Will My Disability Insurance Company Pay Benefits for a Migraine Headaches?
For most migraine headache sufferers, the battle for disability claims is one of great frustration, as they are significantly impaired by their condition and typically only file a long term disability claim after struggling to mitigate their symptoms and remain in the workforce. An experienced New York disability attorney will increase your odds of successfully filing a claim.
Jason Newfield represents claimants suffering from migraine headaches and associated symptoms, as these claims are frequently challenged or claims are terminated because of the nature of this illness, including the flares and remissions that often exist.
Long term disability insurance companies view this subjective type of claims opportunistically, knowing that the condition has ups and downs and is not readily documented with diagnostic evidence. They seek objective tests, lab tests or diagnostic imaging that proves the person is suffering from pain from a visible condition – even where the condition – severe headaches – is often not visible.
Why Would a Severe Headache Not Be Treated as a Legitimate Disability Claim?
There are numerous types of headaches, and while some can be tied to specific physical or anatomical causes, others cannot.
From a clinical perspective, there are as many as 150 different kinds of headaches, but the severity and duration of headaches rising to the level of a disability are the ones to be addressed here. Tension headaches, while common, are usually not debilitating, while migraine or cluster headaches are severe and cause pain, brain fog, sensitivity to light, nausea or vomiting, stomach pain and dizziness.
Anyone experiencing a sudden and severe headache should be seen immediately by a doctor. Strokes often present as severe headaches. Delaying going to the Emergency Room could lead to permanent brain damage or death. If you have such a headache, call 911 or the emergency number in your area, and go to the local hospital without delay.
Why Doesn’t the Disability Insurance Company Believe My Headache Pain is Real?
A migraine or cluster headache that prevents you from working is problematic for disability insurance claims because there are no tests to measure headache pain or related symptoms. To combat this, Newfield Law Group works to establish as much objective evidence of your disability as possible. This includes:
As with any subjectively-reported disability, your doctor needs to be a specialist. For a headache disability, your treating physician should be a neurologist with a specialty in headaches, and preferably one with a focus on your specific type of headache. They will be able to more accurately describe both your disability and the reasons it impedes your ability to perform the material tasks and duties of your occupation.
We encourage headache claimants to maintain their own personal records of their disability and how it impacts their daily lives. Maintaining a detailed journal of your headaches – – when they occur, their severity on a scale of 1 – 10, what you were not able to do as a result of the headache, how long the headache lasted, plus any related symptoms – could be a critical component of your claim. Your headache records should be detailed and kept consistently. The more data we can present on your behalf, the better.
If your doctor doesn’t prescribe a brain MRI or CT scan, you may need to ask for the test. Your doctor may not feel you need to have these tests because your symptoms are clear, but the disability insurance company will want to see more evidence, not less. These tests can also rule out other reasons for severe headaches. Careful consideration of the development of evidence is critical for these claims.
Here’s Another Reason Why Headache Disability Claims are Challenging
Headaches are a widespread condition for many people, but they vary in severity, which adds to the disability insurance company’s reasoning for denying claims. Some suffer from migraines only once or twice a year. Some patients take prescribed medications or over the counter medications and gain relief. Others can’t take medications because it puts them to sleep and they can’t function, so their only choice is to stop working for a day or several days.
If your headaches are so severe that you cannot work, you should pursue a disability claim, but you’ll need to be prepared for the claim to be questioned or denied outright.
There are steps you can take to support your long-term disability claim. The Newfield Law Group helps clients with preparing claims and appeals by making life easier for claimants, by guiding the process, and by providing the insurance company the necessary information to support impairment and have the insurance company accept disability.
Often, insurance company representatives share that our advanced preparation of materials helped to streamline the process for approval of a claim. This is the advantage of working with an experienced disability insurance attorney who has worked with the patient population for two decades. We have seen your issues before and can help guide the process.
Why Would Someone Need a Long Term Disability Insurance Lawyer?
Headache claims raise red flags for claims adjusters tasked with weeding out troublesome claims – meaning they are costly to the insurance company and there are several issues the insurance company can easily rely on to delay or ultimately deny the claim. Many of these claims can be managed – but frequently insurance companies will target these claims.
Some policies carry limited benefit periods for claims that are headache based. We have had success in overcoming limited benefit period application efforts with these claims.
Pain medication is far from the only medication used to combat various headache and migraine issues, although it may be the most common. Side effects from pain medication range from being dizzy, disoriented and fatigued to extreme nausea and constipation.
Let us Guide You. Call Our Office Today
When you call Newfield Law Group, you will speak with an attorney who has more than two decades of experience in disability insurance claims for headache sufferers. During your consultation, policy terms and medical issues will be discussed, and a strategy developed. Jason Newfield is honest and straightforward with claimants, recognizing the need for clarity with compassion. We invite you to call today and learn more.