Those diagnosed with cancer are fighting many battles. They not only have to deal with their health, but they also have to deal with paying for healthcare. Cancer patents rely on their health insurance to provide coverage for effective healthcare. Unfortunately, some insurance carriers sidestep their responsibilities when it comes to patient care for those […]
A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control found that Hepatitis C-related deaths are at an all-time high in the United States. As reported by the Washington Post, the report found that more Americans die from the disease than from 60 other infectious diseases combined. Approximately 3.5 million Americans are thought to have the disease, although many may be unaware due to the initial slow and silent damage it inflicts upon the liver.
In Halo v. Yale Health Plan, 2016 WL 1426291 (2nd Cir., April 12, 2016), the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently addressed whether an Employee Retirement Income Security Act-governed health insurance plan’s failure to issue a benefit determination compliant with federal claims-processing regulations should be penalized and, if so, how. The U.S. District Court […]
Reimbursement claims that health insurance plans assert against personal-injury recoveries frustrate the plaintiffs’ bar and tie up the courts. A recent ruling from a federal court in Pennsylvania resolving the issues remaining following a Supreme Court remand is instructive in the manner it addressed some of the thorniest issues presented in such claims. In U.S. […]
The American Benefits Council reports that 93 million Americans get their insurance from self-funded plans. These plans serve as an alternative to employers contracting with insurance companies that assume the risk. On March 1, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Vermont data collection law violates the U.S. Employee Retirement Security Act (ERISA). In a 6-2 […]
The Supreme Court has once again waded into the Serbonian Bog of what is meant by the term “appropriate equitable relief” contained in 29 U.S.C. Section 1132(a)(3) (ERISA Section 502(a)(3)), which authorizes a civil action to be brought “by a participant, beneficiary or fiduciary (A) to enjoin any act or practice which violates any provision […]