Occupational Assessment

Hey everyone,

A friend who is receiving LTD benefits has been contacted by her LTD provider and they informed her that she needs to complete an in person Occupational Assessment. What will this look like? She is on disability due to her mental health. She is also getting close to her two year mark in terms of receiving LTD.

Assesments are different depending on the reason for the disability.

From the experience of the LTD support group I am part of: in an nutshell they are trying to determine if she can return to her job or do any type of job other than her own occupation. If the report supports she can, then they will use it as justification to cut off her of LTD benefits.

A few things to do:

  1. Get information about the person (and their qualifications) that is conducting the assessment prior to going. Look for reviews of that person to see what you might be stepping into.

  2. Confirm that a copy of the assessment report will be sent to your friend’s psychologist/doctor. Make sure her treatment team will respond to the report and highlight any inaccuracies.

  3. Ask for any form they want her to fill out or sign several days before the appointment so she can thoughtfully answer or question any weird things they are getting her to sign off on.

  4. After the assessment send to her insurance adjuster any info that is pertinant. For example did the assessment cause problems (mental physical) over following day(s).

Keep in mind the assessor is not there to help your friend, but to perform a task that the insurance company is paying for. I have a friend who is “going after” a physio therapist (they will likely have their license stripped in about a month) who blatantly lied on a report to make the insurance company happy and get more business from them.

Hope that provided a bit of help…

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Thank you. I really appreciate the info.