Many people choose to use medical marijuana as a form of pain relief from debilitating medical conditions. Should you tell your insurance agency that you have a prescription for medical marijuana?
Marijuana As Medicine
Marijuana As MedicineOne issue which has come up fairly routinely over the past several years involves medical marijuana. This form of medical treatment is now available in Florida and many other states. The problem is that many clients are concerned about letting an insurance company know that this form of treatment is being pursued. In fact, it seems that some clients have even been reticent about telling me, their attorney. Of course, anything you say to anyone at our office can never be repeated without your permission. We not only keep our communications confidential, we even keep the identity of our clients confidential, to every extent possible.
Is Marijuana Effective?
Medical marijuana has shown to be effective in providing relief for many medical conditions. This includes many different forms of cancer, such as colon cancer, and the related nausea, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and many others. While the undersigned is certainly no expert on this medical issue, medical marijuana has become an accepted and integral part of treatment designed to lessen the stress, sleep issues and other side effects of some forms of treatment for these and other conditions.
Should You Tell Your Insurance Company?
This is not intended as an exhaustive discussion of the topic. It is our purpose to put clients at ease in speaking with us about this or any other aspect of the underlying medical condition and the various modalities of treatment therefor. As far as telling the insurance company, this is always the best policy. We always put all medical information before the insurance companies in order to forestall any cooperation issues and any suggestion we are trying to hide something. We put everything on the table, unlike the insurance companies that want to pigeonhole your claim into one specific medical condition and then suggest that it does not disable you while ignoring the panoply of other medical conditions which combine to render you disabled.
Rest assured, however, that if there is indication that there is a negative impact on the handling of your claim as a result of informing the insurance company of your use of medical marijuana, such will be held against the insurance company if the matter is forced to a lawsuit.
Contact Us With Your Questions
If you have any questions about your Short Term Disability or Long Term Disability claim, please contact our firm and we would be glad to answer any questions you may have. If you would like, after discussing your case, we can set a conference. In most circumstances, that conference would be free of charge but in no circumstance would you be under any obligation to hire me, nor would you feel any pressure from me to do so.
Herbert M. Hill, P.A. is a law firm located in Orlando, Florida, with a practice extending throughout the state of Florida. While the vast majority of cases handled are for disability insurance benefits, areas of practice include employee benefit claims of all sorts. The firm handles any claims arising under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) for disability benefits, medical benefits, retirement benefits of any sort, including pension, 401k, termination agreements or the like as well as claims arising under private disability policies.
