling received by DeBofsky, Sherman & Casciari examined the issue of how to determine pre-disability earnings. In Cheney v. Standard Ins. Co., 2015 WL 2015 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 30918 (N.D.Ill. March 13, 2015)(Issue: Pre-Disability Earnings). In an earlier ruling (Cheney v. Standard Ins. Co., No. 13 C 4269, 2014 WL 4259861 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 28, […]
In 2013, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals electrified the ERISA world when it ruled that in addition to paying benefits due after a wrongful rejection of a disability insurance claim, the Life Insurance Company of North America (LINA), a Cigna Corp. subsidiary, would also have to disgorge the profits it earned on the […]