Disability Insurance Reviews

Manulife Disability Insurance Reviews

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(65 reviews)
Manulife
1.4 out of 5 stars:
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TERRIBLE Experience!

by Shorty on Jun 15, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

Boy oh boy where do I start?! Manulife is SADLY the insurance company my employer goes through, and let me tell you, I would rather suffer than to ever go through anything with these people!
I haven't been very fortunate with my health these past few years, so Ive had to go on 2 short term leaves due to my illness. Again, SADLY I had to go through Manulife in order to basically get paid for the time Im seeking medical treatments. Both times they denied my claim when they had every single proof & medical documentation from specialists explaining my symptoms in detail, the cause of it and the length of time needed to recover. Both times they asked me to sign a form that gives them full authority to gather any medical information needed from my doctor, yet they never contacted them. When asked why, they said "we can, but any medical documents they provide to us, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COST". After providing everything they asked for, the "case manager" who claims to have a medical background, decides whether you are actually ILL ENOUGH to be supported through their garbage insurance, or unsupported. Basically at this point they think they are medical professionals, and make the decision based on "evidence" and "proof". So all the money you spend getting these documents for them, all the unbearable pain you are going through with your illness, cost of medication, different doctors & specialists you see, doesn't even matter... because at the end of the day, these case managers will make a decision based on what THEY really think your illness is, not what the doctor says or what sort of treatments you are seeking. The worst part is, they pretend like they REALLY care about the individual by following up regularly which almost feels like harassment. I mean how many times during the week do you have to call or email and say "Just contacting you to follow up and see how you're doing" .. oh please.. you just want this to be over with and send me back to work when you know fully how ill I am. These people have absolutely no compassion, no empathy, no consideration for your well being. If you have the privilege of NOT dealing with this company, please find another place to deal with. They have caused nothing but anxiety & stress for myself and other co workers who had the misfortune of dealing with them. I am now off of work, unsupported, which means ABSOLUTELY no pay until I am fully back to work, (yet they still call/email weekly to follow up and see "how i'm doing" and when i'm going back to work) financially in a hole, and mentally exhausted. Its only a matter of time before more people speak up about this. Something needs to be done!

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Moneylife not Manulife

by CWN on May 5, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

I was the victom of a brutal assault. I was beat so bad the surgeons at the hospital told me I would have died with in 5 hours if I hadn't been admitted when I did.
Spent weeks in the hospital recovering and 6-8 months at home recovering from head trauma, lacerated liver, chipped teeth, ligament & mucle damage to my jaw and hands.
Dr's told me the damaged I recieved to my body from being physically assaulted was equal to a pedestrian being hit by a car.
Trauma clinic was concerned I may have received a brain injury of some kind, stated that in my medical files and warned me to pay close attention to anything out of the ordinary.
While recovering at home I started showing symptoms of a concussion. My family Dr. diagnosed and treated me with such.
After my Dr's treatment wasn't helping the issues I am having with my brain, he referred me to a Brain Injury Rehabilitation Clinic.
I was excepted after they reviewed my medical files and qualified. I am now waiting to start treatment.
Manulife is the insurance company I've paid into for over 6 years through my work. They are suppose to be helping me with long term medical disability until I am fully healed. They have denied my claim numerous times based off of there being no medical evidence that I am injured because they can't physical see the damage done to my brain.
A hospital Emergency Trauma Clinic, family Dr. and a Brain Injury Rehibilitatio Clinic have all agreed that they feel I have some sort of brain trauma and need to be treated for such. Manulife experts feel otherwise based off of....their words no evidence.
Manulife has stuck to this theory even after my Dr. has explained to them that brain injuries seldom show up on scans and a lot of the time are based off of symptoms over time. Just like mine.
My Dr will not let me work until we figure out what is wrong with me.
My work won't let me back until my Dr. clears me.
I've lost my home, all my savings, fallen in debt and now somehow have to move my family across country as per the police so the man that went to jail for beating me can't find me and kill me now that he's out after 6 months.
Manulife has gone above my Dr's word, run us in circles, miss filed info, lied about what was said on phone calls, switched reps over and over again ect. the list goes on and on.
The deserve every lawsuit, hate mail and bad review they get.
I feel for anyone having to deal with these money grubbing low life thieves.
Take care everyone.

