Category: ERISA

Court Ruling Illustrates The Limits ERISA Places On Insurers’ Discretion To Decide Claims

Many ERISA plans give the claims administrator (often an insurance company) discretionary authority to interpret the evidence and the terms of the employee benefit plan in deciding claims. This discretionary authority makes it difficult for claimants to overturn claim denials because court defer to decisions made using this authority.

But ERISA recognizes that claims administrators have an incentive to abuse this discretionary authority and limits it in important ways. Where the facts of a particular claim suggest the insurance company or other claims administrator is abusing its authority, courts are required to view the administrator’s handling of the claim with skepticism.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Gary v. Unum is a reminder of the importance that this skepticism has in ERISA disputes. Allison Gary had a medical condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). She had disability insurance through Unum as part of her employer’s benefit plan and made a claim. Unum denied her claim and she filed a lawsuit seeking benefits under ERISA.

The lower court sided with Unum and upheld the denial. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed.

The Ninth Circuit determined the lower court failed to properly scrutinize Unum’s evaluation of the medical evidence about Gary’s condition. The ERISA plan at issue gave Unum discretion to interpret this evidence. But the Ninth Circuit emphasized that, even where ERISA plan administrators have that discretion, it is checked by common-sense limitations that prevent insurers like Unum from denying claims out of self interest.

The Ninth Circuit held that the facts of Unum’s handling of the claim should have led the lower court to view Unum’s exercise of its discretionary authority to interpret the evidence with skepticism. First and foremost, the Ninth Circuit emphasized that an insurer who, like Unum, is responsible for paying disability claims as well as investigating the claimant’s entitlement to benefits has a perverse incentive to save itself money by looking for evidence to deny claims while ignoring evidence that would support paying benefits. The court emphasized this structural conflict of interest should have been considered.

Second, the appellate court was concerned by Unum’s practice of “cherry picking” certain observations from medical records, i.e., ignoring evidence of Allen’s disability while focusing on evidence that would support denying her claim.

Third, Unum failed to have Gary examined by an EDS specialist. Fourth, Unum cut off Gary’s benefits after exactly six months, an arbitrary measure that was disconnected from the medical evidence.

The Gary decision is unpublished, meaning it is not binding authority but may be relied on at the discretion of lower courts to the extent a judge believes the ruling is helpful.

ERISA at the Supreme Court: How Will Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation Shape the Legacy Left By Justice Ginsburg’s Seminal ERISA Opinions?

Amy Coney Barrett was recently confirmed to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg is remembered as a champion of civil rights and gender justice. But Ginsburg is also responsible for some of the Court’s most important ERISA decisions. This invites us to look back on some of Justice Ginsburg’s most important ERISA decisions and speculate about how Justice Barrett might decide future ERISA cases.

Justice Ginsburg wrote the seminal opinion in Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord, 538 U.S. 822 (2003), the decision that set the standard for how ERISA Plans and ERISA-governed insurance companies must weigh the opinions of the claimant’s treating doctors. Nord rejected the rule that ERISA plans must defer to the claimant’s doctor’s opinions about the claimant’s medical condition in a disability insurance claim. But Ginsburg emphasized, and the other justices agreed, that ERISA Plans must give fair weight to claimants’ doctors’ opinions. Her opinions emphasizes: “Plan administrators, of course, may not arbitrarily refuse to credit a claimant’s reliable evidence, including the opinions of a treating physician.” Nord protects ERISA claimants’ right to rely on their treating doctors in claiming benefits–a right that is particularly critical since claimants can rarely afford to hire a consulting physician for the purposes of an insurance claim.

A more technical but still important decision by Justice Ginsburg was UNUM Life Insurance v. Ward, 526 U.S. 358 (1999). Ward concerns the extent to which ERISA preempts (i.e., overrules) state laws that regulate insurance policies. Justice Ginsburg wrote the Court’s unanimous opinion finding that ERISA does not stop states from regulating insurance policies that are issued under employee benefit plans. This means that important state-law consumer protections for insurance policies still apply when the insurance policy is sponsored by an employer.

Justice Ginsburg also wrote the opinion in Raymond B. Yates, M.D., P.C. Profit Sharing Plan v. Hendon, 541 U.S. 1 (2004) which confirmed ERISA can apply to a small business owner who participates in their own company’s benefit plan. Many small business owners are familiar with the frustrations of falling into a grey area where they lack the protections of status as an employee but also lack the advantages of being a large business. For ERISA benefits at least, this “worst of both worlds” scenario is less of a concern. The Yates decision held that the owner of a small business can participate in the business’ ERISA plan and thereby obtain the protections and favorable tax treatment that ERISA affords to plan participants.

