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Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos

Schweddy

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Insurance companies need to get out of the doctor business. If this poor woman were to injure herself do to the insurance company refusing to pay they should face criminal charges!

Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her benefits reinstated after her employer's insurance company cut them, she says, because of photos posted on Facebook.

Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Que., for the last year and a half after she was diagnosed with major depression.

The Eastern Townships woman was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Manulife, her insurance company, but the payments dried up this fall.

When Blanchard called Manulife, the company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC News this week.

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on the popular social networking site, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday — evidence that she is no longer depressed, Manulife said.
More here: CBC News - Montreal - Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos
 
Insurance companies need to get out of the doctor business.
I agree. Insurance companies should leave all diagnosis and disposition in the hands of the attending physician and/or psychiatrist.
 
I didn't think Canadians had insurance.
 
Insurance companies need to get out of the doctor business. If this poor woman were to injure herself do to the insurance company refusing to pay they should face criminal charges!


More here: CBC News - Montreal - Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos

I recall a similar story about a rape victim in the UK a few years ago.
At her rapist's trial, she testified that she was suffering from PTSD and severe depression because of the rape; the rapist's attorney trotted out recent pictures of the victim laughing and having a good time with her friends, which he'd pulled off the internet. The tactic didn't work; the rapist was convicted.
But it's ludicrous this sort of thing was allowed to be used against the woman at all.
WTF? Do people think "depression" means you're clinically unable to smile and pretend to be normal for brief periods?
 
People DO need to be careful about what they post publicly on social networking sites. There's something unhealthy and narcissistic about airing ones private struggles or drunken photos on a public blog.

That said, I think it's a ridiculous reaction for this action on the part of the insurance company.
 
Hell, every shrink I talk to for more than a month wants me in a hospital. I've been smiling and pretending to be normal for thirty ****ing years, and the only people who even believe I'm sick are the doctors and whatever job I've been barely hanging onto this month.

Someone ever tells me I'm "just fine" because they find a picture of me smiling in a bar, I'd skin them and ****ing eat them.
 
People DO need to be careful about what they post publicly on social networking sites. There's something unhealthy and narcissistic about airing ones private struggles or drunken photos on a public blog.

Heh. Speaking of airing too much personal information...

But I do agree with you, people need to be far more careful about what they reveal about themselves online. It's like they think that a computer network with billions of strangers on it is their private diary, and they're all shocked when they discover that other people can see what they've written there. I've said some stupid **** online before, but at least I understand that what I'm doing is the equivalent of standing on a street corner and shouting it into a megaphone-- except without creating a public nuisance.
 
I used to work for a health insurance company back in my temping days, and the disability department hired surveillance to monitor certain people who were on long-term disability. They especially did it for those who were shirking their doctor checkups. Someone who claimed to have a debilitating leg injury was filmed dancing at a club, for example. These insurance companies will go to great lengths to protect their bottom line.

The case in the OP doesn't line up with what I know though. You can't form a diagnosis based on a photo, unless they can prove in court that all depressed people are incapable of smiling. Manulife is big though and they have the money for a killer legal team. I hope the woman gets off a successful lawsuit. How depressing must it be to be painted in such a treacherous light.
 
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Heh. Speaking of airing too much personal information...

But I do agree with you, people need to be far more careful about what they reveal about themselves online. It's like they think that a computer network with billions of strangers on it is their private diary, and they're all shocked when they discover that other people can see what they've written there. I've said some stupid **** online before, but at least I understand that what I'm doing is the equivalent of standing on a street corner and shouting it into a megaphone-- except without creating a public nuisance.

I don't have a facebook account, nor to I reveal much about myself here, even anonymously, so I'm not sure what your "speaking of airing too much personal information" is all about...

Aren't you the one who just admitted that you see a shrink and have struggles? :confused:
 
I am sorry for the woman, I am glad that I have to not deal with the Privet companies. I am on Medicare, and its doing fine for me. I feel that that when they do this it is unforgeable that they throw their clients away like this. :moody I have depression as well, and sometime I feel happy and sometimes I feel sad. I hope the woman sue their asses off.
 
I am sorry for the woman, I am glad that I have to not deal with the Privet companies. I am on Medicare, and its doing fine for me. I feel that that when they do this it is unforgeable that they throw their clients away like this. :moody I have depression as well, and sometime I feel happy and sometimes I feel sad. I hope the woman sue their asses off.

Do you think they could find a way to possibly pay for an English class as well?
 
Do you think they could find a way to possibly pay for an English class as well?

There is nothing more obnoxious than a poster who criticizes the grammar or spelling of someone who types off a quick post on an internet discussion site. :rolleyes:
 
There is nothing more obnoxious than a poster who criticizes the grammar or spelling of someone who types off a quick post on an internet discussion site. :rolleyes:

I was actually being serious and thinking education as well as ability might be related to depression. I think education is central to a productive life and does have an affect on brain chemistry.

I was not being a gammar cop.
 
Hell, every shrink I talk to for more than a month wants me in a hospital. I've been smiling and pretending to be normal for thirty ****ing years, and the only people who even believe I'm sick are the doctors and whatever job I've been barely hanging onto this month.

Someone ever tells me I'm "just fine" because they find a picture of me smiling in a bar, I'd skin them and ****ing eat them.

Did you quit working for a year and half and live off insurance?
 
I was actually being serious and thinking education as well as ability might be related to depression. I think education is central to a productive life and does have an affect on brain chemistry.

I was not being a gammar cop.
So you're an online mental health adviser then??? :rofl
 
I am sorry for my gammer, I have a disability. I did a quick typing answer, so sorry about not using any gammer. It is annoying that people point that out.
 
I am sorry for my gammer, I have a disability. I did a quick typing answer, so sorry about not using any gammer. It is annoying that people point that out.

:rofl :lol: ;)
 
I am sorry for my gammer, I have a disability. I did a quick typing answer, so sorry about not using any gammer. It is annoying that people point that out.

Maybe he meant to say that you were obviously exposed to too many gamma rays, and that leads to depression... :lol:
 
So you're an online mental health adviser then??? :rofl

Sheesh I get chastised for promoting education. No I'm not not the DP mental health advisor nor presented myself as one. I was just suggesting something.

Why is everyone so bitchy today?
 
Sheesh I get chastised for promoting education. No I'm not not the DP mental health advisor nor presented myself as one. I was just suggesting something.

Why is everyone so bitchy today?

Because, you made fun of my typing and gammer skills by claiming I never had a education. Plus you claimed I never had depression.

Oh and Drum :rolf
 
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Sheesh I get chastised for promoting education. No I'm not not the DP mental health advisor nor presented myself as one. I was just suggesting something.

Why is everyone so bitchy today?

Aren't you a prince!!! :rofl :rolleyes:

You haven't gotten any lately?:2razz:
 
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