Woman loses benefits over Facebook photos

[JonLP24]

MONTREAL — A Canadian woman on sick leave for depression said Monday she would fight an insurance company's decision to cut her benefits after her agent found photos on Facebook of her vacationing, at a bar and at a party.

Nathalie Blanchard said Monday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits until payments dried up this fall.

When Blanchard called her insurance provider, Manulife, to find out why, she says she was told the Facebook photos showed she was able to work.

“If you have insurance, be careful. This is a major battle and it's not going to be easy,” Blanchard, 29, said in a telephone interview from her home in Bromont Quebec.

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2009/11/23/20091123facebook-insurance23-ON.html

[Haole Girl]

1. "...a good time at a Chippendales bar show"

Busted!

:rofl:

[gmoney]

2. "If you're committing insurance fraud, be careful." more like it (n/t)

[JonLP24]

3. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't

Maybe her psychiatrist did recommend the trip.

However her appearing to have a good time is not evidence she doesn't have depression.

[NJmaverick]

5. The concept is she is suffering MAJOR depression

the type that is so crippling she couldn't work. By the same token that sort of depression would also preclude the sort of activities she was happily posting on Face Book.

[JonLP24]

8. It says she was diagnosed

likely by a doctor. Also the agent says they wouldn't terminate a claim solely based on information websites but wouldn't specify what else.

It's a very complex illness which I have and was diagnosed with but it doesn't mean we can't have moments of enjoyment but overall how a person feels. However she could be a complete fraud but I don't know her or how she is feeling. That is something between her and her doctor.

I'll add the courts will sort this out and decide one way or the other.

[NJmaverick]

9. There are many doctors that are all to happy to help out their paying customers

by providing them with get out of work free notes. I have had a few friends that have suffered from the disease and I researched it a bit to help them out. The idea that you are too depressed to go to work, but you can go out bar hopping at night and go off on these vacations and post all about them on facebook just doesn't work. When my friends were in the state they couldn't work they were not posting on the internet they were not communicating with friends and they were certainly not partying or running off on various vacations. They eventually did that stuff, but it was along with returning to work.

[JonLP24]

10. He may be that kind of doctor

but the article doesn't suggest that so he may very well be a professional. There are many factors such as unpredictable sleep patterns that would affect showing up to work on time however if by recommendation of her doctor she did the right thing. If you lose enjoyment of things it's important to return to do things you used to enjoy. If the idea is to do absolutely nothing while you're depressed in order to stay on work benefits you'll never be cured or treated properly.

Again -- it's now up to the courts and not us.

[NJmaverick]

11. I go back to what my mother used to tell me when I was a kid

"if you are too sick to go to school you are too sick to go out and play"

[NJmaverick]

4. Sure sounds like she is capable of working

"Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems."

She can do all this and post about it on Facebook. It certainly appears that she is not suffering from MAJOR depression, that type that prevents a person from working.

[PVnRT]

6. Facebook rule 1 - MAKE YOUR PROFILE PRIVATE

I really don't understand why people fail to do this.

[Haole Girl]

7. Rule 2 - don't have people you can't trust 100% on a social networking site.

Maybe a co-worker, picking up the slack for her on the job, turned her in. Who knows? :shrug:

[PVnRT]

12. Another good point

I try to keep the casual acquaintances off of my list.

[rcrush]

13. Seriously people need to stop putting up personal shit on the internet then acting surprised when

it bites them in the ass. Somehow Facebook and Myspace made it cool to voluntarily show all your personal shit to the world and let people track everything you do.


People who use Facebook and Myspace with their co-workers are just asking for trouble.