You’ve diligently paid your insurance premiums, so when the time comes to rely on your policy, you expect the insurance company to be there for you. Yet, insurance companies are in the business of making money, and it’s hard for them to do that when they regularly agree to pay out claims.
That’s why most, if not all, insurance companies scrutinize every claim they receive to see if there’s a way to deny it or reduce the amount that they pay out. Although some of those efforts may be justifiable, in many instances insurance companies act in bad faith to wrongfully deny claimants the compensation they deserve.
If your insurance company acts in bad faith, then legal action could be warranted. But how do you know if bad faith has occurred? After all, your insurance provider isn’t going to be transparent with you about their motivations and actions. That’s why you need to watch for some common signs of insurance bad faith.
Signs that your insurance company is acting in bad faith
If you don’t call an insurance company out on bad faith practices, they’ll take advantage of you and deny you the compensation you deserve. Therefore, if you feel like the claims process is going sideways, then you need to be on the lookout for the following signs of insurance bad faith:
- An inadequate investigation: Before issuing a determination on your claim, the insurance company should thoroughly assess it and the facts surrounding it. If they don’t, then they have an insufficient factual basis to deny your claim. Carefully consider the information that the insurance company had on hand when they made your claim determination.
- The insurance company didn’t give you a reason for the denial: When your claim is denied, the insurance company is supposed to specify the justification for the denial. If they don’t, then they might be trying to hide their true reasoning. In these instances, your insurance company might be acting in bad faith.
- The insurance company gives you an ultimatum: Your insurance company should be professional at all times, treating you with fairness and providing you with transparency. If the insurance threatens you or gives you an ultimatum, trying to force you to agree to something that’s not in your best interests, then there’s a good chance that bad faith has occurred.
- Your payout was unnecessarily delayed: A valid claim should be paid out in a timely fashion. If the insurance company delays your payment, then they might be doing so to continue to collect premiums from you before issuing payment, or they may be waiting to see if you make some sort of mistake that they can then lean upon to outright reverse their decision on your claim. This leaves you in an unfair financial predicament and is indicative of bad faith.
- The insurance company won’t communicate with you: Your insurance provider should keep you in the loop as far as where your claim is at in the process and what information they need to appropriately evaluate your claim. If they cut you out of communications, though, then they might be trying to keep you from asking questions.
Don’t let an insurance company get away with treating you unfairly
You deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness. If you have a valid claim, it should be paid out in full and in a timely fashion. If your claim is denied, you should be given a valid reason so that you can seek to challenge the denial if warranted to do so. If the insurance company acts in a questionable way, though, you should be prepared to ask questions and take legal action, as doing so may be the only way to secure the outcome that you want.
