Before suffering from what doctors believed to be a stroke in 2019, our client from Fairfax, Virginia, was a thriving computer networking engineer. She was planning to continue her successful career until her eventual retirement. However, her likely stroke caused a sharp decline in her cognitive abilities based on a subsequent cerebral angiogram and emerging symptoms.
Unable to fulfill her job duties due to cognitive impairment and chronic headaches, our client filed a claim for short-term disability (STD) benefits. United of Omaha initially approved it in November 2019 before unexpectedly terminating her benefits at the beginning of December 2019.
Nothing in our client’s medical records indicated an improvement. She appealed the decision and provided additional evidence to support her entitlement to STD benefits, including a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. United resumed her benefits and approved her claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits afterward.
A year later, United of Omaha once again reversed course for no valid reason and terminated her LTD benefits one month after our client notified the company that she had received approval for social security benefits.
Our client reached out to Dabdoub Law Firm to help her appeal the wrongful termination. Her records, including two additional neuropsychological evaluations, demonstrate her continuous disability and need for LTD benefits.
Our Client’s Disability Continues to Prevent Her from Working
Before her disability, our client possessed sharp mental acuity and superior cognitive abilities. Just a few months before her stroke, she had passed an additional certification course to acquire new skills and progress in her career.
All three neuropsychological evaluations between 2020 and 2022 confirmed the cognitive decline that prevents her from fulfilling her past occupation. Her below-average scores and impairment make it impossible for her to secure employment.
Key findings across those separate neuropsychological assessments include severe impairment for:
- Ability to learn
- Attention span
- Fine motor skills (bilaterally)
- Problem-solving
- Processing speed
- Psychomotor speed
- Sustained attention
- Task performance speed
- Verbal fluency (lexical and categorical)
- Working memory (visual and auditory)
Both evaluations performed after United of Omaha’s abrupt termination of her benefits confirmed the persistent cognitive decline that prevents our client from engaging in her engineer work or other professional occupation. All confirm a diagnosis of a major neurocognitive disorder, probably due to vascular disease.
United of Omaha Had No Reasonable Ground to Terminate Our Client’s LTD Benefits (Again)
United of Omaha did not fulfill its fiduciary obligations toward our client. It should have adhered to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and acted in fairness to her. It ignored the significant amount of medical evidence supporting our client’s need for long-term disability benefits.
The insurance provider had the audacity to judge our client as a liar that was not committed to fully engaging with her cognitive evaluation regardless of all independent medical records and assessments otherwise submitted. This behavior ignores both our client’s high intelligence and successful career as an engineer before her disability. It also blatantly disregarded the severe impairment her disability caused in her everyday life.
In comparison to United of Omaha’s disgraceful behavior, the Social Security Administration approved our client’s claim for SSDI benefits and recognized that her cognitive issues prevented her indefinitely from working.
Thanks to Dabdoub Law Firm’s appeal, United of Omaha reversed its irresponsible decision and resumed our client’s LTD benefits during the summer of 2022.
Disability Insurance Companies Have Lawyers. Shouldn’t You?
We created Dabdoub Law Firm to focus on disability insurance and have developed expertise in this complex area of the law.
Our expertise in long-term disability claims means our clients have the backing of attorneys who:
- Are experts in disability claims;
- Fought all major disability insurance companies and know their tactics;
- Have a track record of success;
- Won major disability lawsuits that created good law; and
- Recovered millions of dollars in disability benefits.
All our lawyers commit every day of their legal career to helping people get disability benefits from UNUM, Northwestern Mutual, Lincoln, Aetna, LifeMap Assurance Company, CIGNA, and other insurance providers.
Because federal law applies to most disability insurance claims, we do not have to be located in your state to help. Our attorneys help clients nationwide.
Contact us today at (800) 969-0488 to get experienced disability lawyers on your side with:
- Submitting a disability insurance claim;
- Appealing a long-term disability denial;
- Negotiating a lump-sum settlement; or
- Filing a lawsuit against your disability insurance company.
Call Dabdoub Law Firm today at (800) 969-0488 or fill out our online form to schedule a free consultation with a disability attorney.
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