UnumProvident
UnumProvident is the pre-2007 name of "the Unum Group," a huge Fortune 500 insurance company based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. One of the biggest and most established employee benefits companies in the world, UnumProvident/Unum Group works with 100,000 employers in the U.S. to provide:
- disability insurance (short- and long-term) to replace income when an employee is unable to work, whether due to an illness, injury, routine maternity leave, etc.
- group life insurance
- long-term care insurance (LTCI)
- supplemental health and critical illness benefits (to help workers cover financial gaps in their medical plans)
UnumProvident's Bad Faith Practices
With a workforce of 10,000, UnumProvident is the market leader for disability insurance. However, UnumProvident has been the defendant in thousands of bad faith insurance lawsuits in the past two decades regarding insurance bad faith practices such as:
- unfounded denial of insurance claims
- underpayment of insurance benefits
- unreasonable stalling and delays in claim processing
Class Action against UnumProvident
In fact, a class action against UnumProvident/Unum was started in late 2007 based on allegations that UnumProvident had engaged in a bad-faith plan for years to illegally deny or terminate the long-term disability claims of thousands of disabled American workers.
Artificial Stock Price Inflation
In mid-2008, Unum Group agreed to a $40 million settlement in a federal class action lawsuit that contended the Unum Group (as UnumProvident) made misleading statements to investors in 2000–2003 to artificially inflate its stock share price. The lawsuit also alleged that UnumProvident had used certain improper claims handling practices.
Although Unum did not admit liability when it agreed to the settlement, the company created a fund to distribute the $40 million to people who bought UnumProvident securities during that three-year period.
Unum's Lobbying with the Federal Government
It's of interest to insurance consumers that Unum Group (and other giant insurance companies) routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying state and federal governments to produce insurance legislation that is favorable to insurance companies—not policyholders.
For example, in just the second half of 2007, the Unum Group spent $322,000 to lobby Congress on legislation related to:
- long-term care insurance—to amend the Internal Revenue Code to make it possible to offer LTCI under cafeteria insurance plans and other arrangements
- genetic testing—regarding the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, a proposed law that would prevent insurance companies from charging higher premiums or denying insurance coverage based on the results of genetic testing
- terrorism—on a bill that would extend the U.S. Treasury Department's Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, which provides for a system of shared private and public compensation for insured losses resulting from acts of terrorism
If You Have Been Harmed by UnumProvident
If you have a problem with an insurance policy issued by UnumProvident, Unum Group, or one of its many subsidiaries, contact us today. Our highly skilled insurance bad faith lawyers will thoroughly evaluate your claim and fight to ensure you recover the compensation you are entitled to.
Be assured your matters will be in experienced & caring hands.
