The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement with Portland-based Unum Life Insurance for wrongly denying benefits.
The DOL says an investigation found that Unum often accepted premiums without verifying if participants were insurable. After the participant died, the agency says, Unum would then often deny claims, saying it never received proof of insurability.
The agency says it also found that Unum provided coverage to some dependents without evidence of their insurability. If they died within two years, they would often deny claims, saying there was a delayed effective date of coverage
The DOL's settlement with Unum calls for more transparency and prohibits the company from denying claims based solely on a lack of evidence of insurability when premiums have been paid for at least 90 days.
The Department says Unum is also voluntarily re-processing some claim denials dating back to 2016.
