Disability Insurance Lawyer Blog

Californians Should Be Concerned About Their Disability Insurance

According to Michael Kiltzik of the LA TIMES, anyone who lives in California should start worrying about their disability insurance protection.  Steve Poizner, a successful businessman and Insurance Commissioner of California, wants to roll back regulations that reduce disability insurance benefit payments to offset payments that the claimant receives from pensions, workers compensation payments or wages.    While offsets are business as usual when it comes to Social Security disability claims, why should Californians - or anyone, for that matter - who worked hard to earn a pension have that money offset against their benefits?

Poizner  is taking the position that insurance regulations already in place will prevent this - but these are the regulations that protect Californians from the insurance companies' chronic policies of denying and delaying and offsetting whatever is possible.  Poizner has set his sights on a Republican nomination for governor next year, and many are questioning this and other decisions where his chief constituency appears to be the insurance companies, not the good people of California who he has been entrusted to protect. 

New FMLA Requirements Are Now In Effect

As of January 16, 2009, employers will be required to comply with the United States Department of Labor's new Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") regulations that concern employees who are related to military personnel and create new employee notification obligations. Among numerous changes, the revised regulations implement two new forms of leave for employees in the military.

Military Caregiver Leave which provides medical-oriented leave for employees caring for family members with serious injuries or illnesses incurred in military duty and
Qualifying Exigency Leave which provides leave for various, non-medical obligations that arise out of a spouse, son, daughter, or parent being on active duty or on call to active duty status.

The new FMLA regulations also require employers to provide several new forms of notice regarding FMLA rights and obligations.

A new "General Notice" must be provided to employees as part of an employee handbook or through documentation issued upon hiring.

Upon five days of either a request for leave or learning that a leave may qualify under the FMLA, an employer must issue a personalized "Eligibility Notice" that addresses whether the employee meets the statutory requirements of the FMLA.

Upon five days of either a request for leave or learning that a leave may qualify under the FMLA, an employer must issue a "Rights and Responsibilities Notice" that sets forth various facts relevant to the employee's leave.

Five days after receiving sufficient information to determine whether the need for leave is FMLA qualifying, employers are required to issue a written "Designation Notice."

Unum's Bad Reputation Continues

The Second Circuit provided claimants with a holiday gift, when it decided McCauley v. Unum Life Ins. Co. 2008 U.S. App LEXIS 26094 (2nd Cir., Dec 24, 2008).  First Unum (part of Unum Provident) is the nation's  largest long term disability insurance company, and it has an extensive record of systematically denying and delaying claims to protect its shareholders more than policy owners.  We remember the 60 Minutes and Dateline segments that explored the company's employee rating system for employee promotions, raises and bonuses:  based on how many claims they can deny or delay.  We call that bad faith.  And while it's systemic to the entire long term disability insurance sector, Unum seems to have a particular gift for mean spirited denials.

Now, Courts are becoming more cognizant of this, and relying upon the Supreme Court's decision in Met Life v. Glenn, such a history of biased claim administration is coming back to haunt insurers.  We expect that the lower courts will similarly scrutinize the conduct of insurers history of biased claim administration in determining other actions.