Post by josej on Aug 3, 2007 12:00:01 GMT -5
More than a year ago, KJ applied for disability benefits thru' Met life after she could no longer work due to Morgellons. They issued her a check for one day's pay (?!) and denied the claim. They said she didn't have sufficient medical data in support of the claim.
Bummer! How do you prove the "unexplained" to an insurance company?
Well, just last month we resubmitted the claim. This time we figured we'd overwhelm Met Life with every piece of paper we could think of. We downloaded and printed out portions of several Morgellons websites. We sent them the CDC page. We sent copies of letters from Sen. Clinton, Schumer, and Feinstein. We sent copy of Dr Bransfield's article in Psychiatric News. We sent them photos of KJ's bugs. All told, it was a package of 43 pages.
This time we got a phone message on our answering machine saying they denied it because we hadn't resubmitted before their 120-day appeal time.
I called back and asked to speak with a higher level claims manager. I got thru' to a real nice lady who at first gave me the same standard response that we didn't appeal it in time. I argued that my wife was too disabled to fill out any more paperwork for disability... I told her that Met Life was penalizing her for being sick! That didn't make sense to us. Here KJ was applying for disability benefits, but they were denied because she was too disabled to fill out the paperwork.
The lady got it. She put me on hold and started reading thru' all the documentation. She came back on the phone and said she'd call us back. Much to my amazement, she called back and this time her tone was competely different... human.
Here's the good part: She said after reading all the Morgellons literature I sent her, she was horrified. She couldn't believe that KJ had been suffering with this for nearly two years without any real medical help. I told her that was true for KJ and also true for tens of thousands of others across all fifty states who have the same disease... and have been ridiculed and ignored by doctors, health departments, and the CDC.
She said she'd call back.
Two days later she called saying she approved the claim and was FedEx-ing a check for short-term-disability from the initial date KJ could no longer work. She said someone from their long-term-disability department would call.
This morning I got that phone call.
That lady had a million and one questions about Morgellons. She had already logged on to the MRF, OSU, LB, and various other sites. She said that the entire Met Life office (Utica NY) was all abuzz about this. No one had ever heard of Morgellons before. She's asking me to email her all the info that I have. She seemed sincerely terrified of this disease. (Oh, by the way, she also approved KJ's long-term-disability payments which could theoretically continue until the year 2016.)
I thanked her but did my best to leave her with the uneasiness that is an epidemic which will soon become a household word. She gave me her personal email and said the entire office wants to know more about Morgellons.
Bummer! How do you prove the "unexplained" to an insurance company?
Well, just last month we resubmitted the claim. This time we figured we'd overwhelm Met Life with every piece of paper we could think of. We downloaded and printed out portions of several Morgellons websites. We sent them the CDC page. We sent copies of letters from Sen. Clinton, Schumer, and Feinstein. We sent copy of Dr Bransfield's article in Psychiatric News. We sent them photos of KJ's bugs. All told, it was a package of 43 pages.
This time we got a phone message on our answering machine saying they denied it because we hadn't resubmitted before their 120-day appeal time.
I called back and asked to speak with a higher level claims manager. I got thru' to a real nice lady who at first gave me the same standard response that we didn't appeal it in time. I argued that my wife was too disabled to fill out any more paperwork for disability... I told her that Met Life was penalizing her for being sick! That didn't make sense to us. Here KJ was applying for disability benefits, but they were denied because she was too disabled to fill out the paperwork.
The lady got it. She put me on hold and started reading thru' all the documentation. She came back on the phone and said she'd call us back. Much to my amazement, she called back and this time her tone was competely different... human.
Here's the good part: She said after reading all the Morgellons literature I sent her, she was horrified. She couldn't believe that KJ had been suffering with this for nearly two years without any real medical help. I told her that was true for KJ and also true for tens of thousands of others across all fifty states who have the same disease... and have been ridiculed and ignored by doctors, health departments, and the CDC.
She said she'd call back.
Two days later she called saying she approved the claim and was FedEx-ing a check for short-term-disability from the initial date KJ could no longer work. She said someone from their long-term-disability department would call.
This morning I got that phone call.
That lady had a million and one questions about Morgellons. She had already logged on to the MRF, OSU, LB, and various other sites. She said that the entire Met Life office (Utica NY) was all abuzz about this. No one had ever heard of Morgellons before. She's asking me to email her all the info that I have. She seemed sincerely terrified of this disease. (Oh, by the way, she also approved KJ's long-term-disability payments which could theoretically continue until the year 2016.)
I thanked her but did my best to leave her with the uneasiness that is an epidemic which will soon become a household word. She gave me her personal email and said the entire office wants to know more about Morgellons.