Finding your Insurance's Definition of Total Disability

If you have become disabled, you may be wondering how to figure out what your insurance company considers total disability.  A lot of the time, an insurance company will detail their definition of “disabled” in all of the very small print at the bottom of contracts and correspondence from them to you.

Finding The Definition

In general, in order to be considered disabled by your insurance company you will have to prove that you cannot earn money whatsoever.  The reason for this is your disability prevents you from doing such.  It is more of a liberal and often a bit vague definition in its phrasing but in essence it is saying that if you can no longer earn income the way you did prior to your disability, then the insurance company will consider you to have a disability. While the verbiage may be different from contract to contract, that is in essence what they were saying.

Standards and Restrictions

Quite often, disability insurance companies will set forth certain standards and stipulations that a claimant must meet once they come off of long term disability.  Such restrictions may vary from insurance company to insurance company as nothing is set in stone regarding the overall definition of a disability.

In order to better find out what your insurance company considers to be a disability then you should contact the customer care center of that particular insurance company directly. However prior to making your phone call, you should pull out your policy information and take a good look at what the fine print at the very bottoms says, as well as any fine print on the back of the document may say as well.

Employer Insurance

Furthermore, if you are dealing with a group disability insurance company you might want to contact your employer for details. Quite often in the FAQs section of the website  you may find you insurance company’s definition of the word “disability.”  If you compare it with the definition of the symptoms in which you were suffering from, you should quickly be able to discern whether you would be considered “disabled” or not.  Remember, each insurance company does things a bit differently and while the basic, more generalized definition of a “disability” is provided above, there will be certain insurance company that may tailor down that definition to be something more advantageous to them in the long run. 

Getting Help

For additional information on how to see how your insurance company defines the word “disability” then you should contact them directly and present you situation. An experienced disability rights attorney can also help you in finding the definition of disability and in proving to your insurance company that you are disabled.