Insurance

Disability Benefits Were Denied. How a Maryland Policyholder Challenged the Decision

The firm describes how medical evidence and the policy’s definition of disability shaped the successful challenge.

The questionWhat can you do when disability benefits are denied because you could do 'some' kind of work?

Illustrative example

A stethoscope on a table
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

A Baltimore nurse has recovered $214,000 in back benefits and had her long-term disability payments reinstated after her insurer reversed a denial.

The insurer had said she could do some type of work. Her policy promised benefits if she could not perform her own occupation.

Her monthly benefit was her family's main income after a spinal condition ended her nursing career.

Ivenmore Law focused the appeal on the policy's own-occupation definition and gathered statements from her treating doctors describing the lifting and standing limits that ruled out nursing.

The insurer reinstated benefits and paid $214,000 in back benefits after a federal suit was filed.

Her policy changes to a stricter definition of disability after five years, which may affect future payments.

Disability claims often turn on the exact definition in the policy, which can change over the life of a claim.

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