Fighting Insurance Claim Denials for Police Officers
You have legal options when your health insurance claim as a police officer has been wrongfully denied. An Orange County Insurance bad faith lawyer at Quincey Law can explain them to you and help you take action.
Police officers are in the same exact position as everyone else when they are seeking to have their health insurance claims covered. They are subject to the business practices that insurance companies use, which can result in improper claim denial. If the insurance company has broken the law in denying your claim as a police officer, you may be able to sue them directly to receive compensation.
Call an Orange County Insurance bad faith attorney at Quincey Law by calling us at (866) 945-9175 when you need to take on the insurance company. We can discuss your potential course of action during a free initial consultation.
How Police Officers Receive Health Insurance Coverage
Police officers receive health insurance coverage through their jobs. Many of these benefits are negotiated as part of a collective bargaining agreement that covers all police officers in the individual department. Decisions about your care are not made by the state. Rather, they are made by individual health insurance companies that provide coverage and who have their own financial motivations at play. If you are a police officer, and your health insurance claim has been denied, you can and should fight back. You are there for the public on a daily basis, and an experienced Orange County health insurance claims denial attorney can work to ensure that the legal system is there for you when you need it.
How to Fight the Insurance Company When Your Claim Is Denied
You have several options at your disposal to seek to force the insurance company to cover your claim. One option that you can pursue is to go after the insurance company directly in court. Not only can a court ensure that you receive the coverage you need, but it may also punish the insurance company directly for illegal conduct.
An insurance company claim denial can violate California state law. Insurance companies are private entities, and there are no issues of sovereign immunity when you file a lawsuit against them, even if you are a public employee who gets health insurance through a state or local job. Regardless of how you receive health insurance coverage, California’s insurance bad faith law applies to you. The fact that you receive your health insurance coverage as a public employee preamps federal law that could have kept you from filing a bad faith claim.
What Can Insurance Companies Not Do When Handling Your Claim?
California law prohibits a number of practices in connection with how an insurance company processes and responds to your claim. Specifically, the insurance company cannot do the following:
- Take an unreasonable amount of time to respond to your claim
- Fail to respond to you when you are addressing communications to them
- Deny your claim without a reasonable investigation
- Denying your claim in contravention of clear terms to the contrary in your policy
- Misrepresent the terms of your policy in denying your claim
The insurance company is obligated to act in good faith towards all of their policyholders. If they fail to uphold this basic obligation, they can be held liable in a lawsuit. Not only can the insurance company be forced to pay your claim, but they can also owe you damages. You have a relatively high burden of proof to meet in an insurance company bad faith claim, but it is possible to meet it when you have persuasive evidence that they have broken the law.
Your Damages in an Insurance Bad Faith Lawsuit
If your insurance bad faith lawsuit is successful, you may be able to receive the following in damages:
- Any additional medical expenses that you incurred as the result of their denial
- Lost wages, if the denial of coverage resulted in physical injuries that left you unable to work
- Non-economic damages for things like emotional distress and pain and suffering that you endured
- Attorney’s fees
What insurance companies fear most in bad faith cases is the prospect of punitive damages. If a jury believes that an insurance company has egregiously broken the law, they could order additional damages to send a message. This prospect can give you more leverage when dealing with the insurance company.
Contact an Orange County Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer
Learn how you can fight back when the insurance company has broken the law by speaking with an Orange County Insurance bad faith attorney at Quincey Law. You can schedule a free initial consultation with one of our attorneys by visiting our website or by calling us today at (866) 945-9175.