Welcome to the front lines...

Welcome to the front lines of our battle with an enemy that Wall Street rated the most secretive company.

Our story so far...



My husband was a software engineer for some 20 years when in 2011 he started developing odd mental issues ranging from short/long/selective memory loss to losing balance and falling unexpectedly. Testing confirmed something was wrong and his company put him on short term disability to get things sorted out. This is where we first met Cigna (here after CDIC).



 They fought us tooth and nail on the short term disability insurance that we had paid for. Just before the time-window for short term disability to run out, they relented with a few months of benefits. We were also informed that Jeff was into "long term disability" at that point and his claim was transferred to another department. This meant all of the arguments had to begin anew. Jeff said he felt like Oliver Twist trying to get his benefits.



CDIC  hammered us pretty hard during this time; an itemized list of their dirty tricks will be posted shortly as we deal with each. They ran us through the wringer; we had no income and not enough savings to support a protracted fight along with trying to find out what was wrong with Jeff and hopefully get treated. We did everything right, everything they asked as best we could; we are two mentally disabled folks so giving us long detailed tasks with our futures in the balance really is not cool. In spite of all the leg-work they made us do, ignoring every bit of medical evidence presented, they kept denying his benefits for the most ridiculous reasons. However, we felt so whipped and exhausted by the fight that we had mostly given up.

Then, (out of the blue, or so it seemed) after six months of hearing nothing from them (and with no new evidence) CDIC did an about face and paid all of the back-benefits, then continued to pay for a year. We thought we would be OK and spent our time trying to get medical issues fixed.

The first of this year CDIC did another about-face denying his benefits, again without any new information. This almost brings us to where we are now. When they gave no rational reason why Jeff was suddenly being denied against all evidence, we decided to dig into things to find out just what the hell is going on. It just made no sense to anyone.

The real eye-opener came when I insisted on getting all of Jeff's records from CDIC about the claim (make sure you ask for all paper and electronic files); CDIC was still talking to us at that point. Digging through the mountain of paperwork that arrived by post took time and this is where we started getting help; it was and is beyond us to do all this and do it right.

Scouring the records just around the time period of the most recent denial revealed a disturbing number of mistakes, willful ignorance and more importantly, the timing of these record entries revealed some rather unsavory things about the process that we never knew. The specifics will be detailed shortly but the upshot is that the information in the records cast serious doubts on the competency and/or character of those involved with this denial.

We started requesting information from CDIC on all of the people involved as well as company policy and procedures involved in this denial. We told them we were serious, we needed this information and that we would have it.  When the first round of requests went out with little response (aside from an implied threat via mail) we escalated the requests to include bits of management.

Helpful tip from our team: Having an org chart of the departments involved is really useful as it lets you know where to raise the pain if they resist.

At the point that we told them that we were not going to stop, we were going to find the answers with or without their help or permission and we were going to get this fixed once and for all. This notice is what triggered the call from the helpful "Consumer Advocacy Specialist". That term still cracks me up; it is a bit like calling an armed sniper sitting on a crowded beach a "Life Guard".



So here we are today with CDIC. They refuse to talk to us and we have this rather lengthy and distasteful list of either mistakes or crimes. What are we to do? We could do what we did last time, just do whatever they want, be kind to them when they are not and have faith that they would do the right thing in the end...or we could take the battle to them.  We don't have time to fool around with their games so if they are not willing to be reasonable, we don't feel any need to either.

We are keeping some specifics of our strategy to ourselves for obvious reasons but promise to explain everything after the fact.  Since CDIC is all about bringing pain to anyone who stands up to them, we are going to simply turn the tables and use many of their same dirty tricks and techniques against them, tossing in a number of original ideas of our own along the way. In broad strokes, here is what we are doing. There are six main tracts for this attack:
  1. Expose CDICs tactics so that others can see these pitfalls and traps coming in order to avoid them in the first place. For each tactic they try we will be responding with something more painful of our own. We have no foreknowledge of any kind so we (us and the readers) will see what works and what does not first-hand.
  2. Bring the pain back to CDIC, as they have to us. If showing others in our predicament how many things that they really can to do CDIC with little effort and no cost accomplishes this, then so be it. Mission: Complete. Make each and every spurious denial they make cost them, as dearly as possible.
  3. Share knowledge with others. Knowledge is power. The more we know about the industry in general and CDIC in particular, the more power we have. It is just that simple. Think about it: CDIC has been rated as the most secretive company out there. This is Wall Street too; CDIC won't tell anyone where the money is going or where it came come. So more inside knowledge equals more power in your hands.
  4. The other half of the education/empowerment coin is resources. If you know the procedural steps for the handling of your claim as well as they do they cannot blow smoke up your butt. When they can no longer do this they can get dirty and this is where having resources on your side can be a life-saver. We are pulling together the resources that we are using right now to share with all and as new ones come in those will be shared as well.
  5. Chronicle what CDIC does as they do it. This will be a key part of this "war journal". No matter how this turns out, this could provide an interesting glimpse into how CDIC works..
  6. Humor. I know this seems out of place here but think about it: when you are alone (or even with a partner) it can be easy to become consumed with the apparent grimness of the situation. Dwelling on this for too long can eat you up to the point that your ability to resist is weakened. We cannot magically make everyones situation better but maybe we can keep things light and poke some fun and the source of our pain.
What do we get out of this? Since CDIC seems immune to logic, evidence and reason, we will hit them in a way they can understand: money. If through this blog we help convert a handful of sheep to wolves, and then they convert a few more....well then. The bottom line is that if we lose such an unreasonable battle, we would rather go down swinging and not just slip meekly into the night.

...and if anything we do affects CDICs bottom line and they can attribute that pain to us, so much the better. Until then however we are doing our best to enjoy the ride.


Keep the faith,

Mom Cobb
CignaWarJournal at Gmail dot com.








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