Social Security Advocates For The Disabled Sold
From a
press release:
J. Scott Penny, Chief Acquisitions Officer of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE: BRO),
and Ann Marie Beaudoin and Victor Arruda, the founders of Social
Security Advocates for the Disabled, LLC ("SSAD"), announced that The
Advocator Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Brown & Brown, Inc., has
acquired substantially all of the equity interests of SSAD.
Since
its founding in 1994, SSAD has provided Social Security disability
insurance ("SSDI") advocacy services to individual clients on behalf of
long-term disability insurance carriers. SSAD has annual net revenues in
2015 of approximately $10.0 million. ...
24 comments:
Want to reduce the number of claims SSA has to process and shorten wait times? Change the law allowing LTDs to collect all the past due benefits.
@ 9:31, please explain. Won't this just provide even more incentive for LTDs to force people to apply for benefits (adding more to the system)?
I was not clear, the law currently stands that the LTD can force a Claimant to file for SSDI. If the claim is approved, the LTD claims the past due benefits of the Claimant and the Claimant's Aux benefits to make up for what they have paid out. If the LTD were not allowed to collect the past due benefits, they would not force thousands to apply. I worked with LTDs filing these claims, it was every claim they LTD had, regardless of if the condition met the SSA requirements for disability. We had to file the claim as part of our contract regardless of validity. We were a smaller group, handling only several hundred LTD claims, but some larger companies with larger LTD contracts are filing thousands of claims annually.
10:54. You have a simplistic view of this. LTD carriers price their product for LTD insurance based on an assumption that a certain percentage would get SSDI. If there was no offset then LTD insurance would be prohibitively expensive for employers and employees and then no one would buy it. As a matter of public policy we don't want claimants to get full SSDI and full LTD as they would be getting more than they were when they were working. In addition folks who happen to have LTD (30-40% of population I am guessing) also have a right to file for SSDI. It is not as simple as you suggest.
But why do ERISA LTD companies take the back pay? Private LTD don't. Also who is responsible for taxes of the lump sum backpay.?
It is insurance taking federal benefits to offset the cost of their own business. That seems simple enough.
If it wasn't simply for business and profit, why would the LTDs negotiate contracts with third party claims groups at one or two times the PIA amount instead of letting the rep have the full fee? It is using SSDI to offset the cost of running the business.
I know in some states it is illegal for ltd insurance carriers to take the back pay. They should not use federal tax dollars to subsidize their business. That is the job of the premiums collected.
Sounds like they're ADVOCATES for LTD companies. Like many of these political groups, they lie about what they are truly for... Hmmm... I need to take a better look at CARES...
@4:51
Insurance companies are enthusiastic about shifting their liabilities onto the government and tax payers. They are starting to do it more in workers compensation too:
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-demolition-of-workers-compensation
If we had people in congress who cared more about protecting taxpayer interests than they did about lining up to feed at the special interest trough, maybe something could be done about it.
What states like Texas have done to their WC systems is shameful and horrific (all in the name of "Better outcomes for workers"!). Reinstatement of child labor is probably next (or, "Adolescent child freedom of choice work Act of 2020").
@tim I read the link and it sickens me how WC is shifting the cost with disability time limits. Even worse, the republicans want to cut entitlement programs. Its like they want the disabled dead. So much for pro life!
So, what is the point of LTD "insurance" and WC if they simply pawn it off on the Federal government? That's like paying for Full coverage auto insurance andthen expecting the Federal government to buy you a new car if an unisured motorist totals your car!
LTD companies have a warped view of the dual entitlement doctrine.
Forgive my ignorance but how do the LTD companies get the back pay? How do I go about getting new LTD clients?
@9:26 If you are a solo, you do not get a chance. The LTDs contract with the megagroups like Allsup, A2K, CARES and the ilk. You take EVERY claim they give you regardless of condition or recovery. EVERY claim. The Claimants are not happy about having the benefits threatened, the LTD will tell them if they do not file and cooperate they will stop the LTD check. The LTD will negotiate the fee with the rep group. In my experience I did not see a contract remotely close to a full fee, it is about volume processing and flow. You have to have the ability to process thousands of claims to keep things moving.
The LTD policy states that the insurance company can and will take all back pay for the Claimant and Aux for any period of award concurrent with the LTD claim. Several lawsuits have been filed, none have been successful but there are some with merit on the groups that are setting up a "neutral" checking account where the LTD can pull the check immediately upon deposit.
@9:54
Not true, there have been some successful lawsuits regarding this.
Read the link below.
http://www.louisianadisabilitylaw.com/2011/04/longterm-disability-overpayments-can-your-longterm-disability-insurer-recover-for-social-security-overpayment/
@10:28 Cooperative Benefit Administrators, Inc. v. Ogden, was overturned. Not a winner.
It was not overturned. However the courts found that the ltd could not sue to recover back pay until all remedies were exhausted.
In regards to ltd carriers forcing mega rep firms to take every claim....wella that explains part of the social security backlog!
4:51, Bernie Sanders addressed WC concerns about IW's going to SSDI, with 9 other senators to congress regarding the DOL that helps protect employers/corporations/insurers. The DOL with the AFL-CIO with the SSDI worked out the deal where the WC disabled would get offset upon the wc wages, meaning IW's would only get so much SSDI Well, that didn't happen, of course because most IW's only receive a mere settlement award after many years of litigation whereas the WC attorneys receive those same years of fees. AND those that represent IW's well, there are some who send their injured clients to docs that do more maiming to increase the pithy award!. The states too protects the employer & most IW's get SSI NOT SSDI. This is perhaps one of the biggest & most hideous secrets in the insurance industry as well as to the public. Over 1 million + dependents went from WC(no benefits at all) straight to SSI, not SSDI from 1987 to 2005.The the DOL stopped taking data on IW's as of 2005. What a horrid way to run the govt agency that is supposed to represent all workers, disabled or not. This is the way for the republicans to say that SSDI is broken because the insurers & corporations are assisting in forcing the disabled, no matter what disability payments there are to be paid out to go to the SSA, while the insurers & corporations get away without paying out the insurance claims. This is happening to VETS too, where the VA is not paying out the benefits but forcing them to go to the SSA for benefits. So, the republicans really do want the 3 trillion off SSA to go on the market: ie, privatization, all for them to continue to raid it for themselves VIA Wall St. investments. Pretty soon, the feds will be paying out on home, car, life, pet insurance claims too if the republicans have their way. Hopefully NOT ever but it's getting close to that idea! I would like to know just how much politicians have received from the insurance industry & employers in the last 30 years, just so they could financially sink their own constituents?!?
@2:41, this is 4:51 and I agree with everything you said. This is completely horrid and unacceptable! I would be interested to see how much money politicians have received from the insurance industry in the past 30 years as well. On Open Secrets, it looks like Republicans in general have been receiving the most money from the insurance industry since 1996. I wish I could see data going back to 1986 though.
You can receive VA disability and SSDI. Many vets do not seek out SSDI benefits due to the earning restrictions. With VA disability you can get 100% disabled payment and still work full time. Then you get extra vet points on federal positions. Nice deal if you can work it out.
Excellent Post with useful information.
LTD is nothing but a US government backed scam which has not only caused a tremendous backlog but also continues to eat away what funding is left. Erisa is an old law brought about only to work in favor of the insurance companies and the pockets of DC's corrupt decision makers.
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