Rant Time: Disability Insurance is the worst

I have complained before about disability insurance (See that post), but I believe that the further struggles that I am having deserve documentation.

Mostly, I just really need to rant.

I have been out of work for nearly a month. I filed a claim for disability before my leave officially started. The plan was that the insurance would pick up pretty much as soon as the paychecks stopped.

That did not happen. I haven’t received a dime yet. And as bills keep coming in, it’s starting to get a little scary.

I have called every week and asked for the status and what’s holding up the claim. Each time, there’s been a different answer.

First, they sent my doctor additional paperwork. I had to meet with my doctor again and we had to answer the same questions that had already been asked.

That doctor’s appointment, by the way, is not covered by insurance. And also, the paperwork that they sent had a bunch of misaligned text and confusing check boxes that the doctor has to fill out.

Then, they reached out to my job and asked them to confirm the last day that I worked. They did this even though I am pretty sure that my job had already answered that question as well.

Then, I called again after that point. They told me that they were still missing paperwork from my job. I reached out to my job and they confirmed that they had sent all of the paperwork that was needed a week before.

That’s when I reached my boiling point. I had my job reach out to them. I had my insurance broker reach out to them. I called them again personally and laid into them about the entire song and dance that I had been through.

That’s when my case worker from the insurance company finally reached out to me and said that my claim was under “medical review” but the she’d expedite that review.

She then called me back again to say that she was approving my claim but only through the current date.

She said that the reason why was because my doctor had apparently filled out, in one space, that I was okay to return to work. The doctor had also clearly marked in several other places that I was not okay to return to work.

So now, they want additional paperwork from my neurologist and they want to know the results of the MRI I had done this week. They want to review all of this before they will approve any further payments.

And I’m extremely worried because so far, I have had one tele-appointment with the neurologist. We’re still at the beginning stages of working together.

I also know from other survivors that sometimes something is visible on the MRI and sometimes, there isn’t anything visible. But, that doesn’t mean that nothing is wrong.

So, now any further payment hinges on two things that I can’t be sure that I can rely on.

To a certain extent, I get it. No one expected that I would ever have to file a claim on this insurance. I’m young. I wasn’t supposed to actually need these benefits.

But, that is what insurance is supposed to be for- these moments that no one sees coming.

The least they could do is not make me have to jump through a million hoops when I’m struggling in so many ways.

#covid #longhauler #longcovid #disability #medical