Is My Insurer Watching Me in the Wake of LTD Claim Approval?

Maybe you think you’re just being paranoid or overly sensitive following the filing of a long-term disability claim in which the insurance company finally recognized the merits of your claim after protracted challenges.

Then again, you might be correct in your assessment that some notable monitoring presence continues to track you following the approval of your claim. Many people in California and nationally feel that way as they go about their daily lives to the best of their abilities while struggling with a disabling condition.

Trust your instincts. It happens – and more often than many LTD claimants think.

We reference the “disability surveillance” activities often conducted by insurance companies in pending and post-approval LTD cases on our website at the long-tenured claimants’-rights law firm of Roboostoff & Kalkin in San Francisco. On our website we discuss that it is common for an insurer “to get evidence that it can use to justify denying or terminating a claim” by means of surveillance.

This is a harsh reality for individuals across the Bay Area and California dealing with insurance carriers in disability-related claims. If this is an issue which concerns you, please take a look at our recent firm blog post: Insurers “are more concerned with their profitability than with making good on their promise to you.” This may give you some insight into the insurance carrier’s motivation. That company profits-first mentality can sometimes be the motivating factor causing an insurer to initiate surveillance of a claimant as he or she is doing nothing other than trying to cope with everyday life.

Surveillance evidence gathered by an insurer — whether from pictures, video, online social media sites or other sources — is all about discovering snippets of information which can be sensationalized to make you appear less disabled than you claim you are, as opposed to providing an accurate portrayal of your disability in a comprehensive light. For example, you might occasionally be doing laps in the pool at your health club because your doctor advised swimming as a beneficial therapy, yet your insurer will argue that this is evidence that you’re not in as much pain as you claim to be.

We note for California readers of our website “the potential perils of insurance surveillance” and explain the need to respond to such tactics in a timely and effective way. At Roboostoff & Kalkin do that by compiling meaningful evidence that helps a trier of fact such as a judge or a jury see the whole picture as it relates to an individual’s true functional capacity.

We welcome your questions to discuss your LTD-related concerns. Please feel free to contact us at any time.