Long COVID disability claims raise every difficulty that chronic pain and mental health claims raise, and add one more: the condition is recent enough that some insurers still treat it as unproven.
Why these claims get denied
- No single diagnostic test. The diagnosis is clinical, made on symptoms and history, which insurers treat as a weakness in the claim.
- Fluctuating symptoms. Post-exertional symptom worsening means a good day can be followed by days of collapse, and a snapshot assessment on a good day is misleading.
- Cognitive symptoms that are hard to describe. Brain fog is a real functional limitation and a poor phrase for a claim form.
- Attribution. Fatigue and breathlessness get assigned to deconditioning, anxiety, or a pre-existing condition.
What helps
- Objective testing where it exists. Pulmonary function, cardiac testing, and neurocognitive assessment can turn a described symptom into a measured one.
- A symptom and activity diary that captures the crash after exertion, because that pattern is the heart of the claim and it is invisible in a single appointment.
- A neuropsychological assessment where cognitive symptoms are the main problem.
- Continuity of care with a doctor who has followed you since the infection.
If cognitive symptoms are the central issue, our page on concussion and brain injury covers the same evidentiary ground.
Read more
- Long term disability: the main page
- Chronic pain and fibromyalgia claims
- Your claim was denied: what to do first
Speak to a lawyer about a long COVID disability claim
Initial consultations are free. Our fee schedule is published in full, by stage of the case, on our Fair Fees page. Call 905-409-2438, send a text, message us on WhatsApp, or use the contact form.
Steven Polak is licensed as a lawyer in Ontario and practises with Lerners LLP at 123 Athol Street, Whitby.