These decisions reflect a legacy of implementing Congress’ intention in enacting ERISA of providing real protections to people who earn insurance and other benefits through their employment.

Justice Barrett’s record suggests she is likely to continue that legacy. Justice Barrett decided one important ERISA case during her tenure on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (the federal court that hears appeals from Illinois and other midwestern states). In Fessenden v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 927 F.3d 998, 999 (7th Cir. 2019), then-Circuit Judge Barrett determined that ERISA plans, and ERISA-governed insurance companies, must strictly comply with ERISA’s rules requiring full, fair, and prompt review of insurance claims.

In that case, Donald Fessenden made a claim for disability insurance benefits through an insurance policy issued by Reliance through his employer’s benefit plan. Reliance denied his claim and Fessenden appealed the denial using the Plan’s internal administrative procedures. Reliance failed to decide the appeal within the deadline imposed by ERISA. That violation of ERISA had consequences that made it easier for Fessenden to pursue his benefits claim.

Reliance asked the Seventh Circuit to let it off the hook. Reliance argued its violation was “relatively minor” and the court should excuse the violation “because it was only a little bit late.” It characterized the ERISA deadline as a “technical rule.”

Then-Circuit Judge Barrett declined. Her ruling emphasized that ERISA deadlines matter to plan participants:

After all, the administrator’s interests are not the only ones at stake; delaying payment of a claim imposes financial pressure on the claimant. That pressure is particularly acute for a disability claimant, who applies for disability benefits because she is unable to work and therefore unable to generate income. Given the seriousness of that burden, the new regulations single out disability claims for quicker review than other kinds of claims.

Her decision also emphasizes that courts have repeatedly required strict compliance with deadlines by claimants, often at the urging of insurance companies. In requiring the same level of exactitude by ERISA plans and insurers, she observed: “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

ERISA Litigation Spawns Ninth Circuit Decision in Case of First Impression Regarding Excess Insurance Coverage

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the federal appellate court with jurisdiction over Washington and other western states) recently decided a novel question regarding so-called “excess” insurance coverage. Excess insurance exists where a person or entity has two layers of insurance: a “primary” insurer that provides coverage up to a specific dollar amount, and a second, “excess”, insurer that provides additional coverage above that amount. In its September 14, 2020 decision in AXIS Reinsurance Company v Northrop Grumman Corporation, the Ninth Circuit addressed the question whether an excess insurer can challenge the primary insurer’s decision to pay a claim and thereby trigger the excess insurer’s obligation to pay.

The dispute between AXIS and Northrop Grumman began with an ERISA lawsuit. The federal Department of Labor sued Northrop Grumman alleging Northrop acted improperly in handling its ERISA-governed employee savings and pension plans. Northrop paid a confidential amount to settle the DOL lawsuit. Northrop did not admit any wrongdoing, and the lawsuit never resulted in any findings about what specific allegations the settlement payment addressed.

A few months later, Northrop settled a second, unrelated, ERISA lawsuit brought on behalf of the Plan by a plaintiff named Grabek.

Northrop had insurance against these types of ERISA lawsuit through both primary and excess insurance carriers. Northrop’s primary insurer, National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA, and an initial excess insurer, Continental Casualty Company, provided coverage up to a total of $30 million. AXIS provided secondary excess coverage for losses over $30 million. In other words, AXIS only had to pay claims if Northrop’s loss exceeded the $30 million covered by the first two insurers.

The carriers covered Northrop’s settlement for the Department of Labor lawsuit. The primary insurer, National Union, and the first excess insurer, Continental, determined the DOL lawsuit was covered, and paid Northrop’s full loss out of their combined $30 million limit.

But Northrop ran into trouble getting coverage for the Grabek lawsuit. Having paid for the entire DOL settlement, National Union and Continental determined that all but about $7 million that Northrop had to pay in the Grabek lawsuit exceeded their combined $30 million coverage limits. Having exhausted its first layer of coverage, Northrop turned to its excess insurer AXIS to pay the remainder of the Grabek settlement.