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Disability Benefits Fiasco

by Ontario Woman on Apr 24, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

In 2010 I had to leave work due to serious health issues. Manulife provides the group health insurance provided by my employer. The application was correct and accurate. I received benefits for the first 4 years, after which a return to work is deemed unsuitable and they are obliged to provide benefits until the claimant is 65. They required testing at this 4 year mark by their own selected health expert and his report *supported* my claim. Despite this, I received a letter saying my benefits were being terminated as I was (miraculously) fit to return immediately to full time employment at my former job. There was no medical evidence to support this decision, quite the opposite. Further, the policy included a clause that claimants do not have to take employment that pays less than 75% of their former salary; all medical reports indicated that the type of work I could now perform without risk of triggering another episode of serious illness did not pay anywhere near 75% of my former (management) salary. The Manulife employee assigned to my file refused to acknowledge the existence of this clause in the policy. Another Manulife employee involved in the file was caught out saying one thing to me and another thing to my medical care provider in an effort to use semantics to cheat me out of my benefits. In short, he lied through his teeth. It was shocking. I had to hire a lawyer to fight their decision to cancel as it was clear anything I pointed out in my defence was being ignored. The lawyer indicated the run-around she was getting from them as she prepared the file was just short of bad faith bargaining. In the end, the unjustified cancellation was reversed - but not before I had to pay over $5,000 I couldn't afford to the lawyer (who basically made the same arguments I had) and had gone through months of intense stress that in and of itself made me more ill. If I had been unable to afford a lawyer, I would have lost my benefits, plain and simple. The truth played no part in it. I have read that disability insurers routinely cancel valid claimants as some of them will not know how to or have the stamina to fight back, and for those who do, it's much cheaper for the insurance provider to deal with an internal review of the termination decision or a court case than pay out substantial benefits to someone in their 30s or 40s 'til age 65. So is Manulife worse than other disability providers? I don't know. I wouldn't trust any of them after my experience.

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Excellent service and value

by eagleye on Mar 12, 2017
5 out of 5 stars

I've had three experiences on the claims side with Manulife. Two were of their life insurance policies and one was with their group employer short-term and long term disability coverage. In all three cases, I was not the claimant as such. With the two life insurance claims, I was the executor and administrator of two separate estates where the deceased was life insured by Manulife.

In both life insurance death benefits claims cases, Manulife's claims dept representatives were helpful, efficient and professional in their work. In both cases the death benefits were paid in full, expeditiously and without any delays or obstacles.

In the case of the short and long term disability case, it involved one of our company's employees. There again, Manulife's service was exemplary.

In a sense, am surprised by some of the negative reviews; however, it is more likely that one would be more motivated to place a negative review when feeling to be short-changed than a positive review for just receiving the expected. Thinking back I did have a terrible experience with one of the bank-owned insurance companies who did everything to deny a valid and fully documented travel medical emergency claim to the point that they eventually succeeded in frustrating the claim.

That case, not with Manulife but one of the bank-owned insurance companies, involved a medical emergency during a Carribean cruise. Despite having all the documentation, diagnosis, treatment, etc. they insisted on interviewing that attending physician whose personal contact information was unavailable due to privacy rules of the cruise liner. Apparently, they knew about that privacy rule of the cruise liner and used that knowledge to zap the customer.

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Benefits decline

by Scam artists on Feb 28, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

Been diagnosed with 2 serious illnesses and have been declined twice for short term disability. After first decline was told by case worker I would be approved when I appealed. This did not happen. They told me if I was sick for a year I could keep working. When I said you are telling me to go against my Dr.s wishes and they said oh no were are not. We are just telling you we won't support your claim. They said just keep working , it does not matter if you get worse. Case worker is in Toronto. Scam artists. Disgusting way to treat people that pay for benefits. Have spoken to other people who have had serious illnesses and they were ordered back to work too.

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automatic refusal mandate

by janice on Oct 25, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

with full medical through ManuLife . illness left me unable to work, letters from heart specialist, doctor, respiratory specialist and unknown kidney function and blood pressure, I am only 33 and 10 years in a management position. Manulife refused benefits immediately. Appeal process refused and now 2 years later a lawyer (who used to work for Manulife) has gotten it to the arbitration stage. He knows their mandate is to refuse legitimate claims because sick people cannot go through the hoops and they hope to drop them along the way. I have lost my income, unable to work, gone on welfare, and am homeless now. When it goes to arbitration, and not to court, there will be no public record or statistics as to their refusals. 2 years and still waiting to hear, has destroyed my overall health and career.

