A jury recently awarded a surgeon $246,000 in unpaid disability benefits after the jury determined that Unum had wrongfully withheld disability benefits.

This Unum lawsuit is just one of many that have been filed against the major disability health insurance company.

Surgeon Alleges Bad Faith Insurance

The plaintiff in the Unum bad faith insurance lawsuit was Dr. Yogihn P. Dr. Yogihn was a general surgeon at Hammond Henry Hospital. The doctor first filed his disability claim in October of 2004.

Prior to filing his Unum disability claim Dr. Yogihn performed a wide variety of general surgeries including appendectomies, colon resections, and mastectomies.

Unfortunately for Dr. Yogihn, he began to develop lower back pain that prevented him from standing for longer than one hour at a time, which in turn prevented him from performing surgery and reducing his potential earnings.

Dr. Yogihn’s claim was denied by Unum in April of 2005 on the grounds of insufficient medical evidence for the claim. Following the denial Dr. Yogihn was forced to begin performing more minor and shorter surgeries but eventually his pain prevented him from performing any surgeries at all.

During the year prior to filing his claim Dr. Yogihn made a salary of over $300,000 per year but by 2008 his income had decreased dramatically to approximately $60,000.

Overview of Unum Trial

Throughout the trial Unum maintained that they had not wrongfully denied Dr. Yogihn’s disability claim. They argued that insufficient evidence of injury existed based on the opinion of one of their own hired physicians who examined the doctor for 20 minutes before declaring he had no physical restrictions or limitations to perform surgeries that last hours.

During the trial an Unum employee testified that one way Dr. Yogihn’s back pain could actually be confirmed by Unum as if he had a knife in his back. The employee later testified that she was unaware whether or not an appendectomy required the patient’s skin to be cut.

After the jury verdict was announced granting the award for unpaid benefits, Dr. Yogihn announced that he will be seeking an Illinois bad faith insurance claim and is requesting additional damages.

Unum Lawsuits

This is not the first jury verdict against Unum. The disability company has been forced to pay millions of dollars in fines. A plaintiff in Nevada recently won $60 million after filing a claim against Unum for wrongfully denying a disability claim.

Unum is one of the largest disability insurance providers in the United States. Approximately 40 percent of all disability policies are handled by Unum or one of its subsidiaries.

In 2002 the documentary news program 60 minutes exposed Unum for unfairly and illegally denying customer claims in order to increase company profits.

According to the show, Unum told employees they had a claim-denial quota and the company rewarded claim adjusters who met those goals, regardless of whether the claims were wrongfully denied.

Consumer protection attorneys are currently looking for potential plaintiffs to bring Unum lawsuits. Awards and settlements can help plaintiffs recover wrongfully denied past payments. Whether or not a person should bring a lawsuit is a decision that should be made on a case by case basis.