When a person is physically and/or mentally unable to find employment or perform any job, as recognised by the authorities or national guidelines, they can be considered disabled. This disability can be due to some injury or medical reasons and can persist for different time frames.
Based on various factors like nature of employment, type of disability and insurance policy, a policyholder is entitled to a variety of disability insurance claims and can appeal for disability benefits. Let us understand different types of disability insurance policies and some important aspects of the benefits.
- Short term disability
A short term disability policy is the primary level benefits policy that offers immediate coverage for disability benefits. This program spans over a short period of time and can vary from 9 to 52 weeks based on the policy and injury. The policy benefits usually include pay-out of a portion of your income for the period you are unable to work or sick time. These policies can be bought from private insurance providers and/or are included in the employment package. - Long term disability
The long term disability policies act in succession to short term benefit plans. And getting them approved is rather trickier. Long term disability policies stand for a fairly long period and are mostly applicable to chronic illnesses or severe scenarios. Most LTDs have a prerequisite for a policyholder to exhaust their STD policies before appealing for an LTD claim. The LTD policies have complicated clauses and policy structure, making them impenetrable to exploitation. However, in the case of LTDs, claim denial is pretty high and insurance terms are usually structured to act in favour of the provider. And, it can take from 3 to 6 months from the date of appeal to start receiving policy benefits. - Social Security Disability Insurance
SSDI is far more complex and difficult to crack as compared to LTDs and STDs. These are usually offered by the government authorities and hence have a relatively longer approval process. Compared to all other programs, the benefits of an SSDI depends on Social Security taxes and work credits. In order to be eligible for these benefits, one should meet the work credit criteria and should be recognised as a disability according to the national guidelines. The biggest challenge of the appeal process is to prove one’s disability. Thus, the process can often take a long time and it takes a strong case to redeem these benefits. - Individual disability claims
These are privately subscribed insurance policies by individuals from an insurance provider. In these cases, the subscriber is eligible for disability benefits if they suffer from any disability listed in the policy. Though the policies are similar to the ERISA programs, these are stand-alone contracts between an insurer and policyholder. Therefore, if the insurance company denies a claim, the policyholder can take legal actions at a state court and challenge the denial. And this would be treated as any other lawsuit.
The Law Office of Nancy L. Cavey specialises in handling disability claim lawsuits. If you have been denied your disability claim and are looking to file a case, the attorneys at the Law Office of Nancy L. Cavey can represent and help you receive the benefits you are entitled to.