What should you do if your doctor won’t support your ERISA disability claim?
Claiming long-term disability through ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requires the support your doctor or even the best ERISA disability attorney at law in Arkansas will have a hard time winning your case. The medical professionals who treat you generally need to fill out paperwork that says that you actually are disabled. Even further, they would need to agree that your disability limits you in a way that keeps you from working under the terms of your disability insurance policy.
If your doctor doesn’t support you or refuses to help you, then you need to seek out a second or even third opinion.
There are many reasons for a doctor not agreeing that you are disabled. You need your doctor to be behind you before you start the disability process. This makes the process of seeking additional opinions all the more important if your doctor doesn’t support your disability claim.
It’s important to realize that if several doctors don’t agree that you are disabled that maybe you are not disabled. This is a hard thing to accept, but it is a reality for some people.
It’s important to remember that you must have the documentation to support a winning claim. Absent a catastrophic accident or diagnosis of a major severe illness, this is generally something that takes some amount of time and shows a consistent course of documented treatment. You are going to need to be able to show a long standing course of treatment that indicates you can no longer work.
It is important that you start this process before you have to quit work. If you are at risk to lose your health insurance, you are going to need to make sure that you have lots of documentation about how disabling your conditions are.
If your doctor won’t support you, it would be a good idea to get a second opinion and seek the help of an ERISA Insurance law firm. Depending on the specialty this may be difficult in Springfield Missouri as many people are limited to either the Mercy Health Care or the Cox Hospital system. You may need to go to Columbia Missouri, St. Louis, Kansas City or Fayetteville to find a doctor to treat you.