Most long term disability insurance policies have preexisting condition exclusions.
This exclusion effectively means that the insurance company is excused from paying claims they believe may be related even remotely to any prior complaints made by the claimant within a specified period of time. These exclusions usually kick in when a claimant has been eligible for benefits for less than a year, but sometimes the stated period is 2 years. Besides the preexisting condition exclusion time period of a year, there is also a “look back” period, usually the 3 months prior. In a nutshell, if a claimant applies for LTD benefits less than a year after the claimant signs up for the benefit, the insurance company will look at all medical records and pharmacy records for the entire year plus the look back period. These exclusions are very, very broad.