Will 8850 Form Disability 2016-2023

Hi, I'm attorney Greg Dell, here with attorney Stephen Jessup. Steve, I want to talk to you about something that's probably one of the top five reasons that we see claim denials, and that has to do with the change in definition that comes about in a long-term disability policy. That obviously has to do with a change from a known occupation definition, usually to an any occupation definition. It used to be that if you were able to do your own occupation, then you couldn't do a job that pays you more than sixty percent of what you used to make. But for the most part, they're usually changed from your own occupation to any gainful occupation, which is very similar to the Social Security disability standard. It is very common in almost every group long-term disability policy because all of these group disability carriers are governed by ERISA, which makes you apply for Social Security disability. They kind of tie that in to say, "Look, after 12 months or 24 months of getting paid benefits, your definition is going to change." So we know that a big chunk of the calls we get every week are either, "I've been denied because they changed my definition," or, "They've notified me that they're doing an evaluation of my claim, and they're saying that I'm going to have this change in the definition in four or five months. What can I do?" So let's talk about first some things that possibly people could do to prepare for the change in definition to help avoid a denial. I think it really starts from the beginning of the claim. The vast majority of people are going to have jobs that fall into a sedentary light-duty capacity. So when an insurance company is reviewing...