Hi, I am on long-term disability and the doctor filling out forms for me said there is an option to use the Canada life rehab program and she is going to recommend it. Do I need to do this if I already have my own rehab team, physio, mental health therapist, pain specialists, etc?
As far as I can tell rehab and treatment are two very different things. Medical intervention (such as all doctors, all paramedical therapists, and all types of medical specialists) are considered treatment not rehab. Every policy I’ve ever seen does not require a claimant to get medical treatment provided by the insurance company, but an insurance company might require (if reasonable and supported by your medical team) for you to participate in a rehab program.
How does your LTD pollicy define “rehabilitation”? My policy states it as the following: an employee may be required to start a rehabiliation program that may include the involvement of a rehabilitation specialist, part-time work, working in another occupation or vocational training to help the employee become capable of full-time employment.
When I was pushed towards rehab, I just said my medical team does not support it. They tried to make it sound like I had to use their medical team, and I just said I’m happy with my own team and their is no requirement in my LTD contract to use theirs. They dropped it after that email was sent.
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Forgot to add, in my opinion, you are better off having your own therapy team. If you’re paying the bills then you know the therapists aren’t incentivized to provide reports that are favorable to the insurance company in order to get more work from the insurance company. That might sound jaded, but I’ve seen so many examples of this happening, and it makes me have very little repect for some major players in the physio therapy world.
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Thank you for your response. This info is very helpful.
Kindly,
Sommer
For my rehab they basically just paid my therapy sessions for the therapist that i was already seeing.
Why is your doctor recommending it? How she thinks it would help you over using your own team?
This is a complicated question to answer. It all depends on what care is being proposed and what treatment your own team is providing. The services provided by insurers are usually done as part of a multidisciplinary team which is coordinated and follows protocols. This approach is seen by insurance as having better chance of success. In many cases people are seeing own treatment providers but they are not working as a team. Or the person’s treatment providers are focused on a treatment plan the insurer or doctors disagree with.
David Brannen
Disability Lawyer with Resolute Legal
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