Protecting Your Long Term Disability Benefits | 5 Do's and Don'ts

Here are 5 do's and don'ts that will help protect your long term disability benefits from being terminated by the insurance company.

DO'S

Start Early

When the insurance company requests updated information, start preparing right away. These requests often involve several moving parts, including forms from you, records from your doctors, physician statements, financial documents, or other supporting materials.

Starting early creates time to deal with delays. Doctor’s offices may need reminders. Records may take longer than expected. Forms may need corrections. If you wait until the deadline is close, it becomes much harder to submit a complete and accurate update package.

Be Courteous to Your Doctors and Their Staff

Your doctor’s support is often critical to protecting your long term disability benefits. But most doctors are busy treating patients, and insurance paperwork can be time-consuming.

Be respectful, organized, and clear when asking your doctor or their staff to complete disability forms or provide records. It can also be appropriate to offer to pay your doctor for the time spent completing forms or writing a report. Many doctors will decline payment, but they usually appreciate the acknowledgment that their time matters.

A good working relationship with your medical providers can make the update process smoother and help ensure your disability remains properly documented.

Keep a Symptom Diary

A symptom diary can help document the frequency, severity, and duration of your symptoms. This can be especially helpful for chronic conditions that fluctuate, such as migraines, pain disorders, fatigue-related conditions, vestibular disorders, or cognitive symptoms.

For example, if you have migraines, your diary may include the date and time of each migraine, what you were doing before it started, the intensity of the pain, the location of the pain, how long it lasted, and what you had to do afterward.

A diary can help show patterns over time. It can also help your doctor understand what you are experiencing between appointments. When appropriate, you may want to share your diary with your doctor so the information becomes part of your treatment discussion.

Keep a Running List of Symptoms

Between medical appointments, keep a running list of your symptoms. Bring that list to your doctor visits.

This matters because insurance companies closely review medical records. If you reported hip pain, back pain, and shoulder pain at one visit, but only discussed shoulder pain at the next visit, the insurer may argue that your hip and back pain resolved. In reality, you may have focused on shoulder pain because it was the most urgent issue that day.

A symptom list helps your doctor document the full picture. It also reduces the risk that the insurer will misinterpret missing information as medical improvement.

Tell Your Legal Team Everything

Be transparent about any changes in your medical condition, treatment, work activity, volunteer activity, finances, travel, daily activities, or communications with the insurer. What may seem unimportant to you may matter to the insurance company.

Insurers compare your statement, your doctor’s statement, medical records, surveillance, financial records, and other claim materials. Inconsistencies or omissions can be treated as red flags.

Your legal team can often address issues before they become problems, but only if they know about them. Full transparency helps protect your credibility and your benefits.

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DON'TS

Don’t Become Needlessly Adversarial

There is a time to be firm with the insurance company. But when your benefits are being paid and you want them to continue, unnecessary hostility usually does not help.

The goal is to protect your rights while keeping the claim process professional, organized, and cooperative. A courteous, well-documented approach can often avoid unnecessary conflict, delay, or litigation.

Don’t Communicate Directly With the Insurer

If you have retained counsel, let your legal team communicate with the insurer for you. Insurance company representatives may sound friendly, but their job is to investigate your continued eligibility for benefits.

Written communication also creates a clear record. When important information is discussed by phone, details can be misunderstood, omitted, or later characterized in a way that hurts your claim. Having counsel manage communications helps control the flow of information and reduces the risk of misinterpretation.

Don’t Assume Your Doctor’s Records Are Error-Free

Medical records and physician forms can contain mistakes. Doctors and staff are busy, and errors happen. A record may list the wrong symptom, omit an important limitation, copy forward outdated information, or fail to explain why you remain unable to work.

Before information is submitted to the insurer, it should be reviewed carefully. If there are errors or missing details, they may need to be addressed with the doctor’s office. Do not assume that every form or treatment note accurately captures your condition.

Don’t Send Irrelevant Information

More information is not always better. Sending information the insurer did not request can distract from the key issues, create confusion, or raise unnecessary questions.

The update package should be complete, accurate, and responsive. It should give the insurer what it needs to evaluate your continued disability without cluttering the claim file with irrelevant materials.

Don’t Assume the Insurer Is Working in Your Favor

Even if the claim representative is polite, the insurance company is still evaluating whether it should continue paying benefits. The same is true for representatives, vendors, physicians, or consultants hired by the insurer.

This does not mean every request is improper. It does mean you should treat every communication, form, interview, and examination seriously. The insurer may be looking for evidence of improvement, inconsistency, non-compliance, work capacity, or activities it believes conflict with your disability claim.

Protecting Your Benefits Requires Ongoing Attention

Long term disability benefits require ongoing proof. Even after approval, you may still need to show that you remain disabled under the terms of your policy.

Staying organized, keeping your doctors informed, responding carefully to insurer requests, and preserving your credibility can help protect your benefits from unnecessary termination.

Riemer Hess helps professionals and executives respond to insurer update requests, protect approved long term disability benefits, and address claim investigations. If you need help protecting your LTD benefits, book a call with our team today.