A common piece of information that We’ve seen requested over and over again from Long Term Disability Claims(LTD) assessors is “DATES”
After every appointment with a doctor that pertains to a Long Term Disability Claim(LTD) ask the doctor to include the following information and your claim will have less of a chance of being returned requesting more information.
First Most important date:
Date of Injury or Illness – sometimes a difficult date to define, but one that many of your benefits hinge on knowing. A doctors statement of first visit for the illness or injury helps establish any waiting periods that need to be satisfied for benefits to be paid.
Keep asking for these dates at each appointment!
1. Expected Date of Return to work – When the doctor is meeting with you have them make an assessment of the date you should be able to return to work based on your visit today (Maybe the same date but have her/him explain that in their report.
Doctors often forget to include..
2. Date of next planned test or evaluation – sometimes we know things in our head, and when we tell a story we don’t put some of the detail into the story, because we know the information but when you don’t know that information it needs to be explicitly explained. I know Doctors are busy with many patients and situations in their heads that this information sometimes gets lost but it’s a critical point for LTD Assessors.
Your situation can change and maybe one doctor said your return to work date should be the 1st of April, a week later a doctor (The same or different) may make an assessment of your return to work being the 30th of April. This information needs to be sent to the Assessor for payments to not be interrupted. (Have them include information on why that assessment is made ie. test results)
From the time of your original claim until a decision is made you may have more information remember that a claim on LTD is an ongoing situation. It’s not make a claim and your done, follow up appointments to doctors will require the information passed along to Assessors for them to monitor the situation.
Also the opposite is true too, if your date is assessed as a sooner return to work date getting that information to assessor will stop payments and ensure you don’t owe money back.
Your benefits advisor is the best person to work with, they have no control over claims that are paid but know the process, working with them is your best bet to getting the payment you deserve.
Disability benefits are of huge importance and protect your ability to earn and income in the case of an injury or illness, fraudulent claims increase the cost of these products for everyone, these policies and procedures ensure the claims process is designed to ensure claims are paid out as per the conditions of the contract and fraudulent claims are not.