A Regional Quality Insurance Nurse, responsible for ensuring that all nursing practice standards at multiple facilities met with state and federal guidelines, was denied disability benefits by Unum despite results of neuropsychological testing that showed gross slowing of cognitive skills and a mild reduction in auditory verbal memory, organization and word finding. A district court out of North Carolina upheld Unum’s determination in large part because the evaluation was performed 2 months after the initial denial of benefits and 7 months after the claimant stopped working, and not in the “relevant time period”/elimination period in which the Plaintiff had the burden of proving the “continuous” inability to perform her occupation. The Court noted that while an Attending Physician Statement provided during the elimination period noted cognitive problems, such Statement seemed to be based only on the claimant’s subjective complaints. Nicely v. Unum, December 23, 2009
