Continuation of my series, Losing Well. Part 1 can be found here.
December 2015
Spring of 2013. After six months, I moved from short term disability to long term disability and my insurance company requested that I signup for Social Security Disability. They paid for an outside firm to help submit my application. It normally takes two years to get approved for SSDI. My application was approved in 29 days. The government doesn't seem to see the need to fight visual impairment like they would other disabilities. It’s just a measurement to them.
My case worker from the Social Security Administration called and said that I should have my payments changed over into my wife’s name. I have no idea why she thought this was a good idea but I refused. The case worker seemed pretty upset that I didn’t do what they had told me. Story of my life, get in line. She then asked if I was the head of house. I told them I was. They said I could get money for my kids and I should submit an application for them. I sighed and told them to look at their computer because that application had already been submitted. Two weeks later my children’s application was approved.
My insurance policy with the bank said I should make 60% of my former salary plus bonuses. After SSDI. In reality, my state didn’t count my SSDI as income. This meant I made more like 70% of my former salary. Here ’s how my income would breakout over time, assuming I made $1,000 a year:
$280 - SSDI
$140 - SSDI for my children
$230 - LTD Insurance Policy
Total = $650
As my children turned 18 they would stop getting SSDI so my income would look like this:
$280 SSDI
$370 LTD insurance Policy
Total = $650
And when I turned 65 my income would drop to just the $280 SSDI. This assumes I could maintain LTD payments from my insurance company, Something they were going to fight me on shamelessly.
The loss of 30% my income was a huge blow at first. Kate had been a stay at home mother for four years. After I went on disability, she went back to work. We effectually switched roles. I was now a stay at home Dad and she was working. But because of my insurance and SSDI, I was still he breadwinner. It was a strange situation.
July 4, 2013
A year ago today I noticed new eye problems that my surgeon later told me he couldn't correct. This set me on a new path.
July 15, 2013
Made another optical tech cry after my visual field test. The doctor should really warn them about me!
September 26, 2013
Going on disability was the right decision but walking away from my team goes against everything I know. It hurt my soul. The logic of the mind eats away at the decisions it made for itself. I miss work. I miss the prestige. I miss the action. I miss the thrill. I don't miss all the conference calls.
When I was working I was headed to an early grave. All the calories to jack me up to have my head in the game. Then not having time to work out or eat right. It created a circle of failure. Walking away from work broke the cycle. And probably saved me from a heart attack.
December 11, 2013
LTD Insurance company just called to tell me they've been Googling my activities. Guess it's their way of wishing me happy holidays. I hope they have video of me walking into the occasional tree. That happens all too frequently.
December 14, 2013
Blind man runs into wheelchair.
Part 22 is here.
Showing posts with label long term disability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long term disability. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Losing Well Part 20
Continuation of my series, Losing Well. Part 1 can be found here.
December 2015
One of the first things my LTD insurance company did was to make me get a case worker at my State’s Division of the Blind. I’d done this over a decade before and I didn’t think they had anything new to tell me. DOB came out to check on me and determined that I already had the coping skills I needed. They retested me on my cane use and were satisfied I could get around on my own. They did suggest I try to get disabled transportation services from the city. When I’d last asked about disabled transportation in the previous decade I’d been told I couldn’t apply because of my employment. Something had changed.
So I went ahead and applied. My case worker told me that she’d never had an RP patient get approved for disabled transportation. So I did what I’d always done for work, I put together a Power Point presentation. It documented the intersections I had to cross, the distances I had to walk. The meeting went well and I was approved. Afterwards, I gave my Power Point deck to my case worker to help her other clients.
The insurance company gave up trying to force me back into temp job at the bank and shifted their focus to getting me into retraining. I resisted this because it seemed like they were just trying to duck their fiduciary duty. They didn’t want to actually evaluate my claim before they booted me out the door.
I don’t believe the insurance company was used to working with someone who wasn’t intimidated by them. They were used to people making claims bending over backwards to please them. Many of their requests didn’t seem legal. I simply refused to give into them if I thought their requests were unreasonable. The first suck request was that they wanted access to all of my health information, not just my eye doctors.
After searching on the internet, I figured out that my insurance company was looking for inculpatory information. Not information I’d lied about but information they could use to try and deny my claim. They wanted to know if I’d had a physical or if I had a therapist. If they could prove my disability was all in my head then they would only have to pay me for two years not twenty.
My response to these requests was two fold - 1)what part of the contract you have with my employer allows you access to all of my medical records? Can you send that request to me in writing? 2)I have HIPPA rights and no, you can’t have those documents.
To be clear, I happily sent all of my eye doctor’s notes over to my insurance company for review. But I didn’t want to allow them to go on a fishing expedition through my medical history. They weren’t trust worthy. They didn’t have my best interests in mind. If I followed their process they’d find a way to drop me. I had to stand up for myself and demand they actually evaluate my medical claim. They eventually stopped asking for my medical records unrelated to RP. And they never did send those request in writing. But they didn’t give up that easily.
