Life, Health, Disability Insurance
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The Law Offices of Michael Pilarz provides legal representation for all matters concern-ing life, health, and disability insurance. Litigation in these areas is growing and becoming more complex. |
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| In Abram v. Cargill, the plaintiff/employee/insured applied for benefits under Cargill’s long-term disability plan called UNICARE. She suffered from post-polio syndrome (“PPS”), depression, and obesity. Her treating doctor found that she was disabled and noted that weight loss and exercise might improve her condition. The plan sent Abram to its own doctor for ex-amination and told him to limit his opinion to Abram’s PPS. The doctor found that Abram was able to perform sedentary or light work. He did not dispute the diagnosis of PPS. But he con-cluded that obesity and depression and not PPS were the primary causes of her fatigue. The plan denied her claim for disability benefits without addressing her obesity. The Eighth Circuit found that failure to consider Abram’s obesity was error, holding that a plan was not free to ignore evidence of obesity. It remanded the case. Abram’s holding is consistent with previous cases encouraging plan administrators to consider all impairments from which an insured suffers. |
