Anonymous
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Search
Editing
Brian Vastag
(section)
From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history
Namespaces
Page
Discussion
More
More
Page actions
Read
Edit
Edit source
History
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== ME/CFS disability claim == On May 31, 2018, the United States District Court of New Jersey in Brian Vastag v. Prudential Insurance Company of America, Civ. No. 15-6197 (KSH), (CLW), awarded Mr. Vastag both short-term [[disability]] (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) noting "the plan administrator improperly denied him STD and LTD [[access to benefits|benefits payable]] under the plan".<ref name="Vastag2018Win">{{Citation | url =https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/new-jersey/njdce/2:2015cv06197/323449/44/0.pdf?ts=1527932072 | last = US District Court District of New Jersey | title = Brian Vastag v. Prudential Insurance Company of America, Civ. No. 15-6197 (KSH) (CLW) (D.N.J. May. 31, 2018)}}</ref> ===Evidence=== Lubet and Tuller explain how Vastag won his claim after health insurer Prudential being wrongly denied him sickness and [[disability]] payments when he was forced to stop work:<br> <blockquote>"Prudential essentially accused Vastag of malingering, declaring that he “stopped working, allegedly due to [[chronic fatigue syndrome]],” and maintained that medical evidence did not support his claim. Most troubling, Prudential revealed that it had attempted surveillance of Vastag but had not managed to observe him...<br><br>"Surveillance can be a valid way of exposing false claims in disability or personal injury cases. But the use of surveillance in Vastag’s case — especially given the extensive evidence submitted by national ME/CFS experts — suggests an alarming level of denial about the [[:Category:Severity definitions|severity of the illness]]. There was no evident reason to suspect Vastag of deception other than the diagnosis of ME/CFS.<br><br>"U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden saw through Prudential's smokescreen. Explaining in her decision that “the exact cause of CFS is unknown, and no [[:Category:Medical tests|laboratory test]] can directly diagnose it,” she noted that “the objective medical evidence … indicates that even low-level [[exercise|physical activity]]” required more energy than Vastag could generate... Hayden concluded that Prudential had wrongly denied Vastag's benefits due to its “significant failure to understand the current state of medical knowledge about CFS and its devastating impact."<br><br>In forceful terms, the judge rejected Prudential's arguments and ordered the company to pay up."<ref name="Stat2018">{{Cite web | url = https://www.statnews.com/2018/07/19/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-insurers-disability/ | access-date = 2022-04-08 | title = The medical community is changing its mind on chronic fatigue syndrome. Why aren’t insurers?| first = Steven | last = Lubet | author-link = Steven Lubet | first2 = David | last2 = Tuller | author-link2 = David Tuller| publisher = STAT News | date = Jul 19, 2018}}</ref></blockquote> ===Medical tests=== Brian was able to prove his [[post-exertional malaise]] (PEM) was a severe symptom causing disability with a [[Two-day cardiopulmonary exercise test]] (CPET). [[qEEG]] and [[Cognitive dysfunction|cognitive]] tests revealed he had "significant problems with [[Visual dysfunction|visual perception]] and analysis, scanning speed, attention, visual motor coordination, motor and mental speed, [[Memory problems|memory]], and [[Word-finding problems|verbal fluency]]."<ref name="disability">{{Cite web | url = https://www.meaction.net/2018/06/04/victory-for-me-disability-claim-court-upholds-plaintiffs-lawsuit-after-being-denied-disability/ | title = Victory for ME Disability Claim - U.S. Court Upholds Plaintiff's Lawsuit After Being Denied Disability | last = Tillman | first = Adriane | author-link = | date = 2018-06-04 | website = #MEAction|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|url-status= | access-date = 2019-02-02}}</ref>
Summary:
Please make sure your edits are consistent with
MEpedia's guidelines
.
By saving changes, you agree to the
Terms of use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 3.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Navigation
Navigation
Skip to content
Main page
Browse
Become an editor
Random page
Popular pages
Abbreviations
Glossary
About MEpedia
Links for editors
Contents
Guidelines
Recent changes
Pages in need
Search
Help
Wiki tools
Wiki tools
Special pages
Page tools
Page tools
User page tools
More
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Page logs