Unum Life Insurance Company of America is facing a new bad faith claim, this from a Tennessee woman who alleges the company wrongfully denied her disability insurance.

According to the bad faith claim, Unum had wrongfully denied her long term disability insurance despite meeting all requirements and proving she could not earn reasonable income otherwise.

Plaintiff Amie F. had previously worked as a Clinical Staff Leader at Vanderbilt hospital since July 2004.However, due to her established medical disabilities, she had to cease working on Jan. 16, 2013.

Before she had to stop working due these medical conditions, she had been fully employed by Vanderbilt and was entitled to the long or short term disability coverage through Unum.

According to her bad faith claim, Amie’s conditions include: type-1 regional pain syndrome, bilateral arm pain, decreased range of motion in the upper body, sleep disorder, and depression. All of these persisted despite undergoing surgery to treat these conditions, which included shoulder injections and an invasive spinal cord stimulator implant procedure.

The pain eventually became too much for Amie, forcing her to cease working at Vanderbilt; she applied for long term disability insurance. Amie initially received disability coverage for a period of 24 months from July 2013 to July 2015, and was considered disabled under Unum’s policy.

However after July 2015, her long term disability insurance was suddenly stopped; the initial claim denial letter was dated July 9, 2015. While Amie had sent an appeal to Unum, she had received the same claim denial result on April 7, 2016.

Overview of Unum Claim Denial

Upon receipt of her claim denial letter, Amie was still considered disabled under Unum’s policy as she met all the insurance company’s qualifications.

According to her bad faith claim, Amie was no longer able to work in her previous occupation or any similar occupation in the future due to her injuries. In addition, she has lost a significant portion of income and will be unable to achieve a reasonable income going forward due to her medical conditions.

When she submitted her claim to Unum for long term disability coverage, Amie had submitted all relevant medical documentation supporting her injury claims and testimony from a vocational experts that insisted she could not work.

Despite meeting all the requirements and following administrative procedure, Unum stated that Amie did not meet their qualifications for disability insurance coverage. In her bad faith claim, Amie states that Unum had denied her long term disability benefits claim due to pure financial interests.

Additionally, Unum may have canceled her disability insurance due to Amie being approved for Social Security benefits in January 2014, which she was recently awarded in April 2016. Amie is seeking compensation for all missed payments since July 2015, plus any additional interest potentially awarded.

Amie’s lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee in Nashville, with further litigation progress soon to come.