employer insurance – Seattle Insurance and ERISA Blog

ERISA Plan Cannot Recover Overpayments Resulting From The Plan’s Own Mistake

Most employee benefit plans (e.g., employer-sponsored health or disability insurance) allow the plan to recover excess overpayments it provides the insured. This typically occurs where the plan provides benefits that are duplicated by another source of funding. For instance, most long-term disability plans provide that benefit payments are offset by amounts the insured receives from a Social Security Disability claim. These provisions are generally enforceable.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently refused to uphold the plan’s right to repayment where the overpayment was due to the plan’s own error. In its unpublished decision in Mrkonjic v. Delta Family-Care and Survivorship Plan, the court held Delta’s employee benefit plan could not recover overpayments from Myrkonjic caused by Delta’s improper denial of Myrkonjic’s initial claim for benefits.

Myrkonjic became disabled following a work injury and applied for long-term disability (“LTD”) benefits from his employer Delta’s employee benefit plan. Delta denied Myrkonjic’s claim. During the ensuing thirteen-year lawsuit over Myrkonjic’s right to LTD benefits, Myrkonjic took early retirement under Delta’s retirement plan in order to provide a source of income during the period he could not work and was not receiving LTD payments.

After years of litigation, Delta agreed Myrkonjic was entitled to LTD benefits. But Delta subtracted from Myrkonjic’s LTD payments amounts Delta had paid him in early retirement benefits, relying on language in the governing plan documents permitting Delta to make an offset accounting for duplicative benefits. Delta’s calculation of Myrkonjic’s offsets differed from the manner in which Delta typically calculated offsets: “Normally…If the offsets exceed the benefit, the claimant receives nothing but does not owe excess offsets back to the Plans. The Plans concede that they calculated Myrkonjic’s LTD benefits inconsistently with their normal method.”

The Ninth Circuit determined Delta’s offset calculation was improper. Noting “Myrkonjic would up in federal court in the first place” and “was forced to elect early retirement” “because the Plans improperly refused to approve his LED application”, the court ruled the Plans should have resolved the offset “so as to leave Myrkonjic no worse off from their mistakes.”

Health Plans Can’t Discriminate Against Mental Health Treatment Says Ninth Circuit

Among the challenges of a mental health condition is the difficulty persuading health insurers to cover treatment. Mental health conditions can be difficult to objectively diagnose and can require lengthy and expensive treatment often with little prospect of a conventional “cure.” Hence, health plans have a powerful incentive to minimize coverage for mental health conditions to reduce costs.

In response, the federal government, as well as Washington and many other states, have enacted mental health parity laws. In general, these laws prohibit health insurers and health plans from discriminating against mental health conditions by mandating mental health conditions be covered to the same degree as physical ailments.

On June 6, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the federal Mental Health Parity Act prohibits health plans from discriminating against mental health conditions for the purposes of health insurance coverage. In Danny P. v. Catholic Health Initiatives, the court determined the health plan violated the law by denying the plaintiff’s claim for the cost of an inpatient stay at a residential mental health treatment facility.

In ruling for the plaintiffs, the court determined the Mental Health Parity Act required the health plan’s coverage of inpatient mental health treatment facilities be no more restrictive than coverage for stays at skilled nursing facilities. Since the Act prohibited imposing more restrictive coverage requirements on mental health treatment than on treatment for physical conditions, the Act precluded the health plan from deciding to cover room and board at skilled nursing facilities for medical patients while refusing to provide the same coverage for mental health inpatient care.

The Danny P. decision is an important win for patients seeking mental health treatment and vindicates Congress’ intent in passing the Mental Health Parity Act that mental health patients be free from discrimination by their health plans.

ERISA Appeal FAQs

ERISA, the federal law governing most employer-sponsored benefits (e.g., health, disability or life insurance, or pension or retirement benefits) gives participants the right to appeal the Plan or insurer’s denial of payment or benefits (in legalese, an “adverse benefit determination”). Plans and insurers are required to be transparent about participants’ appeal rights. Unfortunately, adverse benefit determination notices often fail to adequately explain participants’ appeal rights and important deadlines.

Below is a “cheat sheet” listing some of the issues relevant to participants’ rights to appeal an adverse benefit determination under ERISA:

