Articles Posted in New and Newsworthy

For the approximately one million Americans living with Autism, proving their rights to insurance proceeds and coverage as well as SSDI may soon become even more difficult. The American Psychiatric Association has appointed a panel that is reviewing the current definition of Autism as a prelude to publishing the newest version of the D.S.M. Currently,…

Insurance fraud is a major offense that can carry with it serious repercussions. In order to combat this problem, New Jersey instituted the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, N.J. Stat. §§ 17:33A-1 to 30. The goal of the act is to prevent insurance fraud in the state of NJ by amongst other things, better fraud detection,…

An error made by the fiduciary to a defined contribution pension plan had to abide by a judgment requiring it to reimburse the plan participant whose funds were incorrectly distributed. In the recent Second Circuit case of Milgram v. The Orthopedic Assoc. Defined Contribution Pension Plan, even if the plan could not recoup the money…

Many health and disability group insurance contracts contain discretionary clauses—clauses that provide the company writing the contract with the discretion to determine the meaning of contractual terms or to determine the insured’s eligibility for benefits. If your disability insurance policy is subject to ERISA, meaning it was purchased by your employer as part of a…

Medical providers often serve as intermediaries between their patients and insurance carriers in order to secure payment for their services. This spares the patient the burden of negotiating the waters of insurer red-tape. The recent District of New Jersey case of Cohen v. Independence Blue Cross makes clear that, in the case of an out-of-…

The Third Circuit is finally catching up to other Circuits in recognizing the importance that a conflict of interest plays in an insurer’s decision to accept or deny a disability claim. The Third Circuit in Miller v. American Airlines noted that the claim administrator acted unreasonably by imposing additional requirements under the Plan; failing to…

A report from The American Medical Association released in June found an increased inaccuracy in the payment of health claims. This means an astounding 3.6 million claims are being handled incorrectly. The error rate is 19.3%, an increase of 2% over the last year. The one in five claims is being handled erroneously leads to…

Lower back pain should never be overlooked and can result in disability, especially if surgery fails to permit you to return to full function. We at Bonny G. Rafel review many claims associated with lower back conditions because if you cannot sit for many hours in a day performing your work related duties, you will…

Whether you have a desk job or perform manual labor, its vital to consider protecting your income with a disability insurance policy in case you become disabled from working. This is different from worker’s compensation coverage. In a recent article published in the Times Free Press, the author examines the “public-private partnership” between insurers and…

Many of our clients file for Social Security Disability benefits in addition to filing for employer sponsored private or group disability benefits. It remains unclear why some of our clients receive immediate approval of their claims, while others have to struggle through the appeals process. We have Social Security attorneys to refer our clients to…