In February of 2004, Teresa had to leave her job as a receptionist because of fibromyalgia (chronic pain throughout the body) and brain lesions. Her employer continued paying her until July, 2004 when UnumProvident began paying her disability.
Teresa believed everything was fine with her disability pay until September, 2006 when she received word that UnumProvident was cutting off her disability pay.
"They cancelled it based on lies," Teresa says.
According to Teresa, UnumProvident put her under surveillance for three days. "One of those days I went out to church because I am a Christian woman," Teresa says. "They reported that I drove my car, carried my purse myself, and put on my own jacket. But they don't report that I had to go home and lie down afterwards because I was so fatigued from going to church in the morning. And they have footage of someone driving a car around, but it's not even my car. All you have to do is look at the license plate number on the car to know it's not mine. It's a similar model, but that isn't my car. But based on that car, UnumProvident phoned my doctor and told her I was running around all over the place."
As a result of the video footage, UnumProvident requested Teresa undergo a Functional Capacity Evaluation, which she did. "I walked on a treadmill at a fairly slow pace for four minutes and after that I was too fatigued to continue, so it stopped at four minutes. Then they had me lift five pound weights a few times, and I had to climb some stair steps four times. Again, after that four times I was too fatigued so I had to stop. Of course, they didn't put that in the report. But based on that evaluation, UnumProvident said that I could work eight hour days, so I was no longer eligible for disability."
"They lied," Teresa says. "My doctor completely disagrees with UnumProvident. They asked her to sign the Functional Capacity Evaluation and she refused to do so. She's even filled out forms stating that I cannot sit for more than an hour a day. If I can't do that, how am I supposed to work eight-hour days? My doctor also says I need to have a brain MRI for the brain lesions I have."
Sadly, Teresa can't afford more medical procedures. "My home is being foreclosed and I'm almost out of medicine. I can't even afford to buy more medicine and apparently there's nothing I can do about UnumProvident. I don't think it's right that nothing can be done about this."
Teresa says that the last few months have been very stressful. "I didn't ask to be sick," she says. "I'd rather be well and at work. The stress of the past little while has been terrible. I have days where the pain level is okay, but then there are spells where I have a lot of pain. But I can't afford medicine any more. A lawyer is reviewing my case now, but I don't know that anything can be done. I just want everyone to know how terrible UnumProvident is. They lied about my condition and now I could lose everything."