If you or someone you love needs to file a disability insurance claim due to a mental health condition that makes it impossible to perform your occupational duties, you are going to need the advice, insights and services of a California disability insurance claims attorney.

How can you prove to an insurance company that you are suffering from a disabling mental health condition, a condition that cannot be observed or measured? What steps can you take if an insurance company denies your mental health disability insurance claim?

Keep reading this article concerning disability insurance mental health claims and you will learn why you may need the advice and services of a California disability claims lawyer in order to prevail with your disability insurance claim.

What Should You Know About Filing a Disability Insurance Claim?

People who struggle with certain mental health conditions may be eligible for benefits through employer-sponsored short-term disability insurance (STD) or long-term disability insurance (LTD). There are also STD and LTD policies purchased directly from an insurance company, typically through a life and disability insurance agent or broker.

Qualifying mental health conditions may include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These conditions are often as debilitating as any physical illness or injury.

Most STD and LTD policies require you to be covered by the policy for a certain period of time – called an “elimination” or “qualifying” period – before you may file a claim for benefits. That time period may vary, but most policies establish a two-year qualifying period.

In addition, most employer-sponsored STD and LTD policies have a limitation on the time period for which you can receive disability benefits. This period is typically 24-36 months. Most individual disability income policies have no time limitations for receiving disability benefits based on a mental health condition.

How Can You Prove a Mental Health Disability?

To prove your mental health disability claim to your disability insurer, you will need to submit a disability insurance claim form along with an attending physician statement signed by your treating physician or other medical provider who provides a statement of your mental health conditions and how and why you have restrictions and limitations as a result. You will also be required to provide your disability insurer with your medical records, test results and any other pertinent medical evidence which indicates that you are unable to perform your work or maintain full-time employment.

A comprehensive professional letter that discusses your condition should include a clinical diagnosis for the condition (i.e., depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia) and indicate that you cannot perform work or maintain employment because of that condition. The statement should also address how your mental health condition affects your activities of daily living. A statement of the restrictions and limitations you have should be clearly stated and your medical health professional should state why your medical condition renders you unable to perform your occupational duties.

Provide the insurance company with as much medical evidence as you can in order to strengthen your claim. Include statements from those who are closest to you (e.g., friends, co-workers and family members) because they are the ones who see how your mental health affects your ability to perform work, maintain employment and your activities of daily living.

If Your Claim is Denied, Can You File an Appeal?

In most situations, you will be able to appeal the denial of a disability insurance claim. Whether you are required to do so depends on whether your claim is covered by a federal law called the Employer Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Often, an appeal will be necessary since insurers or their hired medical consultants will work hard to uncover any evidence to deny your claim for disability insurance benefits. For example, we often see insurers hire medical consultants who misrepresent that they attempted to contact our clients’ medical health professionals but were unable to do so. The insurer will then use this information to deny the claim, asserting that our clients’ doctors did not cooperate with claim investigation and infer that the clients’ doctors were afraid to have contact because they did not truly have support for the mental health disability claim. These medical consultants who are beholden to the insurers that pay them will ignore medical evidence or misconstrue it to justify a conclusion that you are not disabled.

If your disability claim is denied, you typically have the right to appeal the disability denial decision within a limited time period. To begin the process of filing an appeal, you should contact an experienced disability insurance claims attorney for help. You can appeal a denial of your claim for mental health disability insurance benefits, but the appeals process is usually more complicated if your insurance is employer-provided than if you purchased the policy privately.

Private sector, employer-provided disability policies are governed by ERISA, the federal law which sets legal requirements for group insurance, retirement and pension plans provided by private employers. As discussed in more detail below, if your disability insurance claim is governed by ERISA, you will be required to file an appeal of your denied disability insurance claim.

What Does ERISA Require?

ERISA requires you to pursue at least one “administrative” appeal through your insurance company before you may take the company to court. In most cases, you will have 180 days from the date you receive a claim denial letter to file an administrative appeal with the company.

If you fail to follow the insurance company’s administrative appeal process, you could waive your right to continue to pursue your disability claim. If you do not present adequate evidence of your disability claim to the insurer on appeal, you will likely have waived the ability to provide any further evidence in your subsequent court case against the insurer. Therefore, you can ensure that no mistakes are made by asking an experienced disability insurance claims attorney to handle your administrative appeal on your behalf.

Federal courts have jurisdiction in ERISA-related legal matters, but if you purchased disability insurance privately in California, and if you believe that your claim has been wrongly denied, a California disability insurance claims attorney can negotiate with the company on your behalf, or if necessary, take your case to the California or other state courts. Many attorneys handle disability claims nationwide, including the McKennon Law Group PC.

What is Bad Faith?

In California as in most states, if your disability claim for your mental health condition is denied by your insurance company, you may be able to bring a bad faith lawsuit against the insurer for your unpaid disability benefits as well as for:

1. emotional distress and other damages caused by the company’s bad faith
2. interest on past-due benefits
3. your attorney’s fees
4. possible punitive damages

Bad faith is the legal term for what happens when an insurance company handles a claim unfairly or, more precisely, unreasonably. An insurance company’s bad faith practices may include but are not limited to:

1. persistently trying to settle your claim for less than it is actually worth
2. unreasonable delays
3. rejecting your claim for disingenuous or false reasons
4. threatening to cancel your coverage unless you accept a “lowball” settlement amount
5. continually demanding more information as a delaying tactic
6. inadequate investigation of the disability insurance claim

How Will a Disability Insurance Claims Attorney Help You?

If you are struggling with either the claims process or the appeals process, contact a California disability claims lawyer at once for the legal assistance you need. In fact, the smart move is to consult an attorney even before you submit your initial mental health disability insurance claim.

Your disability claims attorney will ensure that all of your paperwork is accurate, complete, and on time, and your attorney will additionally ensure that there are no misunderstandings or mistakes on your part that could delay or derail the claims or appeals process.

If you let an experienced California insurance claims lawyer guide you through the claims or appeals process, you will be much more likely to prevail. In order to prevail, you should work from the beginning of the process with an attorney who has thorough knowledge of ERISA, disability insurance claims, your rights, and the law.

If you need to file a mental health disability insurance claim, or if you have already filed a claim that has been denied, arrange a legal consultation – at no cost and with no obligation – to discuss your case with an experienced and capable disability insurance claims lawyer as soon as possible. We believe McKennon Law Group PC should be that law firm.