New York Life LTD Insurance
Did New York Life Long-Term Disability Insurance Deny Your Benefits?
When you or your employer paid for long-term disability insurance from New York Life, you hoped you would never need to use it.
Then an illness or injury forces you from work. You face a crisis with both your health and your finances.
This is when long-term disability becomes a lifesaver.
But did New York Life stop paying your benefits, or reject your claim altogether?
New York Life is one of the biggest carriers of long-term disability insurance in Michigan and the Detroit area.
At Levine Benjamin Law Firm, we have extensive experience appealing long-term disability denials from New York Life.
And we know the common pitfalls you might run into with any insurance company.
Get Your Maximum Benefits:
New York Life in Detroit
Though New York Life is based in Connecticut, many major employers in the Detroit area use it, including Henry Ford Hospital. And many city and county employees in our area have New York Life.
That means the lawyers at Levine Benjamin Law Firm see a lot of cases involving New York Life.
And very often, we’re successful securing benefits for people who New York Life initially denied or stopped paying.
Levine Benjamin lawyers know the common tactics long-term disability insurance carriers use to deny your benefits.
What Should I Watch Out for with Long-Term Disability
No matter which insurance coverage you have, the lawyers at Levine Benjamin know the tactics insurance companies use to stand in your way when you need benefits.
These are three of the most common problems:
- Telling you all you need to do is write a letter to appeal a denial
- Saying you no longer qualify for benefits after two years
- Conducting surveillance on you
The lawyers at Levine Benjamin can help guard you against these strategies.
You don’t pay anything to talk to us about your case.
When you can’t work because of health problems, writing a letter to the long-term disability insurance carrier is not enough.
1. The Insurance Company Tells You Just to Write a Letter.
When your insurer rejects your claim—or terminates benefits you already were receiving—you need to appeal the decision.
Sometimes, the insurance company will tell you to “just write us a letter.”
Don’t fall for this.
The insurance company is not your partner in sorting out your benefits. They’re your adversary.
You need to do more than send a letter saying how miserable you feel because of your medical problems.
If you simply do that, you’ll miss the chance to submit new statements and evidence challenging the conclusions of the insurance company experts who said you don’t need benefits.
Making this mistake can seriously threaten your chances of winning benefits.
Instead, an attorney like the ones at Levine Benjamin can get you a fresh doctor’s checkup, creating a report that pushes back against the insurance company’s reasons for denying your benefits.
Later in the process, you might not get the chance to add new evidence to your case.
Sometimes long-term disability insurance companies end your benefits by switching to a different definition of disability.
2. You Get Benefits for Two Years, Then They Stop.
After you’ve been receiving long-term disability benefits for two years, insurance companies will often switch you to a tougher standard to qualify for benefits—and terminate your payments.
During the first two years, they say you can receive benefits because your health prevents you from doing the same job you had before, what they call your “own job.”
After two years, they say you can only qualify for benefits if you can’t do “any job.”
And any job can mean anything that exists in the economy, even if it has nothing to do with your background and experience.
The key to fighting this is getting a vocational expert to assess your situation and report on whether you truly could do any job out there.
The attorneys at Levine Benjamin can help you with that.
3. Insurance Companies Conduct Surveillance on You.
Terrible as it sounds, insurance companies will sometimes send people to watch you in public, looking for evidence that your condition isn’t debilitating.
They’ll sit in the grocery store parking lot, trying to get pictures of you loading heavy grocery bags into your car. No matter that you have to get food for your family—or that the grocery trip will drain your energy for days.
They’ll monitor your social media, looking for signs that you’re doing something that requires stamina, like taking a trip.
They’ll even scour your medical records looking for a recommendation from your doctor that you should go to the gym.
The insurance company then uses that as a tipoff for a place to catch you exerting yourself—so they can argue you’re too healthy for benefits.
A lawyer can protect your rights under your long-term disability insurance policy.
Get Someone to Fight Back
If you run into any of these problems with New York Life or any long-term disability insurance company, the Levine Benjamin Law Firm can help protect your rights under your disability policy.