There are some medical conditions that produce such severe pain that only narcotic medication can relieve the distress. In such situations, a question has arisen in several disability insurance cases as to whether taking narcotic pain medication is disabling in and of itself if either licensure issues or strict corporate policies prohibit an employee from […]
A federal court in Michigan recently issued a ruling accusing an insurance company of committing a logical fallacy in adjudicating a disability benefit claim involving fibromyalgia.
If a disability benefit claim is submitted without a specific diagnosis, does that prevent the claimant from qualifying for benefits? That was the question answered by Graham v. Life Insurance Company of North America, 2016 WL 6958151 (N.D. Ga., Nov. 28, 2016), which ruled the absence of a definitive diagnosis does not necessarily pose an […]
If you or a loved one has fibromyalgia, you’re probably familiar with how often it is misunderstood and misdiagnosed. Unfortunately, this misunderstanding can often lead to inadequate treatment and denial of disability insurance claims. As medical understanding is improving, widespread discrediting of fibromyalgia symptoms may be waning. Those living with the syndrome in the meantime, […]
A recent ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Zuke v. American Airlines, Inc., 2016 WL 1258220 (6th Cir. March 31, 2016)(unpublished), was extremely critical of an insurer’s termination of disability payments that had been ongoing for thirteen years due to the claimant’s severe degenerative arthritis of the claimant’s entire spine.
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 […]