How to Apply for Long-Term Disability Benefits in Wisconsin
File Your Claim to Avoid Delays and Denials and Get Financial Relief
Long-term disability insurance benefits protect you from financial crisis when your health takes a turn and you can’t keep working. They’re a foundation for you to take care of yourself and worry less about money.
This type of insurance policy is complicated. Much can go wrong. To start your claim right and minimize the chances of delay or denial, take these first steps:
- Notify your employer that you can no longer work because of your health.
- Apply for long-term disability as soon as you realize you’ll be out for an extended time—you may have only 20-30 days to file.
- File your claim with your employer if you have a group plan, or directly with the insurance company for an individual plan.
- Make sure your employer follows through with getting your claim started.
- Keep actively seeking out medical treatment.
Your policy may have an “elimination period” before benefits kick in. Often these waiting periods last 90-180 days, which is another reason to file early and get the process started so you can begin receiving income assistance as soon as possible.
You can get professional support for this process from a long-term disability lawyer. Unless it was your profession, too, the ins and outs of LTD insurance are difficult to deal with.
Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel have Wisconsin long-term disability attorneys who help you maximize your benefits. We’ve helped thousands of people in Wisconsin.
Here’s what you need to know as you get ready to apply for long-term disability insurance benefits.
Information to Gather as You Apply for Long-Term Disability
Getting all your paperwork together first is the best way to start as smoothly as possible when you’re filling out forms for long-term disability benefits.
Medical records are central to your claim. You need evidence of the severity of your health problems, making it clear that you can’t work.
This includes:
- Documents from doctors describing your diagnosis
- Reports from doctors explaining your condition
- Medical test results, such as blood tests, biopsies and EKGs
- Medical imaging, such as X-rays, MRIs and CT scans
- Evidence that you’ve sought multiple medical opinions
- Evidence that you’ve undergone and stuck with treatment plans
- Reports from functional evaluations
- Reports from independent medical exams done for your claim
- Your own journal detailing how your medical conditions interfere with work
In addition to health information, you’ll need information about your job, including a job description from your employer. Provide your own description, too, of the daily demands of your job. It might not fit on the forms they have you fill out, so attach it as an additional statement.
Include any information about how your health affected your job while you still tried to work, such as reduced hours or attempts at other accommodation for your health. Explain how you’ve worked hard to manage your condition hoping to work again, but still need LTD.
Written statements from friends, family, co-workers, employers, and others who know you attesting to the debilitating effects of your medical conditions will strengthen your claim.
You can also include video statements from yourself or others.
A long-term disability lawyer will know what you need for a successful LTD claim. You can get a no-cost, professional review of your situation from Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel.
Tips for Successfully Applying for Long-Term Disability
These steps work to get you the long-term disability insurance benefits you’re entitled to receive:
Study what kind of LTD insurance you have.
Look at your policy documents to understand how the insurance company defines “disability.” Sometimes they’ll say you qualify only if you cannot still perform your most recent job. Other times they’ll say you must be unable to work any job at all, a tougher standard to prove.
Add as much information to your claim as you can early in the process.
If you eventually reach the point of contesting your claim in a court with a judge, you may not be able to add new medical evidence. Think ahead as you apply for benefits and be sure to cover every angle you can think of in your documentation up front.
Answer questions on insurance forms fully and correctly.
It can be a lot of work to answer all their questions. But insurance companies will look for incomplete or incorrect information as a chance to deny your claim.
Seek out doctors experienced with long-term health conditions.
A doctor who knows how to document a condition for the purposes of an LTD insurance claim is a great source of support.
Cooperate with the insurance company if they ask you to get another medical exam.
If the insurer asks you to undergo an independent medical examination from a different doctor from who you usually see, do it. The insurer may have the right to ask for this under your policy. Don’t rely on that doctor’s opinion alone, though. They are working for the insurance company, not you.
Watch what you do on social media.
The insurance company may be paying attention if, for example, you post a photo of yourself on social media doing something that requires strength or stamina that you say you don’t have. It may be best to take a break from social media altogether while you have an insurance claim pending. They may even send someone to watch in person as you come and go from your home. If they spot you, one way or the other, seeming healthier than you say, it can sink your claim.
Double-check everything in your claim before you file it.
Make sure you answered everything, and the answers you gave are confirmed by the medical evidence you provided. Once you have everything together, take a break. Come back later and review it fresh one more time before you send it.
If you receive a denial from the insurance company, make them give you a specific reason.
Insurers are required to give you reasons for rejecting your claim. If they fail to tell you, it gives you an argument that they aren’t handling your claim appropriately. When they tell you the reasons, it gives you a roadmap for what to strengthen in your claim.
Talk to a long-term disability attorney early.
People often don’t get an attorney until they’ve been denied long-term disability benefits. But if you work with an attorney from the start, your attorney can help you get everything we’ve discussed on this page done right, so you avoid a delay in your long-term disability benefits or a denial.
The long-term disability lawyers at Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel are here to help Wisconsinites gain access to financial support you need for a more secure life going forward.