I paid LTD (long term disability) insurance for 22 years.in late 1999, I got sick and had to go on LTD. I tried to go back to work in August but could not make it and had to go completely on LTD. Aetna is my LTD company per contract with my former employer. I was to get 60% of my wages, being sick, and not thinking that well (who does when they are sick?) it took me a while to apply for social security disability. I guess because one always thinks that next week "I will be going back to work".
Aetna was my only source of income at the time when someone in their office decided I was no longer 'disabled'; this person did NOT contact me. They did NOT contact my doctor, just stopped paying me. My doctor was STUNNED to hear he had been replaced by a clerk sitting at a desk hundreds of miles away! I was forced to appeal. When you appeal, it is at least a 5-6 month process.
During that process, they sent me to their OWN doctor who said not only was I still sick and disabled, but Aetna made me WORSE due to pulling the financial rug out from under me! They finally after 5 months decided to start paying me again (therefore admitting their mistake), but in the time they had stopped, I was forced out of my home, my car was reposessed, and there was NO "I'm sorry" from Aetna to put a sick person thru that. NO apology, NO trying to make a settlement with me over what was THEIR mistake.
I lost thousands. I was able to find a new place to live, but I was so mentally and physically worse by that time, I was on the verge of collapse (their own doctor even warned of that, that he was worried I might have to be hosptilized by what Aetna had done to me).
Moving under the best of circumstances is tough, but when you are sick and being thrown out of your house due to Aetnas "mistake", it is even harder. Aetna stopped payment again to me a year later, and I lost that second house and a second car, I am now on my third and final house (and currently under foreclosure on this house). I had to move a hundred miles from family and friends. I have no car to get to any doctor (the doctors I need are in a city 20 miles north of me). I can't afford to go to the doctor on what I get just on SSD alone (Medicare pays squat on doctors bills and nothing for prescription drugs). I am sicker today than I ever was, and I really thot I would be better by now and back to work. But the constant worry about money, the constant worry about where I will live next, the constant worry just about anything, anything can set me off into a foul mood of depression and crying and just plain feeling rotten 24/7, is a direct result of the treatment I have gotten from Aetna.
I am sure they are spying on me, as I have never given them my home phone number. It is unlisted, yet a couple weeks ago I had a message on my answering machine to call them. They want my doctor, who I can no longer see because I owe her money (medicare pays squat on doctors visits, did not know that at the time and had a big bill to her) to tell them I am still disabled or my benefits might be cut.
Hey Aetna, you already CUT my LTD 2 years ago, remember? Anyway, that gives me who is already afraid to answer the phone or door due to bill collectors etc the willy nillys thinking they are following me and stalking me now.
They say they a have overpaid and are billing ME $68,000—not even close, and how dare they send a bill like that to someone THEY made sicker than she was when she first went on a medical leave? They constantly THREATEN me with 'pay up or else' letters wanting me to settle up with them, but NEVER have they tried to settle up with me for their employees MISTAKE on stopping my payments a couple years ago, that caused me to lose houses, cars and part of my health/sanity for the past couple years. What do THEY owe me for that?
I want them to settle up with ME first. I want them to pay for what I lost in two houses (down payments, equity lost etc), two cars, my terrible credit now, my worsening mental and physical health. What I have lost the past couple years still being sick when I am sure I could have been well by now and back to work had they not put me thru all this crap and stress, and THEN maybe we can talk about any overpayments they might have made after SSD kicked in. But imagine their surprise to find out it is 1/4 what they are billing me for! I can't IMAGINE a company in the health care business thinking it is a good idea to send a sick person a bill for $68,000 and demanding immediate payment or else!
I want to warn anyone against using Aetna for their LTD insurance. It is a horrible mistake. They are only out after their own bottom line. They could care less if you are sick or not, and they will stop payments just to improve their bottom lines and impress their stock holders based on some clerk trying to 'cut corners' with their patients health.
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