by Marj » Wed Jul 02, 2014 04:27 am
In mid march a client of mines husband passed away. He died from a brain hemmorage brought on by an accidental overdose of blood thinners. Can his wife collect the accidental death benefit since the overdose was unintentional? Keep in mind he was a developmentally disabled man wh forgot when he took a dose and woud take more, not remembering he already had his dose for the day
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 08:48 am Post Subject:
Yes his wife is eligible for collecting death insurance benefits.
Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 02:24 pm Post Subject:
Contrary to the post above, there is no certainty that an insurance company will pay an accidental death benefit in this case.
Can his wife collect the accidental death benefit since the overdose was unintentional?
Who's to say the overdose was unintentional. If a person is "developmentally disabled" to the point that they cannot remember a medication schedule, then there should be someone supervising the medication.This is almost certainly going to result in a claims denial, and could end up in litigation. Accidental death benefits are not life insurance (as the previous post calls "death insurance"). If the deceased person had genuine life insurance, a claim would be paid (assuming the policy has been in force more than two years).
Accidental death benefit policies rely heavily on exclusions not seen in life insurance, namely, "intoxication" due to alcohol, narcotics, or other medication, and I know of at least one situation similar to this where an individual died of an accidental head injury, but the presence of an excessive amount of prescribed medication was found in the decedent's blood, and that medication had a side effect of "dizziness".
The insurance company's position was that the only way an elevated amount of medication could be in the blood was through taking too much medication, and refused to pay because it considered the death due to a "self-inflicted" injury.
I can see that happening in this case. An attorney may be necessary to fight for the money. But here's the problem with that. Accidental death benefit policies are usually low value -- like $5000 - $10,000. An attorney will take 30%-40% of that. So what's left. And will it be worth an attorney's time to spend hundreds of hours only to get $2000 - $4000? No way.
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