What do I do When New York Life Denies my LTD Claim?

What do I do when New York Life denies my LTD claim? New York Life touts its Short Term and Long Term disability insurance as financial protection against the risk of losing your paycheck or income because of sickness or injury.  In reality, you may find that battling New York Life for your right to be paid disability benefits is much harder than they led you to believe. 

New York Life is relatively new to the disability insurance market, acquiring Cigna’s group life, accident, and disability insurance business at the close of 2020. New York Life provides both group disability policies, those typically issued through the course of employment, and private long term disability policies.  A major difference between these two types of policies is that the group policies are governed by ERISA and the applicable rules and regulations regarding the claims process are fairly well set out therein. 

New York Life disability policies offered through employers come in two options, short-term disability, and long-term disability policies.  Which policy would be applicable depends on how long you are or have been disabled from work.

The policies issued by New York Life usually pay a percentage of your ‘covered earnings’ if you become unable to work for a period of time as a result of injury or illness.

What do I do when New York Life denies my LTD claim?

If you are denied Long Term Disability benefits by New York Life, you will need to appeal that decision in accordance with the rules and regulations set out by the federal regulation known as ERISA, using medical and occupational evidence supporting your disability.

To most effectively do so, it is important to put the strongest evidence possible in front of the New York Life claims representative responsible for making the determination in your claim.  This should be done at the earliest appeal stage possible. 

New York Life will also be expecting you to be under the regular care of a physician and appropriately treat your condition to the best of your ability. Lack of treatment or support from your physicians can have a negative impact on the outcome of your claim against New York Life.

New York Life also offers two riders to business owners for private Long Term Disability policies. The business support rider provides a lump sum spread over four (4) payments to business owners who become totally disabled.  The business loan rider similarly reimburses a business owner’s loan payments on a business loan during the time the business owner is disabled. 

The Law Office of Herbert M. Hill stands alone in its experience battling Cigna, now New York Life, to overturn wrongfully denied claimants seeking short term and long term disability denials.  If you have a claim against New York Life for Long Term Disability benefits, allow us to put our experience to work in helping you navigate your claim to a positive resolution.