"Differently Enabled"

During my time with four great insurers, regardless of the role or position I held, I knew I was working in organizations where our objective was to be present for people when bad things happened to them.?I was fortunate throughout my career in group insurance to have the chance to work with just about every function that supported product and service delivery. Yet, one group of colleagues rises above all as the most indispensable partners - the teams that support, manage and process claims.

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While my career spanned most non-healthcare related group employee benefits – where I worked with claim teams covering many products – I spent the majority of my claim-related roles engaged with group disability claims.?Disability covered many products – from early days where the product set included short-term disability, long-term disability and life waiver to the later addition of absence related and paid family leave programs.?Even my international experience gave me exposure to products and claim teams focused on “dread disease” and permanent/total disability coverages.

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In a way, referring to “disability” products is a bit of a misnomer.?Most of the benefits provided by group disability programs are delivered in the form of salary continuance or income protection coverage.?Regardless of how coverage is described, when a claim is incurred related to a disability, it creates a disruption for both employers and employees – and having income protected in the event something causes someone not to be able to work has historically been an appreciated, if not undervalued, benefit.

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So why my affinity toward disability claim staff??Disability claim teams are usually the only people in group insurance companies that have direct contact with the end users of the product we sell to them.?AND, they are typically dealing with them at very difficult times in their lives.?The last thing someone wants to deal with when they are ill or have had an accident that prevents them from working is insurance company bureaucracy.?Disability claim staff often delivers reassuring news about how benefits work and when to expect communications and payments.?They help guide them through the return to work process – and when return to work may not be possible, point them to resources that can help them with potential retraining opportunities, or educate them on the importance of their eligibility for social security disability benefits and connect them to partners who can assist with the related application and appeal processes.

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The direct interaction disability claim staff has with claimants can also help motivate an employee who can’t come to work because of their particular ailment.?Often the claim staff is the only connection the employee has to their old job, as many employers don’t connect with employees while they are on disability.?Claim examiners offer empathy – and sometimes just listen.?

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My involvement with the claim teams also connected me in my early days to the cause of equal rights for people with disabilities – regardless of how and when the disability was incurred. In the mid-80’s, group disability insurers began actively coordinating with vocational rehabilitation programs and educational resources with a goal of getting people back to work post-disability, either in their original job, a modified role, or perhaps even a new job that would align more appropriately to their recovery.?Parallel to this, advocacy groups supporting the rights of people with disabilities started to pressure regulators and legislators to provide equal rights with respect to employment eligibility, educational opportunities and infrastructure access. These proponents were essentially asking for civil rights to prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities, which up until then, had been overlooked by much of the public.

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In the late 1980s, my government affairs contact asked if I would represent the business at a meeting in Washington where various groups were going to be lobbying for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).?I was excited for the opportunity to attend, given my growing passion to be more involved with helping people with disabilities and my interest in all things government. I could finally say my degree in political science was connected to my work!

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The meetings in D.C. were highly focused on improving rights for people who lacked access and protection in many areas. And while the discussions did not directly tie to employee benefits (I would later return to Washington numerous times to represent my company on issues more pertinent to insurance benefits and family leave protections), I did gain a unique perspective on what it means to be a person with some form of disability, whether it be physical, cognitive or manifest itself in a unique way. ?I also learned language matters.?One of the speakers – after being honored in an introduction as one for the foremost advocates for disability rights – began her discussion thanking the host for the introduction, but corrected her language.?“I am not a disabled person.?I am a person.?A person with a disability.”?What seemed like a subtle (and a truly honest) misuse of words hit me hard.?How often do we define people by the adjectives that describe them – which then form an immediate image or opinion? The speaker went on to say that if we spoke about people first, we may have a completely different view of who they really are.?And we should consciously try to be positive in our descriptions.?“Think of me as differently enabled” was a moving statement I’ll never forget.

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The ADA was eventually passed in 1990.?From there, I maintained an interest in the rights of people with disabilities. I would use my business leadership roles to foster support and advocate for groups like The Council for Disability Awareness (CDA) and other causes as my career continued. ?

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You may have recently heard of the death of Judith Heumann, a world-renowned advocate and activist for the rights of people with disabilities.?“Differently enabled” from a young age and a Polio survivor, she led an inspirational life focused on gaining equality for people, who like her, struggled to obtain the rights that most of us never knew were not available to people with a disability. I’d highly recommend her book “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.”?

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Judy advocated for access – her book highlights the struggles she had getting an education and seeking employment.?Her advocacy for the ADA and other legislation during her life was equaled in her desire to have people with disabilities actively take charge of their situations to insure their rights were respected. And semantics again matter.?In her book, Judy claims that “many people who have disabilities were “internalizing the idea that our barriers were our individual problem for so long it was hard to shift. People had to get out of the habit of thinking I can’t get up the steps because I can’t walk and get used to thinking I can’t get up the steps because they’re not accessible.”

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As I was thinking about what to write in this particular newsletter, I realized I could have written solely about my respect for disability claim teams and filled the space.?Equally I could have outlined more of the needs, struggles and opportunities of those people engaged in disability advocacy.?I actively chose to combine the thoughts – in a way to highlight how these worlds intersect.?Perhaps ironic, at least from my perspective. ?I spent my career working for in industry that helped secure income replacement benefits for people who became disabled and could no longer work.?Up until my trip to Washington in the late ‘80s, at least for me, that world was completely separate from that of individuals who experienced disability and lacked the same access to education that could lead to employment that would allow them to participate equally in efforts to improve their lives.

As we look ahead, I think it will be important for employers to continue to look for ways to provide benefits to their employees who cannot work – and partner with insurance carriers’ claim teams who will empathetically work with their employees and do their best to get their employees back to work when they can. AND employers – and all of society – should look for ways to employee people with disabilities by providing access and opportunity.?There is a skilled worker shortage, but not a shortage of workers with skills.?Whether?it be a person with a disability who needs access, a willing veteran returning from service hungry to contribute, or just a solution to address an aging population that either needs or wants to continue to work, employers can play a huge role in providing opportunity for all.?

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As Judy Heumann concluded in her book, “Disability is a part of the human condition. As people live longer, as we fight more wars, as medical care continues to improve- more and more people who might have died in an earlier era will live. Perhaps with a disability. We should accept it.?Plan for it.?Build our society around it.”?Let’s accept Judy’s point that “disability is part of the human condition.”?After all, as we age, we are more likely than not to find ourselves “differently enabled” to some degree.??

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Reisenwitz, from the German, translates something akin to “travel joke” in English. It explains why many a German-speaking border agent would snicker as I passed through passport control when I was working in Europe. I would subsequently translate the name to mean traveling fool – a jester, or a “wit,” given my career on the road. Throughout that career – and my overall life journey – I have acquired insight I have found beneficial that I’d like to share in this periodic newsletter. You can decide if it’s wisdom – or “witz”dom.?Hopefully you’ll find a little of both.