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WARNING Manulife patrons

by 416theflu on Sep 20, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

Was an RN working with teens in psych
-after filling out all required paperwork, I submitted before my mandatory disability ran out with the understanding that I would have piece of mind and begin picking up the pieces.
-a letter comes back a week after LTD deposit expected
-meet with your case worker over the phone (lets call her Poozan F.)
-First, the woman is on VACATION for a week
-I get her on the phone, she appears to be doing 5 other things while half listening to me on speaker phone
-I give her the same information my doctor and I had filled out.
-Another week passes, this woman calls me and starts asking me additional questions, to which I answer...no problem.
-this woman sends...get this...medical review to be assessed by a psychiatrist...addresses it to my gp
-I was never emailed these forms, doc had to copy for me
-because I am now weeks without an income, my anxiety increases, I have to borrow from all over, credit ruined, motorcycle on the way out
-I make a plea to Poozan's manager, who is equally useless, says they need my GP to fill out psych-specific paperwork for my claim
- I have a nervous breakdown, vomit, headache, catatonically depressed for 2 days
-my psych doctor doesn't fill the paperwork because it's not adressed to him
-Finally convince my gp to help me fill the paperwork, much to her frustration and we send it ALL
-Ive not had an income for a month and a half at this point, and resorted to pleading with these corporate, soulless, automatons
-"we understand your frustration{because it is our job to}, but we can't do anything about it {because our job is to make money - not concern ourselves with human impact}
-I can no longer pay for my antidepressants
-two weeks go by not hearing a damn thing
-call the manager, who tells me something about rush being put on it {if that is rush in 2016, we are in trouble] and says her underling Poozan will fill me in tomorrow
-CLAIM denied?
-Why? Because we actually sent your psych doc the paperwork, but because we failed to notify you, there was no reason for a doc who sees hundreds of patients a week to fill out forms without context.
-Why? because after sending your entire medical chart to us, there was a mention of past use of marijuana, Poozan kept asking me if it was addiction, and I said no, I am abstinent cause Im BROKE
-that didn't stop addiction being reason number two
-so Poozan gave me her corporate script after I yet again tried to deliver some human context in their system of manufactured delay
-surely I couldn't be the only one?

Apparently Manulife, Sun Life, DesJardin or any insurance company that has a high end solidified deal with a large corporation has no incentive to please it's individual members, and being a business, manufactured delay is more money quarterly, creates more time for more reasons for claims to be denied, and when all of this fails, evidenced instances of folk not getting what they are entitled to by appeal 3.

- my nursing flame has all but been extinguished by first the americanization of our beloved health system, second by an ambitious wolf paid to guard the veteran sheep of the unit, and an insurance company that delays you into ruined credit, loss of possessions, or in my case, having to move to a cheaper unit.

Manulife MANUFACTURES delay, to make YOU do all the paperwork and put together the appointments, because the creatures that work there earn their bonuses of the BACKS of nurses, who had no choice in which coverage their hospital subscribes to.

Manulife employees, you are the scourge of the earth and the opposite of what humanity is as understood in the art of nursing. May you never need to ironically use your own services in a time of need.

-with the last of my nursing flame, my best advice is to keep yourself healthy, and never subject yourself to this system unless absolutely necessary.

peace

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Completely disappointed

by Andrea on Sep 12, 2016
3 out of 5 stars

I'm writting to express my frustration about Manulife company.
I paid 500,00 Cad for this insurance and it didnt help me at all.
I have a panic attack and I went to the hospital, needes medical assistance, paid the Bill in the end , doctor prescribed me a medication. By the way, I feell pretty much better and I have been prescribed to be absent 1 month from my job. I have claimed the refund , because I paid 150,00cad to see the doctor, and they told me it's not covered by because of the companie's policy, the girll that talked to me was super kind , Everybody can has the same issue, I just wanna say you guys that be carefull!!! because the dont consider mental disorder as a disease, if you have any medical emergency in relation to something you feel. You will pay the Bill! At least I got my permanent residence I have not to pass through this anymore. It's a shame!!! Just to express my frustration about the company. Veyr bady experience I had.

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LONG-TERM DISABILITY BENEFITS

by Denied on Aug 30, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

My daughter started a new job with a company whose benefit plan is provided by Manulife. During her first 3-month probation period she visited her doctor and received a prescription for anxiety. Six months after she started her job she required hospital care for a mental health disorder. Since she visited her doctor and received a prescription drug during her first 3 months of employment, Manulife denied her long-term disability benefits due to her having a "pre-existing condition". She lost 9 months of disability benefits. Manulife self-promotes itself as supporting mental health initiatives at the same time that they deny benefits to mental health patients. Public, corporate image is more important to Manulife than supporting its clients with the benefits that their clients' premiums are paying for. It would likely follow that if a cancer patient started a new job with a company whose benefit plan was provided by Manulife, they would have to stop their cancer treatments for their first 3 months of employment or they too would be deemed to have a "pre-existing condition" that would negate long-term disability benefits if the cancer required extensive hospital care. Manulife focuses on their profits first and caring about their clients last.

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Manulife does not care

by dontchoosemanulife on Jun 27, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

DO NOT CHOOSE MANULIFE INSURANCE FOR ANYTHING!! They are snakes! They don't care if you have doctors notes and proof indicating that you are disabled. THEY WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T RECEIVE MONEY OWED. I Am in the middle of an appeal for short term disability benefits and have been through hell trying to get my benefits. my doctor has sent them more then 3 notes stating i am unable to work and their case workers (who are apparently doctors too???) keep overruling my doctors decision and are trying to tell med that I am able to work. I Am in a cast and sling and cant even tie my own shoes yet they are saying i am able to operate a crane. worst company ive ever had to deal with.

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