Ok... I am really starting to get completely ticked off at this stuff I am dealing with... with METLIFE..... my long term disability insurance company.... I got the office notes yesterday from the visit I had with the Occupational Medicine Doctor back on Dec 28....and basically that a**h**e put something totally different in his notes then what he told me during the visit... he told me he agreed with what my other doctors had said...about my condition... and when I got his notes... which I dont think METLIFE thought I would do... he had said in them that basically he didn't feel I was in as much pain as I said I was in... and also he felt I was overreacting, and exaggerating my pain, and limitations....and it was his feeling that I could work a sit down job for 8 hrs. a day with no problem....Which I work nights on the freight team stocking at Home Depot... so there isn't anything I can do sitting down....My Metlife claim rep said that Metlife has to basically look at my work background and such also, and I have never done any other kind of work other then retail work... on my feet, I have no clerical training, or office training etc.... Metlife also said they are sending the notes from the occupational medicine doctor... to my pain management doctor to see if he agrees with what that guy said...... so when I found this out, I called my pain management docs office and talked to his assistant, which I have been seeing for followups... explained to her what was going on...that they would be sending them a copy of that guys notes... and she basically said, they will tell Metlife whatever is going to benefit me.... Now if she sticks to what she said....so this is all holding up a decision on whether I will get paid anymore. they have sent all this junk to the medical board at Metlife now... and have to wait to get a response from my Pain Management doctor...Then they will make a decision.... just crossing my fingers that they find in my favor....Sorry this is so long.. just had to vent a bit.... any responses are very appreciated.. just for a bit of support... Thanks guys.... Take Care...

:angel:

Aw geez Rose... sorry you're dealing with this. I have no advice...just sympathy.

I'll just pass on one more thing - hoping it's not throwing salt into a wound, but want to make sure you know - if you are out of work more than 12 weeks, your company doesn't have to re-hire you by law. Want to make sure you're aware. If you're on LTD, I'm betting it would be past 12 weeks anyway...so do you have a job to go back to? If not, I would appeal to MetLife and tell them that your marketable skill is manual labor and you currently have no job (once FMLA runs out). This might sway their decision? I dunno.

Sounds like your doctor's office is willing to work with you though. I would ask (ahead of time) for a copy of the report they are going to send. This will keep them to their word.

Good Luck.

Aw geez Rose... sorry you're dealing with this. I have no advice...just sympathy.

I'll just pass on one more thing - hoping it's not throwing salt into a wound, but want to make sure you know - if you are out of work more than 12 weeks, your company doesn't have to re-hire you by law. Want to make sure you're aware. If you're on LTD, I'm betting it would be past 12 weeks anyway...so do you have a job to go back to? If not, I would appeal to MetLife and tell them that your marketable skill is manual labor and you currently have no job (once FMLA runs out). This might sway their decision? I dunno.

Sounds like your doctor's office is willing to work with you though. I would ask (ahead of time) for a copy of the report they are going to send. This will keep them to their word.

Good Luck.

Hey TxHunni....No you aren't throwing salt in the wound.....I appreciate your response...advice and sympathy..... Home Depot's company policy is..... after you are out on medical leave for 1 year then they automatically terminate your employment with them, with the option of rehire....so if I would go back to work before March 26 of this year, I would have a job...I've talked to my human resources manager about all this.... and another policy they have is... if you are on modified duty... such as light duty for 90 days... then they have to put you out on medical leave... so if I would go back, I would be on light/modified duty... and if it was to exceed 90 days they would have to put me out on medical leave...AGAIN... and then the whole cycle starts again with Metlife paying me to be off work, since this IS NOT a workers comp issue.....I did ask MetLife about the whole thing about my skills being in the retail type business or manual labor type work.... which I have done this type work for nearly 20 years....and have not done any other type work, and they did say they had to take that into account as well....

You are right, I am going to ask my doctors office for the report they plan to send MetLife before they send it, that way like you said, I can keep them to their word.......... Thanks Alot... Hope things are going well for you.....

Take Care... :angel:

That sucks!! I am going through bascially the same thing right now and it's a pain. It's something that we shouldn't have to worry about when we are obviously going through our own %#@*. I don't know how people are able to rip off the system. I mean we have all the tests done with all the evidence to support our claims and we still get screwed! ANyway, Just wanted to say that if it doesn't work out in your favor then you should consider getting a lawyer and fight this. Take care and let me know what happens. Kristy. ;)

Tell me about it ... sorry Snoopy, your company sucks. I have MetLife for both short term and long term disability insurance. They preapproved a 4 week absence prior to my fusion surgery and I though all was cool, since some of my coworkers have had issues getting the initial leave approved. At week 2, I get a letter from MetLife stating that they need copies of all my medical records, all test results, all hospitlization related records and THEY would make the determination if further leave is required. OK, I took the proactive approach and made certain things were in motion. My doc's response was "they're not asking for much, usually it's just a form to fill out, but no problem, we can send them everything". I call MetLife and they confirm they recieved everything and then had five business days for medical review. We'll for the next 25 days, we played the document-oh-document game. They claimed to not have received certain things from the doc, they claimed records were incomplete, etc., and on and on it went. Then, they claimed that my doctor didn't provide any info on whether I could work ... sorry, your letter didn't ask his opinion of that, you wanted records so YOU could make the determination. My doc faxed them a detailed letter stating what they provided to date and what exactly did they still need? MetLife took 10 days to respond. After they got everything squared away with the doc, then the issue became that they needed a job description from my employer. I've had the CSRs tell me outright lies, I've had them tell me their "system is slow and frequently loses documents" and, that "medical case managers had additional holidays days off", so that contributed to some of my delay. I've had a CSR tell me I could have returned to work 4 week's post anterior/posterior 360 fusion surgery. Gee, didn't know that being a minimum wage MetLife CSR gave you the ability to practice medicine. I finally got approved and next Friday, wow, I get 6 weeks of owed pay ... woo hoo, grocery store here I come.

My employer, who pays for the short term (I pay for long term) is absolutely no help. Their response is "sorry, we'll let corporate know" ... not like the old days when HR would call an insurance vendor and intervene on the employees behalf.

And, this appears to be common practice with MetLife ... google MetLife+problems and read some of the hits. At my company 6 people went out for surgery this year. One had no issue at all with leave or compensation since it was worker's comp. The other five of us, down to the person, all had problems getting MetLife to just act competent and act on the damn claim.

Sorry for the problems you're going through with these idiots.

Warning to others, RUN FROM MetLife!

Thanks again ya'll for the responses.... Still haven't heard anything from MetLife as far as a decision as to whether they are going to extend my benefits or not... called my pain management doctors office and they said that the report from the Occupational Med Doc is on my PM doctors desk, but he hasn't had time to look at it... I did tell them to put a note with it that I want to see what he is going to send MetLife BEFORE he sends it, and they said they would do that....Typically MetLife has 5 days after they recieve information to make a decision.... but when I called them... my claims rep...(new one I might add... said my old rep had taken another position)... anyway she said that the Medical Nurse, and the medical board had given themselves 21 days to make a decision.... they gave themselves until January 18.... to get the info from my PM Doc and make a decision... so its once again a waiting game.... MAN! no wonder I have an appointment with the psychiatrist at my Pain Management doctors office tomorrow and they have put me on Zoloft... this junk is so stressful and depressing to deal with....Anyway... just wanted to give a update on whats going on....Ya'll take care...

:angel: