Disability attorneys from the law firm of Comitz | Beethe will be available to speak with anesthesiologists attending the 39th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Arizona Society of Anesthesiologists this Friday and Saturday at the Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center.  If you have questions regarding your disability insurance policy or filing a disability claim, please feel free to stop by our exhibitor table for informative materials and/or to talk with one of the attorneys at our booth.

In a recent article, written in the wake of NCAA basketball player Kevin Ware’s traumatic leg fracture, The Atlantic explores whether college athletes should purchase disability insurance.

Like doctors and dentists, whose physical health can be crucial to performing their job duties, many professional athletes purchase disability insurance.  By doing so, they attempt to protect their income from sickness or injury that interferes with their work.

For college athletes, disability insurance is intended to protect potential, future income that they expect to earn once drafted to professional sports teams. Because the term of the policies is so short – ordinarily just one to two years – and the potential benefits so high – often millions – these disability policies can be extremely expensive.  The article discusses athletes and their families that paid upwards of $40,000 in premiums over one or two years.

As the article explains, though, this type of disability insurance is rarely collected. Though these athletes’ disability insurance policies are unique, the difficulty of collecting may sound familiar to many other types of professionals facing disability insurance claims:

[T]hese policies, meant to hedge against risk, are risky in themselves: None of these student-athletes is likely to ever collect a dime, even if they are hurt. These guarantees cover “permanent total disability,” meaning only policyholders who are never able set foot on a field or court again—not simply those who suffer injuries that may reduce their earning potential—can file a claim.

Read the full article here: The $5 Million Question: Should College Athletes Buy Disability Insurance?

Comitz | Beethe is pleased to be an exhibitor for the first time at the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation’s upcoming 22nd Annual Southwestern Conference on Medicine at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, Arizona, April 4-7, 2013.  Attending osteopaths who have questions about their disability insurance policies or filing a disability insurance claim are welcome to come by our booth for information about some of the common mistakes doctors make when filing a claim, and to learn more about the legal services provided by Comitz | Beethe to assist doctors with disabilities.  Our law firm also assists physicians with medical practice transitions, healthcare regulatory compliance, and healthcare practice management.  We will be at Table 14 — please stop by and say hello!

Those facing disability can be our community’s most vulnerable individuals.  Sadly, it appears that this vulnerable population faces an increased danger of violent victimization.

Violence against people with disabilities is receiving increased attention in the scientific and legal communities as of late.  For instance, a recent paper analyzing crime statistics in England and Wales is bringing recognition to the inordinate number of violent acts perpetrated on disabled citizens.  After analyzing British Crime Survey statistics, comparing violence experienced by people with disability to those without, the authors of the study came to the following conclusions:

People with disability are at increased risk of being victims of domestic and non-domestic violence, and of suffering mental ill health when victimized. The related public health and economic burden calls for an urgent assessment of the causes of this violence, and national policies on violence prevention in this vulnerable group.

(Source: Khalifeh H, Howard LM, Osborn D, Moran P, Johnson S (2013) Violence against People with Disability in England and Wales: Findings from a National Cross-Sectional Survey. PLoS ONE 8(2): e55952. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055952).

Read the full paper here.

Here in the United States, citizens of Mississippi have recognized the increased violence against people with disabilities as well.  Inspired by a recent attack on a teenager with cerebral palsy, residents of Biloxi are petitioning to enact “Austin’s Law.”  If enacted, the law would amend Mississippi’s state hate crime law to protect against violence not only on the basis of race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, national origin or gender, but also disability.

Read more about the effort here.

It is clear that the problem of violence against people with disabilities deserves urgent attention.  What is not clear is exactly which measures will be most effective in curbing the violence.  Police intervention, research, education, and legislation are just some of the ways the problem is being addressed now.  What do you think the solution is?

Because of the high-stress nature of their occupations and their ready access to pharmaceuticals, both physicians and dentists are at high risk of developing substance abuse issues.  In a recent disability insurance case, Colby v. Union Security Insurance Company & Management Company for Merrimack Anesthesia Associates Long Term Disability Plan, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recognized the challenges that doctors can face when they are disabled due to substance dependence.

The insured in this case, Dr. Colby, was a partner in an anesthesiology practice.  Like many anesthesiologists, she kept a demanding schedule, working 60 to 90 hours per week.  In 2004, her colleagues discovered that she had been struggling with chemical dependence after she was found sleeping or unconscious on a table in the hospital.  She tested positive for Fentanyl, an opioid used in her practice.

This led to the revelation that Dr. Colby had been self-administering opioids, and had become addicted.  Shortly thereafter, Dr. Colby entered inpatient substance abuse treatment.  As of January of this year, Dr. Colby had not resumed using Fentanyl.

When her drug dependence first came to light, Dr. Colby filed a claim with her disability insurer.  Even after completing her treatment, Dr. Colby feared that returning to the anesthesiology environment, where Fentanyl (along with many other drugs) was easily accessible, would lead to her relapsing.  However, the insurance company denied her claim for benefits.  The insurer argued that she had been discharged from substance abuse treatment, and that although she was still under a doctor’s care and feared a relapse, “a risk for relapse is not the same as a current disability.”

