Video Surveillance

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You on videotape. Insurers use video surveillance when they suspect a

supposedly disabled person is doing things such as golfing or gardening,

or other things he shouldn't be able to do if he were disabled. " We use

it in less than 1 percent of cases, " says Jeff McCall of UnumProvident.

Union Central sometimes does surveillance of claimants whose work

involves strenuous physical activity, " or if we've been tipped off that

someone is faking, " says Kowalczyk. But anesthesiologist Sidney

couldn't figure out what an insurer could learn about his disabled hand

by videotaping his daily walk. " Some people take a daily walk to a

business they have on the side, " says Kowalczyk.

How to protect yourself: Should you find yourself starring in such a

production, all is not lost. To begin with, Darras points out, total

disability, according to many insurance policies, " is not a state of

helplessness, but the inability to perform the duties of your occupation

with reasonable continuity in the usual way, " regardless of whether you

can pick up a child or a bag of groceries. Furthermore, you may have

done this activity under heavy medication, or perhaps paid a price by

suffering excruciating pain for hours or days afterward.

Although you might be able to explain the activity if you saw the tapes,

the insurer isn't obliged to share them; typically, the tapes aren't

produced until a courtroom showdown. Your treating physician might be

able to get them, though, Darras suggests, by saying something like, " If

he's not being truthful, I don't want him as a patient. "

Darras adds that relying on videotape to deny coverage means that the

insurer might be ignoring objective evidence such as MRIs, X-rays, and

treating physicians' notes. This violates the duty to evaluate claims

fairly and to consider all the evidence. In one case, the judge said

that if an insurer " seeks to discover only the evidence that defeats the

claim, it holds its own interest above that of its insured. "

Source:

http://www.fsprescottmd.com/default/articles3.htm