Manulife Disability Insurance Reviews

After being on Long Term Disability by Manulife for 2 years, I was cut off abruptly. I appealed and won. They immediately told me I had to apply to CPP disability. I did and won. I thought they would thank me for doing such a great job on providing medical evidence, and paperwork etc. since now their payments to me would decrease substantially. But...no. They went after me with a vengeance to get rid of me for good. They said I had to take a retraining course, and they also listed some jobs I will be able to do after the training. The jobs they listed would not be jobs I could medically do, training or not. I tried to explain to my claims adjustor my concerns, and was told this is not Manulife's concern. I have subsequently been told that I am non-compliant, and my case is closed on a contractual basis, therefore I have no appeal rights. Just like that. Their decision never took into consideration any of my medical history, and my doctor never had a say. Be very cautious with this insurance company. Even if you have a severe, prolonged disability that CPP agrees with, Manulife doesn't care. They will use whatever provision in their policy to get rid of you quickly. As far as I can tell, I have no recourse. Feeling totally helpless in Vancouver.

I would never recommend Manulife!

1. They throw many obstacles in the way of submitting claims.

Chiropractic and physiotherapy were included in my group benefits. The website said my group claims can be submitted directly once I verify my account. I followed all the steps and it still took more than 15 times and 7 months to be able to process direct claims. I needed to send a screenshot to a Manulife representative to prove I had verified my account and each clinic had to call Manulife multiple times to argue on my behalf.

When I went to the dentist and the front desk verified what was covered by my group benefits before I had dental work done. Manulife rejected the claim from the dentist’s office. I had to suddenly pay over $800 on the spot and then submit online at home and wait a month. The receptionist at the dentist’s office had never seen a claim rejected before, except by Manulife.

I can’t think of any reason why these normal claims have so many barriers! Maybe they’re hoping people won’t jump through all the hoops and it’ll save the company money?

2. When I switched to the individual plan I expected to pay more. That’s normal.

What I did not expect was for common prescription medications not being covered at all. Now I need to pay $300 more every month for meds that would be covered by every other insurance company.

There are many more issues I could talk about, including my Long Term Disability Claim, purposefully confusing and misdirecting letters from the company and more. But, I’ll stop here.

You get the point.

Never pick Manulife for your insurance!

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.