Woman Loses Benefits After Posting Facebook Pics Insurance Company Cut Benefits

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Woman Loses Benefits After Posting Facebook Pics

Insurance Company Cut Benefits After Depressed Woman Looked Happy in Pictures

By KI MAE HEUSSNER

Nov. 23, 2009-

After a vacation with her mother and a few nights out with friends, Nathalie

Blanchard thought nothing of posting a few pictures to her Facebook page.

In the photos, the 29-year-old Canadian woman appears to be having a good time,

enjoying the company of family and friends on the beach and at a bar.

Now, Blanchard says her employer's insurance company is using those pictures

against her, cutting her benefits because she appeared to be having fun.

For the past year, Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM's Bromont,

Quebec office. After a doctor diagnosed her with major depression, she started

receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Canada's Manulife Financial

Insurance.

But this fall, the checks stopped coming. When Blanchard called Manulife to find

out why, she said she was told it was because the Facebook pictures indicated

she was no longer depressed and ready to return to work.

" It's not because I'm having fun three hours, one time a week some weeks that

I'm in good shape, " Blanchard, who lives in Granby, Quebec, told ABCNews.com in

an e-mail. " Nobody knows how I feel before and after the event. "

Blanchard's Lawyer: Insurance Company Is Jumping the Gun

Blanchard and her lawyer Lavin are taking legal action against Manulife

and IBM, arguing that it was Blanchard's doctor who recommended that she

socialize with family and friends.

" What they have done amounts to constructive dismissal because they've said to

her if you don't come back by the 30th of October you've got nothing, " he said.

Lavin said her doctor told her to exercise at the gym and get together with

family and friends to the extent that she was able.

Following her doctor's advice, Blanchard went on a vacation with her mother and

met friends at a bar on a couple of Friday nights, Lavin said.

" Using that alone to determine that she's better now and able to work, I think

is inappropriate, " he said. " It's really jumping the gun. "

Lavin said he's observed similar cases in which information on social networks

raised red flags for insurance companies. But, he added that in those cases the

information didn't lead to the payments being immediately terminated. Instead it

served as a trigger and prompted further medical reviews or examinations, he

said.

" They never even notified her, " he said. " They just stopped paying. "

Insurance Company: Facebook Not Enough to Terminate Valid Claim

Without the monthly payments, Lavin said Blanchard is " quite desperate, " unable

to make many monthly payments and on the verge of losing her house to her bank.

" It's kind of a heads up to people about what they put on their Facebook

accounts, " he said. " It's going to be much more prevalent. I think employers and

insurance companies need to have a protocol in a case like this. "

Manulife declined to comment specifically on Blanchard's case. But in a

statement the company said, " We assess and adjudicate an individual's medical

and functional abilities fairly and thoroughly to determine whether or not an

individual is eligible to receive and continue to receive disability benefits.

The assessment of a claim is complex and requires multiple pieces of information

to fairly determine an individual's eligibility. "

The company also said it " would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based

on information published on Web sites such as Facebook. "

Private Investigator: Facebook Is Valuable Tool

Asked if health insurance companies in the United States use social networks to

investigate claims, a spokesman for the industry association America's Health

Insurance Plans emphasized that health insurance systems in the U.S. and Canada

differ significantly.

But spokesman Zirkelbach said, " I'm not aware of any company that does

that. "

Still, Vito Colucci Jr., a private investigator in Stamford, Conn. who has been

hired to investigate health insurance claims, said he uses Facebook regularly to

gain insight into a policy holder's life.

" This is a tool now for the modern-day investigator, " he said. " It's a tool to

see what an individual is doing. They're putting it out in the public for

everyone to see. "

When he's hired by health insurance companies, he said he might use Facebook to

determine an individual's schedule or learn about a person's activities.

But though it's a valuable tool, Colucci said it's just one tool out of many

that an investigator might use.

" It's one piece of the puzzle, " he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/woman-loses-insurance-benefits-\

facebook-pics/story?id=9154741

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