Senior Buyer for Advertising Company CIGNA/New York Life

Our 60-year-old client worked for the world’s largest out-of-home advertising company as a Senior Buyer and outdoor furniture supplier, doing everything necessary to manage a contract for twenty years. He also served as an MRO Buyer – a Maintenance, Repair and Operations Buyer, meaning he was responsible for preparing and issuing purchase orders for products and maintaining and fixing machinery. for all purchases and contracts pursuant to facility, machinery, transportation equipment and maintenance. Both roles were demanding, requiring extensive global travel, tight deadlines, tough negotiating skills and being on call 24/7 to deal with manufacturers and municipal governments in a highly competitive market. After he started experiencing intensely disabling back pain, he could no longer travel around the world for business and was confined at home, leaving the house only for doctors’ appointments.

He suffers from a list of numerous debilitating and disabling conditions, including multiple failed back surgeries, L4-S1 lumbar fusions, lumbar radiculopathy, spondylolisthesis, and chronic bilateral low back pain. He suffers daily from symptoms, restrictions, and limitations, including chronic pain, erratic gate, weakness, numbness and tingling, cramping, burning, pins and needles in his feet, drop foot, joint and muscle pain, back pain, numbness in the whole left lower extremity plus partial numbness on the right side and musculoskeletal problems that impact his life and impair his ability to work. Our client consulted a number of medical professionals for evaluation of his conditions, all of whom were extremely supportive of his disability claim. Despite a well-documented claim with multiple doctor reports attesting to his medical condition, CIGNA denied his long term disability benefits claim. Once he was denied, he retained the services of the Law Office of Justin Frankel to fight for him and submit an appeal to overturn CIGNA’s wrongful determination.

We created an appeal on his behalf, flooding CIGNA with ample support as to why our client could no longer work on a full-time sustained basis in both a physically and cognitively demanding career. We also worked closely with his numerous physicians in rebutting CIGNA’s inaccurate and unreliable peer reviews conducted by unqualified in-house physicians. The appeal contained subjective medical support, narrative reports from his treating physicians and a plethora of medical literature – informing CIGNA of the severity of our client’s conditions. Shortly after our appeal was submitted, CIGNA reversed its decision, and we continue to represent our client in monitoring his claim in ensuring that CIGNA does not terminate his disability claim again in the future. Our collaborative process with our client and his medical team, combined with our years of experience identifying the weak areas in CIGNA’s claim decision, led to a successful appeal.”