Ultimately, the Court of Appeals disagreed.  Judge Selya explained:

In our view, a risk of relapse into substance dependence—like a risk of relapse into cardiac distress or a risk of relapse into orthopedic complications—can swell to so significant a level as to constitute a current disability.

As this case demonstrates, doctors struggling with substance dependence should be cognizant of the fact that their occupation puts them at higher danger for relapse, and may contribute to their total disability from practicing.  If you are facing this situation, it’s important to talk to your treating providers, attorney, and disability insurer about how your work environment affects your risk of relapse.

Review the entire Colby opinion here.

Comitz | Beethe has been named the #1 Arizona Law Firm with 24 or fewer attorneys by Ranking Arizona: The Best of Arizona Business for the second year in a row.

Ranking Arizona is an annual publication of Arizona Business Magazine.  Every year, Arizona Business Magazine compiles a list of the top companies in the state in various categories, including professional services such as accounting, real estate, and law.  The final rankings in each category are selected by Arizona residents, who vote for the firms they most recommend.

In addition, Edward Comitz, head of the firm’s healthcare and disability insurance practice, and Patrick Stanley, another Comitz | Beethe member that focuses his practice on disability insurance claims, were both named Top Healthcare Attorneys in Ranking Arizona‘s individual rankings.

The January 2013 edition of Sombrero, the publication of the Pima County Medical Society, features an article by Comitz | Beethe’s disability insurance attorneys, Edward O. Comitz and Karla Baker Thompson.  The article, “Surveillance Misuse in Claims Investigations,” reviews some of the ways in which evolving technology has led to overly intrusive surveillance of claimants by insurance companies.

Among the surveillance techniques being utilized are stakeout operations, tailing (sometimes using a “decoy” investigator), pretexting (obtaining your personal information under false pretenses), and GPS and cell phone tracking.  For example, some private investigators use a stingray, which is a cell phone tracking device that operates as a miniature cellular tower from inside of the PI’s vehicle.  The device enables an investigator to connect to a claimant’s cell phone, even when it’s not in use, and, after taking measurements of the phone’s signal strength, triangulate its location.  Since most people tend to carry their cell phones at all times, the device then allows the investigator to track the insured’s movements remotely.

The law surrounding some of these intrusive surveillance techniques, which have been made possible by modern technology, is not yet settled, and it is important that anyone on claim with their disability insurance carrier remain vigilant to the possibility of surveillance at all times, regardless of whether a human being is conducting the surveillance.  Long gone are the days when surveillance was only conducted by someone with a camera sitting in a car outside an insured’s home.

Two disability advocacy groups, the American Association of People with Disabilities and Disability Power & Pride, have teamed up to host the second Disability Community Inaugural Ball on January 19th at the National Press Club.  The ball is one of many in Washington, D.C. over the weekend to celebrate President Obama’s inauguration.

The fully-accessible Disability Community Inaugural Ball is open to the public, with more than 400 guests expected.  It is also anticipated that members of Congress will attend, possibly including the ball’s honorary committee members, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. and Kareem Dale, a disability adviser to President Obama.  Event planners see the ball as an opportunity for people with disabilities to come together as a community, potentially make an impression on Washington, and, of course, to have fun.

Unum Group announced in a recent press release that J. Matthew Royal will be filling the position previously held by the retiring Nicholas Desiderio as vice-president and chief auditor.  Royal was previously employed by KPMG LLP, where he oversaw the effectiveness of internal audit functions and developed risk assessment and risk-based internal audit plans.

As Unum’s chief internal auditor, Royal will bear responsibility for ensuring that Unum’s company controls are adequate and meet or exceed regulatory requirements, and may include ensuring compliance with the Unfair Claims Settlement Practice Act.  Mr. Royal will also oversee Unum’s special investigative unit.

Given Unum’s checkered past with regulatory compliance in disability insurance claims, we are hopeful that Mr. Royal’s reign as internal auditor may bring about positive change in Unum’s claims handling and our attorneys will keep a close eye out for changes at Unum, for the better or for the worse.

Tonight on PBS’s documentary series “Independent Lens,” the spotlight will be on the history of the Disability Rights Movement that led to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The film takes a look at the often horrifying and discriminatory practices that persons with disabilities were subjected to and the brave individuals who fought for change.

In addition to the trailer preview above, PBS describes the documentary as follows:

Lives Worth Living follows one man’s struggle to survive after a spinal cord injury and his role in the earliest days of the Disability Rights Movement.

Fred Fay’s life proves that one man can change the world, even though he has to lie flat on his back just to stay alive. Lives Worth Living looks at Fay’s struggle to survive after a spinal cord injury and the small group of dedicated activists who formed the Disability Rights Movement to drive the nation towards equal rights.

The late Fred Fay survived a devastating spinal cord injury when he was only 16, and turned his misfortune into a movement for equality. With a small group of dedicated activists, he spearheaded the disability rights movement and changed the face of American society.