General Info

Accidents
(except MVAs)

Types of Injury

Motor Vehicle Accidents

 

 

Hangarter v. Provident

Insurer's Beware! Insurers who insist on using biased medical examiners in an effort to routinely deny insurance benefits to injured people should consider Hangarter v. Provident Life and Accident Ins. Co., 373 F.3d 998, 1010-1011 (9th Cir. 2004). In that recent case the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals noted that Provident had used the same medical examiner at least 19 times over the past 5 years. Moreover, in 13 of 13 claims for disability insurance coverage the medical examiner rejected the total disability claim each time. The Court asserted that the repeated use of a biased medical examiner overcomes any presumption that a carrier's denial of a claim is a "genuine dispute". Instead such a practice constitutes evidence of bad faith on the part of the carrier and may give rise to an independent cause of action against the insurance carrier.