Unum Group’s Real Reason for Allegedly Pushing Social Security August 24, 2008. By Gordon Gibb Email Chattanooga, TN: In the wake of a $40 million rap over the knuckles for allegedly inflating its stock price, FirstUnum has been implicated along with other insurers in connection with the practice of requiring able-bodied clients to apply for Social [...]
Archive for November, 2010
Unum – Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Another “Collaborative Strategy” by Linda Nee
Posted in FMS and CFS on November 26, 2010 | 26 Comments »
In 1995 Unum’s Atlanta Southern Region Benefits (SRB) put together what it called a “collaborative strategy” to “manage CFS files more aggressively” and in a “proactive rather than a reactive fashion.” The so-called strategy was called the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Management Program (CFSMP) and involved members of Unum’s management such as Dr. Carolyn Jackson, Sally [...]
Unum’s Position Paper – Fibromyalgia – It’s All In Your Head by Linda Nee
Posted in FMS and CFS, Impairments on November 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
In 2002 one of Unum’s internal physicians handed me a “position paper” written by Unum-employed physicians directing the manner in which fibromyalgia claims were at that time reviewed and targeted. The actual document titled Fibromyalgia Position Statements and Guidelines documents contributors as follows: Edward C. Alvino, MD, Robert N. Anfield MD JD, Nancy Ball MD, Norman [...]
Professor Sickened by Dust, but Commonwealth of Virginia Says Facilities are Safe
Posted in In the News on November 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
(Apparently the Commonwealth of Virginia doesn’t recognize mold or chemical sensitivity claims either. This may be why Unum, the state’s third-party administrator didn’t recommend approval for an STD claim recently.) Allan Rosenbaum, a professor in the crafts department at VCU, has an incurable lung disease caused by his exposure to hazardous dust. By Dave Ress [...]
General Reminder About Benefit Checks Around the Holidays
Posted in Claims Process on November 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I wanted to remind our readers disability checks can be early or late around the holidays. Claims handlers go out on vacation using up valuable PTO time before the end of the year. If your claims handler “forgets” to approve or release your benefit check you may be waiting until after the New Year to receive your December [...]
Corporate America is Pitching Us Off the Cliff – Hey,Tell Me About It! by Linda Nee
Posted in Interesting Buzz on November 19, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Today Michael Moore published and interesting piece on his blog titled ”Corporate America is Pitching Us Off the Cliff”. My first reaction was, “Hey Michael…..tell me about it!” Unum’s been planning my personal demise since 2002 when I first began whistle blowing to management about unfair and often illegal claims practices. Prior to the NBC Dateline and 60 [...]
IME Addenda – If You Keep Asking, You Finally Get The Opinion You Want
Posted in IME Info on November 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
An interesting and relatively new strategy developing with all major US disability insurers is to continuously go back to an IME physician with additional questions and addenda when the evaluator’s initial opinion is either favorable to the insured, or is not clear or decisive enough to support a claim termination. Despite the bad press frequently [...]
Unum- The RSA – What Regulators Can Do – And Why They Don’t
Posted in Unfair Practices on November 16, 2010 | 4 Comments »
From 1999 until 2004 there were thousands of Unum complaints, lawsuits, reports of unfair claims practices and bad faith against UnumProvident, Unum Life Insurance, First Unum, Paul Revere and The Provident Companies. The US Department of Labor initiated federal investigations against Unum for pension and ERISA violations and Elliot Sptizer, the then Attorney General of [...]
Unum Places Change in Defintion Claims on ROR to Benefit at Year-End
Posted in Reservation of Rights on November 15, 2010 | 1 Comment »
DCS has received evidence Unum is placing “change in definition” claims on ROR status in an effort to understate financial reserves for year-end. (We hope the SEC fellows are watching this post!) As we’ve explained in many of our other posts, Reservation of Rights is a pay status which when coded into the pay system [...]
Unum – Another Word on Field Representative Visits
Posted in Claims Process on November 13, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Several clients have contacted DCS with information concerning field representative visits. Apparently, Unum’s investigators are engaging in phone conversations with insureds and are requesting written information either prior to or at the time of the interview. Unum field representatives do not have the authority to make any claims decisions, but are hired to conduct verbal interviews [...]
