Linda Nee heads up Disability Claims Solutions, which helps ME/CFS patients in the U.S. and the U.K. apply—and if need be fight—for long-term disability.
“Many insurance companies have the philosophy that they predetermine the outcome of ME/CFS claims—and that outcome is to deny the claims,” Nee says matter-of-factly. Should the insurance company pay the claim, she says, there’s an enormous financial advantage to categorize ME/CFS as a psychological problem. Group policies in Europe and the U.S. often cover psychiatric disorders for only two years, whereas coverage for a physiological disease usually continues until age 65.
“You do the math,” Nee says.
“Many insurance companies have the philosophy that they predetermine the outcome of ME/CFS claims—and that outcome is to deny the claims,” Nee says matter-of-factly. Should the insurance company pay the claim, she says, there’s an enormous financial advantage to categorize ME/CFS as a psychological problem. Group policies in Europe and the U.S. often cover psychiatric disorders for only two years, whereas coverage for a physiological disease usually continues until age 65.
“You do the math,” Nee says.
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Although I have been diagnosed with ME, my permanent disability classification is based on depression and results of psychological testing, which demonstrated my difficulties with planning, concentration. and process completion. These difficulties are presumably due to the lesions in my brain. My disability claim was approved on my first attempt.
ReplyDeleteIt took me two years to obtain the disability benefits to which I was entitled. I believe the insurance company had a policy of denying all claims for ME, hoping the claimants would be too ill to pursue their claims. I am really glad to hear that Linda Nee is helping people do this. This process is long and hard, and people applying for disability really need the help.
ReplyDeletePatricia Carter
XMRV+, 24 years ME
www.mecfsforums.com
Thanks for covering this important topic, Mindy. Because only the most energetic PWCs are able to continue working, the vast majority of us will eventually have to file a disability claim.
ReplyDeleteA discussion of how one specific insurance company--UNUM of Atlanta, GA--denies benefits to PWCs is @ http://www.mecfsforums.com/index.php/topic,3654.msg38941.html#msg38941.
Thank you . Could you interview Candace Pert about what is happening with peptide T? Kathy
ReplyDeleteI watched a Michael Moore documentary on the healthcare/insurance industry. It looked like if someone ill couldn't continue their payments, they were taken out of the hospital, on crutches and all, pushed out of the car, and left on the curbside to die.
ReplyDeleteI never realized how cold it could get, until I had to deal with more symptoms of ME/CFS. I stopped investing in high growth stocks, because I realized I was perpetuating the profit-first mentality of many companies.
I think it was Galbraith that said, "In the end, we all die." While we're still here, we may as well try to act as humanely as possible.
I don't know how the schizophrenics are going to survive with the two year cap on their coverage.
Its a good point, it would account for what I experienced from medics in the UK since 1986, if it was the case that insurance companies set out to make ME seem like an inconsequential mental illness to minimise pay outs. That kind of fits.
ReplyDeleteFinding the proof that this happened is trickier. But it seems self-evident to me from the way people like Wessely in the UK have gone about things that this agenda was operating through a few who were getting a specific brief and remuneration for following it and meanwhile other medical heirarchy who had nothing to gain from it and should have stood against it also bought into it. So I am guessing that somehow more people in the medical heirarchy were nobbled somehow, enough to give a false image of ME to clinical medics and media and to skew the perspective of the MRC quite badly.
I watched The Insider the other week and its like that isnt it? A snow job!
Cutbacks to the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs as of Dec 9. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101216/ap_on_he_me/us_aids_drug_funding_glance
ReplyDeleteWhile talking to a neighbor last night about my disability company experience, I mentioned how the disability insurance company hires doctors to deny claims. My neighbor mentioned that the same thing happened to her daughter where a number of physicians argued for having back surgery and one doctor employed by the insurer gave the opinion the surgery wasn't needed. As one would expect, the insurance company denied the claim based on the one hired disability company doctor opinion.
ReplyDeletethanks for the reporting Mindi K., we need somebody trying to keep them honest