Mistake Costs Retired Woman Her Disability Insurance

Mistake Costs Retired Woman Her Disability Insurance


Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Ed Yeates reporting For a retired school librarian the golden years are not so golden.

That's because her former employer has terminated her disability insurance, despite pleas from doctors.

Lanne McDonald Sperry took a disability retirement from the Granite School District about 15 years ago.

She and her husband Hal, who was a vice principal, collectively put in 60 years as educators.

Lanne was doing well taking care of Hal's illness and her own, until earlier this year her disability medical insurance was canceled.

Lanne McDonald Sperry: "I can't do it. I'm going to have to go on samples from different doctors. I make $1,200 a month. One prescription is $760. I take nine different prescriptions."

What happened?

Her physician, Dr. Lewis Moench, had indavertenly placed a critical form - requiring his signature - in the wrong pile of papers.

By the time he discovered it, the paper required annually to renew her insurance was almost a month late.

While Lanne's doctor says the form misplacement was an accident, and has pleaded with Granite School District to reinstate her disability insurance, Granite says there's a reason why the language on the form is so explicit.

By the end of each contract year, the district must have an accurate count of its disability pool. That's why the deadline here is so important.

Randy Ripplinger/ Granite School District: "We can't go back and say now can you please add another couple of people who've come in late. It changes the whole pool. It changes the cost of the insurance."

Still, this is no comfort to Lanne or Hal, especially when it wasn't even their fault.

Hal Sperry: "Well, I'm pretty disappointed in the whole situation."

Though Granite legally is in the right, Dr. Bob Finlay still questions this whole environment of hard and fast insurance rules we live in, which he says all too often now elevates policy above people. No exceptions!

For Lanne...

"I guess I have to sell my house."

Lanne thought she might try to reapply for the insurance next year when the pool is being reevaluated, but the rules prohibit that as well.

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
KSL.com Beyond Series

KSL Weather Forecast

KSL Weather Forecast
Play button