Common Mistakes When Filing for Long-Term Disability
Completing a successful long-term disability claim is a kind of art. If you are unfamiliar with filing these claims, there are many places for pitfalls that could damage the perceived validity of your claim. A denied long-term disability claim can make your already challenging situation significantly more overwhelming. At Dawson Rosenthal, our San Diego long-term denied disability claim lawyers are here to guide you through the process and help you avoid some of these common mistakes.
Common Long-Term Disability Claim Mistakes
Simply filling out the insurance-provided forms is not necessarily adequate for an approved claim. Approval for long-term disability often requires additional pages for narratives and documentation to make a compelling case. With that in mind, some of the common mistakes can be found below.
Failure to Meet Deadlines
Most long-term disability policies require you to submit a claim within a number of days from the date of disability. Like most insurance companies, this is about 30 days, depending on the policy. If you don’t file your claim or provide follow-up documentation per the provided guidelines, your claim will likely be denied.
Inadequate Narrative
Most LTD policies require a narrative or description of how your disability affects you. People may make the mistake of only using the small amount of space provided and not including all relevant details of the disability. Your experience of your disability and how it may prevent you from working should be thorough and detailed. Failing to make your case convincing can lead to a denial.
Insufficient Supporting Evidence
The supporting evidence for your LTD claim should be a large portion of your application. You do not want to settle with checking the boxes provided and should provide a variety of supporting documentation such as:
- Clinical observations from your doctor
- Imagine
- Blood or urine test results
- Any other relevant data
Vocational Documentation
It may not be enough just to state that your job is challenging to do because of your disability. The company will want to know what exactly makes it difficult and how your disability contributes to that, especially if you can manage most other tasks in your life. This may be because you are unpredictably unwell, so the flexibility of managing personal tasks makes it possible. However, the demand of a job with required hours of operations may make that incredibly challenging. To fully support your case, it may be helpful to provide a detailed summary of your job duties and how your disability may prevent you from performing them.
Inadequate Support From Your Doctor
If you include a letter from your doctor regarding your disability, this can help or hinder your case, depending on how they talk about your disability. First, a simple letter stating your diagnosis and that you are disabled will rarely be sufficient. When you ask your physician to write a letter, they must provide as much detail as possible regarding the steps to diagnosis, symptoms you experience, and how it affects your day-to-day. It can be incredibly helpful to secure a disability claim attorney who can help your physician understand the type of information that can encourage the company to approve your claim.