Part 21 can be found here.
December 2015
One of the first things my LTD insurance company did was to make me get a case worker at my State’s Division of the Blind. I’d done this over a decade before and I didn’t think they had anything new to tell me. DOB came out to check on me and determined that I already had the coping skills I needed. They retested me on my cane use and were satisfied I could get around on my own. They did suggest I try to get disabled transportation services from the city. When I’d last asked about disabled transportation in the previous decade I’d been told I couldn’t apply because of my employment. Something had changed.
So I went ahead and applied. My case worker told me that she’d never had an RP patient get approved for disabled transportation. So I did what I’d always done for work, I put together a Power Point presentation. It documented the intersections I had to cross, the distances I had to walk. The meeting went well and I was approved. Afterwards, I gave my Power Point deck to my case worker to help her other clients.
The insurance company gave up trying to force me back into temp job at the bank and shifted their focus to getting me into retraining. I resisted this because it seemed like they were just trying to duck their fiduciary duty. They didn’t want to actually evaluate my claim before they booted me out the door.
I don’t believe the insurance company was used to working with someone who wasn’t intimidated by them. They were used to people making claims bending over backwards to please them. Many of their requests didn’t seem legal. I simply refused to give into them if I thought their requests were unreasonable. The first suck request was that they wanted access to all of my health information, not just my eye doctors.
After searching on the internet, I figured out that my insurance company was looking for inculpatory information. Not information I’d lied about but information they could use to try and deny my claim. They wanted to know if I’d had a physical or if I had a therapist. If they could prove my disability was all in my head then they would only have to pay me for two years not twenty.
My response to these requests was two fold - 1)what part of the contract you have with my employer allows you access to all of my medical records? Can you send that request to me in writing? 2)I have HIPPA rights and no, you can’t have those documents.
To be clear, I happily sent all of my eye doctor’s notes over to my insurance company for review. But I didn’t want to allow them to go on a fishing expedition through my medical history. They weren’t trust worthy. They didn’t have my best interests in mind. If I followed their process they’d find a way to drop me. I had to stand up for myself and demand they actually evaluate my medical claim. They eventually stopped asking for my medical records unrelated to RP. And they never did send those request in writing. But they didn’t give up that easily.
Part 21 can be found here.
Losing Well Part 19
Continuation of my series, Losing Well. Part 1 can be found here.
December 2015
Pulling the tigger on disability was difficult. I’d always defined myself by being better than my sighted rivals. Admiring that I could no longer compete was the worst symptom of RP I’d ever faced. It forced me to become a new person. A more realistic person.
For years I’d defined myself by my job. For years I was the Vice President, the manager, the boss. Now I was just Dad. I went from having a team of people do what I told them to working for my two kids. Over time I came to see my new role as just as important. Just as rewarding. At times, just as frustrating.
The upshot of going on disability was that I lost forty pounds in six months. I was under so much stress I couldn’t see how my job was killing me. Keeping up with the sighted world was killing me. It was time for a change.
The process of going onto disability was difficult. I had a lot of phone calls with my employer’s insurance company. They felt like I could go get another job at the bank. But they’d only guarantee my employment for 30 days while I looked for another job. It was hard not to see this a cynical ploy to get rid of the severely disabled. I declined the job search and moved forward on my disability claim.
I told my insurance company the truth; I could run one project at a time but not ten. I worked on a job that was the visual olympics. I told them that if they could get me a job that would allow me to run one project at a time, I’d go for it. They never got back to me because that job doesn’t exist.
The insurance company made my long suffering eye doctor fill out a ton of forms. They made him repeat over and over that I had RP and there was no real treatment or surgery and that I was legally blind. The insurance company didn’t ever seem to believe him or me. When I made the call to go out on disability, it was the end of a long battle. My insurance company didn’t see it that way. They thought I could do more or try harder. They just didn’t want to pay out my salary over the next twenty years.
When I’d found out about RP back in 1999, I’d contacted my employer and increased my insurance coverage. My employer offered, for an increased premium, to bump their disability coverage to 60% of my salary. For an additional fee, they included bonuses. That’s the coverage I had when I went on disability. The coverage I’d paid them for. For over a decade. It must have been too much money for the insurance company. I crossed some threshold. I was their new loss leader and they needed to move me off their books. My battle had just begun.
Part 20 can be found here.
December 2015
Pulling the tigger on disability was difficult. I’d always defined myself by being better than my sighted rivals. Admiring that I could no longer compete was the worst symptom of RP I’d ever faced. It forced me to become a new person. A more realistic person.
For years I’d defined myself by my job. For years I was the Vice President, the manager, the boss. Now I was just Dad. I went from having a team of people do what I told them to working for my two kids. Over time I came to see my new role as just as important. Just as rewarding. At times, just as frustrating.
