Lawsuits & Judgments

On Tuesday, September 4th, a Federal Judge in Tennessee certified a class action suit against Unum Group. An article in Forbes provides many of the details: The suit, which was originally filed in 2003, claims that the insurance company “schemed” to terminate or deny the benefits of thousands of disabled Americans. Specifically, It is alleged that “non medical” employees at the Unum Group created secret documents that set target dates for the termination of disability payments in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The use of the term “non medical employee” is strong allegation. What this means is that business people, not doctors or other medical professionals, were deciding when to stop payments. This implies that the decision to terminate payments was made for business or financial reasons, and not as a result of the patients medical condition.

This may be something of a non suit in the long run. In 2004, an agreement was reached between 49 states and the Unum Group to reconsider almost 200,000 denied clams and for the company to pay a $15 million fine. A company spokesman was quoted in the Forbes article states that today’s decision is “a procedural ruling focused solely on class certification,” and points out that the company has almost completed reevaluating the specified cases.

We have to agree with this assessment it would seem that this case will proceed until it has been determined that Unum has met its obligations under the 2004 agreement. However, the fact that this case may never go before a Jury does not make it any less important. The mere certification of this class may serve as motivation to the insurance company as it continues to reevaluate the disputed cases.