I just started LTD in March. I am a teacher. The LTD rep called me and said she was going to talk to all 3 of my doctors: psychotherapist, anxiety specialist and CBT therapist. I told her she only needs to talk to my psychotherapist because she will be doing the paperwork for return to work for September. She sent me a letter saying she requested medical updates from all 3 and might need my help if she doesn’t hear back from them. I’m not comfortable with this. My therapist is private and covered through my benefits. My therapist told me I don’t have to agree to disclosing information from our sessions. My psychotherapist can get updates from the other 2 doctors. Can LTD ask for medical updates from all 3 doctors? I’d greatly appreciate any advice.
Your CBT therapist can say for your privacy she will summarize. She can list your diagnosis and that you are an active participant. Say how many sessions and coping strategies, mindfulness etc are being taught.
Something along those lines. She can be general…also if pushed she can summarize cbt techniques covered in each session, without disclosing details of what was discussed.
Yes, they can. But your doctors don’t need to provide clinical notes to them. They can just answer the questions that your insurer has.
Thanks Elaine! Right now they are bugging my psych for my clinical notes and she will only give a summary of what we are doing ie: mindfullness, cbt, breathing ,sleep counselling …
You just made my day
No problem.
My psychiatrist used to send the insurer my clinical notes before. One day she told me that she would stop doing that because the things we talked about are highly confidential and the insurer shouldn’t have an access to those records (sometimes we talk about things that are very private). She said that many doctors do that now.
So she asked my insurer to send her a list of questions when they needed an update. Now my case manager just sends her questions. We answer them together and my therapist faxes it back to them.
The insurer didn’t argue about this change. I guess they know they shouldn’t have an access to personal files like this.
It is your decision on what to provide the insurance company in terms of medical information or records. Your only legal requirement is to provide the medical report form they require as part of the application.
However, we strongly advocate for giving them as much information as possible and especially any records they ask for. If there are privacy concerns, you could have the psychologist just give a summary of the treatment and not give the actual notes. When you refuse to disclose things it is like putting a big neon sign that says to the insurance company “this must be really bad for her claim because she doesn’t want us to see it”.
Try to give them as much information as possible.
David Brannen
Disability Lawyer with Resolute Legal
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As for specialist reports I get a copy and send them to my case manager myself. But I think they can request them from your doctor. Also I send my attendance reports from group therapies. It is not necessary but it is not going to hurt my case. I send most records that show my disability to my case manager so she doesn’t need to guess much. At the same time it is beneficial for me.
But it is up to you if you want to do that.
Thank you everyone for the replies. Keep the comments coming please.