Court Rules That An Undiagnosed Pre-Existing Condition Will Not Result In Denial Of Long-Term Disability Benefits
On November 4, 2009, a ruling was handed down in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that will surely have insurance companies looking at how they define ”pre-existing condition”. Ruth Mitzel is certainly happy that the court affirmed the lower court’s decision that Anthem Life Insurance Company, her employer and insurer, had wrongfully denied her long-term life insurance benefits.
When Mitzel was diagnosed on June 18, 2004 with Wegener’s granulomatosis (WG), an auto-immune disease that is life-threatening. Her diagnosis came just five days after she qualified for her employer’s long-term disability plan. She continued working until her condition required hospitalization on June 3, 2005, just shy of a year later.
