Disability typically offer their insureds little insight into their claims administration processes. If you are waiting for a decision on your claim, or anticipate filing a disability claim soon, be alert that your insurer will thoroughly investigate your claim and actively search for reasons to deny your claim for disability benefits. In order to recover on your disability claim, your disabling condition must be accurately stated and well-supported. In addition, you need to make sure that, after submitting your claim for benefits, your actions do not present a false picture of your conditions, as insurers will likely seize upon any opportunity to challenge an otherwise valid claim. Here, we focus on surveillance and social media.
Surveillance
Insurers often hire outside investigators to conduct surveillance in the hopes of catching claimants engaging in activities that cast doubt on their disability claims. An insurer may request surveillance prior to approving your claim, or after you have been paid benefits for a while. Sometimes, field investigators will schedule interviews to take place at claimants’ houses, or other agreed upon locations. An investigator may ask to videotape the session or take photos of the claimant. It is also not uncommon that insurers will ask a claimant to attend an independent medical examination or a Functional Capacity Examination and then videotape their claimants as they come and go to these examinations. Other times, insurers will ask a claimant to complete a list of the daily activities and then will dispatch field investigators to secretly videotape claimants performing regular daily activities including driving, grocery shopping, taking out garbage or working out at the gym to see if these activities are consistent with a claimant’s stated activities of daily living. Insurers may view these activities in a vacuum and decide that your limited ability to perform an activity means your condition is not so serious that you cannot work.
For instance, an insurer may point out that its videotape of a claimant driving for thirty minutes suggests the claimant is capable of prolonged sitting and working at a full time sedentary job, or the videotape of a claimant carrying a few grocery items contradicts an alleged back injury. Be wary of engaging in activities or taking actions which may produce evidence to weaken your claim. If an insurer misinterpreted an activity as a basis to deny your claim, you should challenge its decision or hire an experienced attorney to do so on your behalf.
Social Media
Over the past decade, social media has advanced to a point where it is integrated into our lives and savvy insurers embrace this trend by scouring Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, online dating sites, and other networking sites using only a claimant’s name or email address. Often times, the information found is taken out of context to justify a denial of a valid claim. For example, insurers may find a dating profile which presents an eligible bachelor as athletic, and question the scope of his functional limitations. Similarly, insurers may view vacation pictures on Facebook as contradicting claims of financial or emotional distress, and posed pictures as contradicting the extent of your injuries. Even if posts were made or pictures were taken prior to the onset of a disability, an insurer may overlook the date and fixate on what they find as contradictory to your current restrictions and limitiations. In addition, insurers may utilize any information found to discredit claimants in litigation. After filing a claim, consider terminating your social media accounts or at least locking or privatizing all your social media accounts so that only immediate or close contacts have access to what you post online. Also, be aware of what you are posting so that your insurer cannot use this information to deny your disability insurance claim.
For additional information, please see our FAQs for Can social media impact a claim for disability benefits.
McKennon Law Group PC is very experienced with handling short-term and long-term disability insurance claims and for many years their attorneys actually represented insurance companies. Call us for a free evaluation of your disability insurance claim.
