Summer News Roundup: Bans on Credit Scoring, Bertha the Tunnel Machine, Bargains for Arbitration in ERISA Plans, and Benefit Managers

Courts had a busy summer on insurance and ERISA issues.

A Washington State judge struck down the Washington Insurance Commissioner’s ban on using credit scores to price insurance. The judge acknowledged that using credit scores (which are a proxy for poverty) has a discriminatory impact. Insureds with low credit scores pay more for insurance even if they present a low risk to the insurer. But the judge found that the legislature, not the Insurance Commissioner, has the authority to ban the practice.

The Washington Supreme Court held that there was no insurance coverage for damage to the machine used to bore the tunnel for the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle (affectionately nicknamed “Bertha” after Seattle’s former mayor). The machine broke down during the project in 2013. It was determined the machine suffered from a design defect. The Supreme Court held that the design defect fell within the scope of an exclusion in the applicable insurance policy for “machinery breakdown.”

Employers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that ERISA disputes should go to arbitration. Several courts have decided that certain types of lawsuits alleging violations of ERISA’s fiduciary duties cannot be forced into arbitration. The reason is that the plaintiff in these cases sues on behalf of the governing employee benefit plan. ERISA treats such a plan as a separate legal entity. Therefore, an individual employee’s signature on an employment contract with an arbitration clause in the fine print does not bar that employee from suing on behalf of the ERISA plan–at least according to these courts. If the Supreme Court steps in, that could change.

The Supreme Court declined to revisit a case holding that ERISA allows health plans to pay high prescription drug prices. The plaintiffs argued that their health plan’s administrator (called a Pharmacy Benefit Manager) acted as a fiduciary under ERISA when it set the prices the health plan and its participating employees paid for prescription drugs. As an ERISA fiduciary, the administrator would have an obligation to act in the best interest of the participating employees when setting drug prices. The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case leaves in place the lower court’s ruling that these administrators were not subject to ERISA’s fiduciary duties.