Imagine you’re a plan administrator who receives an angry letter from an out-of-network provider. The letter explains that before treating a plan participant, the provider called to confirm the participant’s eligibility for out-of-network coverage and to authorize treatments at certain rates under the plan. Now that treatment has been rendered, the provider is demanding payment
In a prior post, we commented on the growing trend of fiduciaries making non-monetary concessions to settle ERISA fee litigation cases. We observed that certain “onerus” non-monetary settlement features – such as obligating fiduciaries to provide plaintiffs’ counsel with customized reports on plan operations and performance during a years-long “monitoring” period — are significant
Court filings made this week show that Johns Hopkins has settled its ERISA fee case on proposed terms that include making a $14.5 million settlement payment, the second highest settlement in a 403(b) fee case, behind Vanderbilt ($14.5 million), and ahead of Duke ($10.65 million), U. Chicago ($6.5 million) and Brown ($3.5 million). The most
The University of Pennsylvania suffered a setback in the first ERISA fee case against a university to be decided by a U.S. Court of Appeals. In Sweda v. the University of Pennsylvania, a divided panel of the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 that the district court had erred in granting the university’s motion to dismiss.