When you become ill or injured, or your property sustains damage, you look to your insurance provider to cover the cost of care or repair. After all, the whole point of having an insurance policy is to prepare for the time when an accident happens and you need that money back to pay for expenses.
However, insurers see things differently because they are primarily businesses. Their goal is to keep their pockets full. Even the best of companies with high ratings of customer service and satisfaction do not shell out all the money for every claim, or they would go out of business.
Instead, they may employ these tactics to delay or deny claims.
- The provider may ask for more information than is necessary to process the claim with the intent to lengthen the process and push you past the deadline or to deny your claim because you cannot or will not produce the information.
- The company may require that you go through an examination under oath, handling questioning from its well-trained defense lawyers.
- The insurer may not abide by the terms of your policy contract, denying you coverage you rightly have.
In some cases, the acts may not even be intentional, with simple disorder and incompetency being responsible. For example, employees may not file claims correctly or may make other errors that can lead to rejection. Motivation is irrelevant, however, because the effects on you are the same.
Other steps they may take include ceasing contact with you, changing or cancelling your policy with or without notice, offering you less than what you are eligible for or accusing you of insurance fraud. If you face any of the above behaviors from your insurance provider, you need the help of an attorney to fight back. Insurance companies do not automatically get to win because they are bigger or have more funds. You have rights as a policyholder that insurers must protect or else pay the price.
