By: Samuel Schwartz-Fenwick and Thomas Horan
Seyfarth Synopsis: Adding to the body of conflicting authority on the scope of the attorney-client privilege in ERISA lawsuits, a district court has found that the fiduciary exception to attorney-client privilege applies to an insurance company that acts as a claim administrator, thus requiring disclosure of communications between the…
By Andrew Scroggins and Mark Casciari
The Seventh Circuit has stymied an EEOC attempt to declare that employer wellness plans violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The court decided that the issues raised by the suit are moot, and deferred to another day tackling weightier questions of statutory interpretation and the EEOC’s rulemaking authority.…
By Kathleen Cahill Slaught and Shireen Yvette Wetmore
Seyfarth Synopsis: Insurer gets to pick its remedy when hospital engages in dishonest billing and illegal kickbacks…to the tune of $41 million.
Judge Lynn Hughes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas closed out the year with a bang in Aetna Life Insurance…
By Ron Kramer
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seventh Circuit finds employer still obligated to contribute to benefit funds for the life of the CBA even though the employees decertified the union.
Employers often assume that when their employees decertify a union, that any obligations an employer had under the operative collective bargaining agreement would disappear. No…
By Mark Casciari and Chris Busey
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in three Church Plan cases presents the possibility that many Church Plans thought for years to be exempt from ERISA rules, including its funding rules, will now have to comply with the statute. It also presents a possible issue of Article…
By: Danielle Vera and Sam Schwartz-Fenwick
Seyfarth Synopsis: Currently before the Supreme Court are two petitions regarding the thorny legal question of which organizations can qualify for ERISA’s Church-plan exemption. If the Supreme Court grants certiorari and follows the recent Third and Seventh Circuit Court decisions, then all Church-affiliated organizations (e.g. church affiliated hospitals, daycares…
By: Jim Goodfellow and Mark Casciari
Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Department of Labor has recently issued its new regulation expanding the definition of fiduciary under ERISA, but there are a number of lawsuits challenging the authority of the DOL to issue the regulation — stay tuned to see how the DOL fares in the courts. …
An Expanding Universe of Healthcare Provider Liability: The United States Supreme Court Endorses “Implied False Certification” under the False Claims Act
By Jonathan Braunstein and Nabeel Ahmad
http://www.seyfarth.com/JonathanBraunstein
http://www.seyfarth.com/NabeelAhmad
Seyfarth Synopsis:
In Universal Health Services Inc. v. U.S. et al. ex rel. Escobar et al., the United States Supreme Court found a healthcare provider…
By Sam Schwartz-Fenwick and William David
Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent decision district court ruling affirms that in a benefit discrimination claim, just as in a typical claim of employment discrimination, to survive summary judgment a plaintiff must demonstrate that a defendant’s given lawful reason for taking an adverse action was pretext.
Temporal proximity between an…
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Supreme Court’s Spokeo decision is sure to impact ERISA litigation. Expect ERISA plaintiffs to focus more on alleging a “concrete” injury, and ERISA defendants to argue more often that the claim cannot proceed in federal court because its alleged injury, while it may allege a breach of ERISA, does…