You must appeal before filing suit. ERISA generally requires participants to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing suit. This requires going through the Plan or insurer’s internal appeal process before bring a lawsuit. If you sue before exhausting the appeal process, the court will likely dismiss the lawsuit and your claim could be barred. Note that ERISA typically requires only one appeal – while Plans often provide for multiple levels of appeal, participants are generally free to file suit after the first appeal is denied. Indeed, in most cases, successive rounds of appeal serve no purpose other than to permit the Plan or insurer to bolster its position with several rounds of supposedly “independent” review that typically rubber-stamp the original adverse benefit determination.
You must appeal within the deadline. Once the Plan or insurer renders an adverse benefit determination, the deadline starts running in which to appeal the decision. The deadline is often short, depending on the details of the Plan documents. Failure to timely appeal will often irrevocably destroy your right to dispute the adverse benefit determination or file a lawsuit.
Your appeal must contain all relevant information. If the appeal is denied and the participant files a lawsuit, the evidence that can be presented in the lawsuit is often limited to the information submitted to the Plan or insurer during the appeal process. Thus, it is critical to submit all potentially relevant information during the appeal process. Even information that might seem irrelevant at first could potentially become relevant in a lawsuit.
Your appeal must account for the Plan documents and the Plan or insurer’s investigation. Despite federal regulations requiring transparency in ERISA claims, adverse benefit determination notices often fail to contain important information relevant to the dispute. This includes the full Plan documents setting forth participants’ rights under the Plan. It also includes the Plan’s or insurer’s claim file, which often contains internal notes or other evidence reflecting the true basis for the adverse benefit determination. Acquiring this information and addressing it with rebuttal evidence is critical to prevailing in any appeal or lawsuit challenging the denial of payment or benefits.

ERISA appeals can be complex, and failure to follow the appropriate procedures can be fatal to participants’ rights to coverage or benefits. It is critical to carefully scrutinize all correspondence with the Plan or insurer, the governing Plan documents, and the applicable evidence before submitting an appeal.

Court of Appeals Clarifies Policy Causation Language In Favor Of The Insured

When language in one part of your ERISA policy says your claim is covered, can the company rely on language elsewhere in the policy to deny your claim? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently answered “no.” In Dowdy v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., the court ruled the conflicting language about what caused the insured’s loss did not preclude coverage.

Mr. Dowdy’s leg was amputated following a car crash. He made a claim under his ERISA-governed Accidental Death & Dismemberment insurance policy with MetLife, purchased through Mrs. Dowdy’s employer.

MetLife denied coverage, claiming the amputation was excluded because it was complicated by Mr. Dowdy’s diabetes. MetLife relied on language in the policy requiring the loss to be the “direct result of the accidental injury, independent of other causes,” and excluding injuries for losses related to “illness or infirmity” or “infection occurring in an external accidental wound.” Under this language, MetLife claimed the right to deny coverage for any amputation “contributed to” or “complicated by” diabetes.

The court ruled the language could be read two ways, but that the Dowdys prevailed under either interpretation. Under one interpretation, coverage existed if the injury was the “predominate or proximate cause,” while under the more stringent interpretation, coverage was barred as long as the excluded condition (diabetes) “substantially contributed” to the loss.

While agreeing diabetes was “a factor” in the injury leading to the amputation, the court determined there was no evidence diabetes “substantially” contributed to the injury. The court relied on definitions of “substantial” requiring “a significant magnitude of causation” demonstrating the diabetes was “more than merely related to the injury.”

Since Mr. Dowdy’s medical records established only that diabetes “complicated” Mr. Dowdy’s wound, the court determined diabetes did not “substantially” contribute to the injury. The car crash caused a severe injury that nearly severed Mr. Dowdy’s leg. The subsequent infection and wound issues were complicated by diabetes, but did not cause Mr. Dowdy’s amputation.

Because this type of language frequently appears in Accidental Death & Dismemberment policies as well as health and disability policies, the Dowdy ruling is helpful for many ERISA participants seeking coverage.

Can The Company Deny Your ERISA Claim “Because We Said So?”

Who decides whether a person’s entitled to coverage under an ERISA plan? Given ERISA gives plan participants the right to take the company to court to dispute coverage denials, you might think the judge decides. But the answer’s not that simple. Often, the insurer itself can decide whether you’re covered under the terms of the plan, and the judge in a lawsuit is not always allowed to tell the company it was wrong.

Most ERISA benefit plans contain language in which the plan gives itself (or the administrator it hires) unlimited discretion to decide who’s entitled to benefits. These are called “discretionary clauses.” For example, employer-sponsored health coverage might only cover surgery or prescriptions that are “medically necessary” and give the plan itself the unlimited right to decide what is “medically necessary.” These provisions effectively allow your insurance plan to decide you aren’t entitled to coverage “because we said so,” even if a judge decides the weight of the evidence shows you’re entitled to coverage.

That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court decided, in the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Bruch case, that “discretionary clauses” mean the judge in an ERISA lawsuit must defer to the company’s decision – even if the judge decides the company was wrong – unless the decision was so badly made that it was “arbitrary and capricious.” For instance, if the company decides the surgery your doctor recommended isn’t “medically necessary,” even though six physicians say you need the surgery and only one says it’s unnecessary, the court can’t say the company got it wrong. Where there’s a discretionary clause, the court can only disagree with the company’s decision if the company’s decision was not just wrong but “arbitrary and capricious.”

Surprising nobody, after the Firestone decision, every ERISA plan promptly added discretionary clauses making it easier for the company to deny claims.

Fortunately for plan participants, voters in many states, including Washington State, responded by enacting legislation prohibiting discretionary clauses.

The upshot is plan participants in states like Washington where discretionary clauses are unlawful have a significantly better chance at obtaining coverage for surgery, prescriptions, disability benefits or other ERISA-governed benefits because the company can’t deny claims simply “because we said so.”