AXIS refused to pay. It agreed there was coverage for the Grabek lawsuit, but it claimed that the first two insurers shouldn’t have paid the DOL settlement. AXIS claimed that the primary insurers’ policies excluded the DOL settlement. So, AXIS argued, since the first two carriers shouldn’t have paid for the DOL settlement, the first $30 million in coverage should never have been exhausted, and AXIS should never have been called upon to pay for the Grabek lawsuit. According to AXIS, this was an “improper erosion” of the initial $30 million in coverage. No federal appellate court had previously addressed AXIS’ “improper erosion” theory.

The Ninth Circuit disagreed. It determined that AXIS bore the risk that the primary insurers would exhaust their coverage limits by paying for losses that weren’t really covered. The court explained that excess insurers generally may not reduce their own obligation to pay a covered loss by claiming that the primary insurers shouldn’t have paid. The court emphasized that excess insurers generally have no right to second guess primary insurers’ coverage decisions. The excess insurer could avoid this outcome by including in their policy contracts a provision that improper payments by the primary insurers don’t count, but AXIS had no such language.

Ninth Circuit Confirms Attorneys’ Fee Awards to Successful ERISA Claimants Are Virtually Automatic

ERISA is a remedial law designed to make sure that employees receive the full benefits they earn under their employer’s benefit plans. Part of ERISA requires employee benefit plans that wrongfully withhold benefits and force employees to sue to recover those benefits to pay the employee’s attorney’s fees. Otherwise, the employee will not have received the full amount of benefits owed under the ERISA plan because they will have had to pay the enormous legal expenses involved in litigating an ERISA case. Without this guarantee, employees would often wind up with a legal bill that’s higher than the benefits they recovered.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently re-affirmed that successful ERISA claimants should be awarded their attorneys’ fees virtually automatically in Herrman v. Lifemap Assurance Company, Case No. 19-35182 (June 25, 2020). Courts have recognized for many years that an employee who wins their ERISA case should recover attorneys’ fees absent “special circumstances” that would make a fee award “unjust.” In the Ninth Circuit, courts also look at several different sets of circumstances (called the “Hummell factors” after the name of the case where they originated) to decide whether to award attorneys’ fees to ERISA plaintiffs. The lower court in the Herrman case declined to award attorneys fees to the plaintiff even though she recovered benefits from her ERISA plan because the lower court believed the Hummell factors did not support awarding fees under the circumstances.

The Ninth Circuit reversed the lower court. The Ninth Circuit emphasized that:

“the presumption in favor of fees in such cases [i.e., where an ERISA plaintiff successfully recovers benefits] means that the district court need not discuss the Hummell factors before granting the motion [for attorneys’ fees].”

Thus, the court concluded that judges may not deny attorneys’ fees to successful ERISA plaintiffs–even if the Hummell factors suggest fees should not be awarded–without identifying “special circumstances” that would render a fee award unjust.

The Hermann decision is a helpful reminder that Congress’ guarantee in enacting ERISA that employees receive the full amount of their benefits requires that employees not have to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to obtain those benefits.

ERISA Claim Deadlines Extended Due to COVID-19

ERISA-governed insurance claims are subject to specific deadlines that claimants have to meet in order to protect their rights. Normally, the consequences of missing a deadline are draconian. For instance, appealing an ERISA claim denial even one day late can irrevocably waive the right to dispute the denial, no matter the reason for the delay.

The good news is that these deadlines have been relaxed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Labor, the federal agency responsible for overseeing ERISA-governed employee benefit plans, has issued an order extending certain ERISA claim deadlines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This order comes pursuant to authority granted by Congress in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (a/k/a the “CARES” Act).

DOL is extending these deadlines so that plan participants, beneficiaries, and employers have additional time to make critical coverage and other benefit decisions during the pandemic. The upshot is:

  • Disability insurance claimants have additional time to submit claims and appeal denied claims. These deadlines do not run during the period from March 1, 2020, until 60 days after the federal government announces the end of the current COVID-19 national emergency. That means an appeal that would normally be due next week might not be due until 60 days after the federal government announces the end of the national pandemic emergency.
  • Group health plans have additional time to comply with COBRA continuation coverage deadlines. This is critical for employees recently laid off and looking for answers about continued health insurance coverage.
  • Group health plans also have extra time to determine benefit claims; and
  • ERISA plans have extra time to provide disclosures and notices required by ERISA, provided the plan acts in good faith and furnishes the disclosure or notice as soon as practicable under the circumstances, including through electronic means.

The Department of Labor has FAQs for ERISA claimants and participants regarding the deadline extensions.

These extensions will help employees and plan participants effectively safeguard their rights during the pandemic.