I posted this on the disabilites pages as well but since its a back problem..............

I am wondering if anyone has insight on the disability insurance we purchase at work.........
I have heard that sometimes the disabilty companies will deny a disability claim as a 'curtosy' to the company they supply insurance to, especially if the person is on w/c I'm not sure if this is true, any ideas?

I think that typically, if you are entitled to lost wages thru wc, your disability benefits would be reduced by that amount. Is that what you're questioning???

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Car Accident 2/2/02
Herniated disc L5/S1
Epidurals x3, PT 4 mos, some relief, but constant foot pain and numbness continued
Microdiscectomy 6/6/03
9/5/03 still have foot pain and numbness but recovered fine from surgery
9/22/03 huge improvement in foot pain in the past 2 weeks, woohoo!!!

Check your policy, but every policy that I have ever seen precludes a workman's comp injury. It's happened to me twice.

Hi there,

I take it you are referring to STD (short-term disability) and LTD (long-term disability). As stated above, each policy is different. But generally, they ARE going to deny you for one stipulation or another. I worked for 1 hour a day and was denied ALL benefits. I shouldn't have worked one SECOND for the company (I was doing them a BIG favor). By losing out on STD and LTD...I lost out on thousands of dollars.

The biggest difference is this. If you are making more than $50,000 when the injury happened. No matter what, you won't get more than 80% of your salary. But if you were making less than that...with STD/LTD, you prolly could make close to what you were making when you were working (the totals of all benies cannot equal your "last" salary pre-injury). I have heard stories of people getting as much if not MORE than they used to make. But they end up paying it back, so watch out. ALWAYS be truthful with everyone because theyare going to find out any lies anyway sooner or later. Later gets REALLY ugly, so stick with the sooner.

Good luck to you!


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successtory
Oct 2000: Repetitive Stress Injury-Inverted Hernia
Feb 2001: MRI. Shows only slight bulge at L4-L5
Dec 2001: Discogram/CT scan shows Inverted Hernia at L5-S1. L4-L5 & L5-S1 ruptured in all 4 quadrants. Unable to walk.
Feb 2002: IDET, Nucleoplasty, Intra-Discal Injections
Sept 2002: Rated in the top 10% for successful patients. Retraining for new career.

Hi there!!

Since you're asking about benefits I am going to offer up some advice since we have just recently been denied benefits through our insurance provider (we are fighting though). It is very, very important that all information provided by any doctors, therapists and specialists you see be completely objective. All test results should be matter of fact and easy to interpret. All information should be backed up with evidence, proper medical reasoning and indisputable proof. Go over any information that is being prepared by your doctors with them to ensure they are meetings these requirements. This is the only way to ensure your claim is not disputed. If another doctor can look at what you have submitted and question it or take a different opinion on the results then the insurance company will too. We ran into trouble because our doctor said "high level of pain and difficulty concentrating interferes with ability to perform work". The insurance provider says that this is subjective....how 'high' is the pain level reletive to others and can you concretely put difficulty concentrating...can we prove this is a result of the problem. Very difficult to deal with them and as mentioned in the previous post....they will deny you if given any opportunity.

I hope you get the materials needed to prove your disabilty. All the best to you!