The upshot of going on disability was that I lost forty pounds in six months. I was under so much stress I couldn’t see how my job was killing me. Keeping up with the sighted world was killing me. It was time for a change.
The process of going onto disability was difficult. I had a lot of phone calls with my employer’s insurance company. They felt like I could go get another job at the bank. But they’d only guarantee my employment for 30 days while I looked for another job. It was hard not to see this a cynical ploy to get rid of the severely disabled. I declined the job search and moved forward on my disability claim.
I told my insurance company the truth; I could run one project at a time but not ten. I worked on a job that was the visual olympics. I told them that if they could get me a job that would allow me to run one project at a time, I’d go for it. They never got back to me because that job doesn’t exist.
The insurance company made my long suffering eye doctor fill out a ton of forms. They made him repeat over and over that I had RP and there was no real treatment or surgery and that I was legally blind. The insurance company didn’t ever seem to believe him or me. When I made the call to go out on disability, it was the end of a long battle. My insurance company didn’t see it that way. They thought I could do more or try harder. They just didn’t want to pay out my salary over the next twenty years.
When I’d found out about RP back in 1999, I’d contacted my employer and increased my insurance coverage. My employer offered, for an increased premium, to bump their disability coverage to 60% of my salary. For an additional fee, they included bonuses. That’s the coverage I had when I went on disability. The coverage I’d paid them for. For over a decade. It must have been too much money for the insurance company. I crossed some threshold. I was their new loss leader and they needed to move me off their books. My battle had just begun.
Part 20 can be found here.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Clear As Mud
The world of SSDI and Long Term Disability is murky. The only way I've been able to figure it out is to live it. I spent much of the past twenty years in project management and it's very frustrating how complicated this system is. It resists understanding because the insurance companies involved don't want anyone to understand the system. Neither do the lawyers. Their incentives are to hide information.
The situation I'm in now has so far resisted understanding without doing. I am currently on SSDI from the government. That's great news. I'm also on LTD from my employer's disability insurance company. The two provide me with 60% of my former salary. I worked for my employer for 14 years and left them on good terms.
Since I went out on disability three years ago, my LTD insurance company has been pushing me to get an evaluation for vocational rehab. They've made it clear they'd be happy if I did any job. I worked as an IT manager. They'd be fine if I worked at Wal-Mart or Taco Bell. If I understand them correctly, they're trying to make me feel so insulted that I'd walk before I took a job like that. Meanwhile, I am a stay at home Dad and don't want to leave my kids for minimum wage.
So we're in a position of trying to out maneuver each other. They've forced my hand and now I'm going to my state's vocational rehab center for the blind and visually impaired. Fine. Here are the question I can't figure out:
1) Can my LTD company make me take a job above the SSDI threshold? Can they make me lose my SSDI?
2)If I get a job that pays below the SSDI cutoff, do they then cut my LTD benefits by the amount I'll make?
3)What level of income (below SSDI threshold) is acceptable? Do I have to max out my earnings?
So far this is clear as mud. And stressful as hell.
The situation I'm in now has so far resisted understanding without doing. I am currently on SSDI from the government. That's great news. I'm also on LTD from my employer's disability insurance company. The two provide me with 60% of my former salary. I worked for my employer for 14 years and left them on good terms.
Since I went out on disability three years ago, my LTD insurance company has been pushing me to get an evaluation for vocational rehab. They've made it clear they'd be happy if I did any job. I worked as an IT manager. They'd be fine if I worked at Wal-Mart or Taco Bell. If I understand them correctly, they're trying to make me feel so insulted that I'd walk before I took a job like that. Meanwhile, I am a stay at home Dad and don't want to leave my kids for minimum wage.
So we're in a position of trying to out maneuver each other. They've forced my hand and now I'm going to my state's vocational rehab center for the blind and visually impaired. Fine. Here are the question I can't figure out:
1) Can my LTD company make me take a job above the SSDI threshold? Can they make me lose my SSDI?
2)If I get a job that pays below the SSDI cutoff, do they then cut my LTD benefits by the amount I'll make?
3)What level of income (below SSDI threshold) is acceptable? Do I have to max out my earnings?
So far this is clear as mud. And stressful as hell.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Vocational Rehab
It's going to be an interesting week. I've been on long term disability for the past two years because of vision. My employer's insurance company is sending me to get evaluated by my state's Services for the Blind this week. I'm not against working, I just don't want to end up in a job that I'd hate. Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I have to be miserable, right?
Some people think everyone who's on disability and not working any level job is a deadbeat. I think that's insane. I raise children. This allows my wife to work. There's a whole lot of value to be brought to the world that doesn't include working for minimum wage. How much is happiness worth? I guess I'm going to find out.
Some people think everyone who's on disability and not working any level job is a deadbeat. I think that's insane. I raise children. This allows my wife to work. There's a whole lot of value to be brought to the world that doesn't include working for minimum wage. How much is happiness worth? I guess I'm going to find out.
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