Man With Severe Heart Condition Denied Disability By Cigna

When Florida residents have a medical disability that keeps them from working, they often depend on their disability insurance to help them financially survive. Unfortunately, insurance companies sometimes refuse to pay, leaving people between a rock and a hard place. Such is the case with a Chicago man.

According to a recent news report, the man was forced to leave his job as vice president of a magazine due to a debilitating heart condition. After he suffered two heart attacks, underwent a five-way bypass procedure and continued to experience chest pains, his doctor told him he was permanently disabled and his career was too stressful to safely continue. However, when he filed a claim for long-term disability benefits with Cigna, the insurance company denied his claim three times, arguing that his desk job wasn’t stressful enough to threaten his health.

Patient advocates say disability insurance denials like this are common, and it can take months or years to win an appeal. Apparently, many insurers attempt to deny a claim long enough that people will become desperate and accept a fraction of the benefits they are actually owed. To combat this, experts say that people forced to go on disability should gather extensive medical records to support their claim before leaving their jobs. This could improve the chances of approval and provide ammunition to fight denials.

People who are planning to file a long-term disability claim might want to seek the advice of an attorney before completing the paperwork. An attorney could help collect evidence supporting the claim and ensure the client applies for all the benefits he or she is entitled to. If the claim is denied, legal counsel could file an appeal and fight to get the claim approved.