In this video, disability insurance lawyers Gregory Dell and Cesar Gavidia consider the effect on Amazon workers’ disability claims now that Hartford has bought the Aetna Disability Insurance Company. They conclude that changes will be unlikely since both companies now engage in extensive and exhaustive claims review, using every possible avenue they can to avoid paying long-term disability claims.
For the first 24 months of disability, workers are considered disabled if they can no longer work in their own occupation. A big hurdle to mount comes after 24 months when the definition changes to require workers to be unable to work in any occupation for which they are qualified based on education, training and experience. Aetna tries hard to prove that these workers should be able to work in sedentary jobs, like customer service or data analyst. Medical experts generally agree that this is not true. These types of jobs still require tasks that the injured claimant still cannot perform.
We work with a claimant and his or her doctor to anticipate this change in disability definition. We provide the documentation necessary to support our attempt to convince the insurer that a claimant is also disabled from working in a sedentary position.
Please contact any of our attorneys to discuss any questions that you may have regarding your long-term disability insurance claim.