How about if we all made copies of this message and sent it to the CEO with a
threat of retaliation if Standard Insurance does not pay this man what he is
due.  We could tell him (anonymously, obviously) that we would do all we could
to alert the tens of millions of other users of the Internet of his company's
business practices, if they continued to fail to live up to their half of the
contract. Copies could be sent to the Oregon Insurance Commissioner, and
industry advocacy groups, etc. We aren't 100% sure we know all the facts, but
Mr. CEO could be invited to supply any that Mr. Meyer left out - of which I'd
bet there aren't any. I cannot see how this would hurt Mr. Meyer and it might
help.  I know most of us don't have the luxury
of having this type of policy, but what is happening here is little different
than what the HMOs and Medicare are doing - except these life/disability
companies may be more influenced by the possibility of bad publicity.
B.Bruce Anderson (50, 1 1/2)
<---- Begin Forwarded Message ---->

Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 16:52:04 -0500
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
From: "Charles T. Meyer" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Disability Insurance
To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN <[log in to unmask]>

Hi fellow list members,

I would like to hear from people who have had good and bad experiences
with private long term disability carriers especially Standard Insurance
of Portland, OR.  I am a physician (psychiatrist) who has been trying to
get partial disability from Standard for 5 months.  I have had PD for 7
years and unpredictable ons and offs for about the past 1-2 years.  I
would have to cancel patients sometimes even after they arrived because
I went off. On more than one occasion call the office from my cell phone
to get someone to come for me with a wheelchair because I was frozen in
another part of the building.  Other times I would have severe
dyskinesia and couldn't even hold ad chart much less write in it.

I participated in the Mt. Sinai-Rush-Presbyterian- University of South
Florida Double-blind Fetal transplant surgery Study with surgery in
March and tried to get disability payments after the 3 month waiting
period.  The Insurance company claims that since I was supposedly
working full time- or at least getting paid for full-time through
February that I should have gone back to full-time in June.  I have had
to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees.  My attorneys have been
attempting to provide them with what information they don't have but we
continue to get delays and non-decisionss 5 months after originally
filing for the benefit.

There is no doubt that I will win if I take it to court.  All I need to
do is be a little anxious on the witness stand and my dyskinesia will be
for once in my life a decided advantage.  But I would like to avoid
court if possible and just get the benefits I have paid premiums for and
my legal fees reimbursed.


I would like to hear from others who have had experiences with disablity
insurance claims especially with Standard and also warn people that even
a claim as obvious as mine can run into trouble.

Thanks;

Charles T. Meyer, MD    Madison WI


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