Anyone who is dealing with a medical or mental health condition that prevents you from working full-time knows how stressful this process can be—made more so by worrying that Unum will deny your claim for long term disability benefits. At Dell Disability Lawyers, our legal team has handled thousands of Unum claims and knows exactly what they’re looking for when they review a request for benefits. Below, we’ll discuss how Unum reviews long term disability claims and what claimants can do to reduce the risk of having their benefits denied.

Your medical records must document your complaints and limitations.

As part of the claim review process, Unum’s claim representatives will reach out to your medical providers, often cold-calling them without telling you—and in the process, sometimes even convincing your doctors to agree that you have fewer limitations than you previously reported to Unum. In other situations, Unum could persuade your doctor to agree that you’ve improved enough that you no longer need benefits.

Your doctor should feel free to make Unum submit its requests in writing. Not only will this prevent your doctor from having to interrupt their busy schedule to talk to an insurance company, but it can force Unum to be explicit about its request and minimize some back-and-forth techniques its claim handlers use to encourage doctors to agree that a particular claimant may not meet the policy’s definition of “disabled.” Claimants should make sure their doctor’s verbal and written reports to Unum are consistent with the symptoms and limitations listed in the claim application and any follow-up communications.

Keep notes or a pain journal of your complaints and make sure your doctor includes them in their medical notes.

Not all disabling conditions show up on a diagnostic test. Unfortunately, this won’t stop Unum from denying your claim for lack of medical evidence. If your condition is a more subjective one, you’ll want to keep a pain or symptom journal and ensure that your doctor includes this journal (or at least a summary of it) in their medical notes. This can further corroborate your claim and help compensate for having less objective medical evidence.

Doctors are taught to practice medicine, not how to be medical historians—so it’s important for claimants to become their own historians. Each visit should build on the previous one, and you may need to refresh your doctor’s recollection of your symptoms and limitations. Claimants must emphasize to their doctors that it is vitally important that certain pieces of information make it onto the claim form or into the medical records.

The Unum claimant statement has traps and you must complete it carefully.

Unum designs its claimant statements to be as tilted in its favor as possible, phrasing questions in a way that encourages a certain answer or leaving no room on the form for an explanation. Claimants shouldn’t feel bound to this form, and it’s always possible to attach a brief addendum so that your answers are as complete as they can be.

Unum will review all of your social media profiles so limit social media as much as possible.

Unum, like all disability insurance companies, often uses video surveillance to try to damage claimants’ credibility and generate a reason to deny a claim. But with COVID keeping so many people indoors over the last year, many Unum claim representatives have shifted to using social media “surveillance” to try to catch claimants in a lie. Making posts friends-only won’t necessarily solve this issue; Unum claims representatives can go so far as to create fake profiles with common-sounding names to try to access non-public posts. Carefully review your social media, including posts you’re tagged in, to ensure that they’re consistent with the symptoms and limitations you’ve listed in your claim file.

Always be prepared and honest when speaking with Unum. You may not need to speak with them on the phone.

One of the quickest ways to have your claim denied is to be caught stretching the truth. Always be honest when speaking with Unum representatives, and don’t try to understate or oversell your limitations. And just like your doctors, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask Unum to submit their questions in writing so that you aren’t put on the spot and asked for an immediate answer.

As you can see, navigating the disability insurance claims process can be like walking a tightrope. Don’t feel as though you have to go through this process alone. At Dell Disability Lawyers, we’ve handled thousands of Unum claims and are well-versed in what they’re looking for. To discuss your claim with one of our experienced attorneys, just give us a call today to schedule a free consultation.