Legions of people across the country know that it can be challenging to prevail on a long-term disability claim even when debilitating symptoms are well documented and widely recognized within the medical community.
Take something like a cancer diagnosis, for example, or a severe sleep apnea condition. Notably, there is monumental amount of blowback from employers and insurance companies responding negatively to medically confirmed diagnoses of such conditions and other equally incapacitating ailments.
It is not just a tendency within the insurance industry to push back against meritorious claims in an effort to deny, delay or terminate them. Candidly, it is standard business practice.
Insurers commonly seek to undermine claims even in instances where medical agreement is virtually unanimous concerning the existence of a materially limiting condition. Given that, it is a virtual certainty they push hard against any claimed disability that can’t be clearly explained by a single medical condition.
Take chronic fatigue syndrome, for example. Individuals experiencing CFS symptoms are routinely challenged by employers and insurers insisting that the root cause of their disability rests with other health problems that do not preclude an ability to return to work. Persons with CFS diagnoses seldom escape insurers’ persistent proof demands and their benefit denials.
What is daily life like for a chronic fatigue sufferer?
In a word, life is difficult. CFS has been described as “extreme, prolonged tiredness that cannot be alleviated by sleep or rest.” That makes for an obviously frustrating reality, especially since sufferers often experience multiple symptoms. Those prominently include these:
- Widespread muscular and joint pain
- Lapses in focus/concentration, coupled with memory loss
- Sore throat
- Lethargy/depression
Many persons with such symptoms find it flatly impossible to manage an as-usual work schedule or, indeed, engage in activities that require much more than minimal effort.
How do doctors arrive at a CFS diagnosis?
Unlike insurers’ frequent assertions, a chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis does not issue casually. Generally, full medical workups precede a diagnosis, along with tests that systematically rule out other causes and illnesses. Potential triggers have been found to include immune system disorders, abnormal hormonal production and prior and/or ongoing viral conditions. Treatment for CFS largely consists of efforts to alleviate the above-cited and additional symptoms.
Why enlisting proven legal help can be important
Owing to the very nature of its debilitating symptoms, CFS can make it difficult – if not impossible – for an afflicted person to respond to an insurer’s incessant demands and strategies that are obviously crafted to deny benefits. A proven legal team can be a strong advocate for a CFS claimant seeking to protect against underhanded or even unlawful insurance company behavior.