Business Better Podcast Episode: Bridging Campuses: Legal Insights on Education Industry Consolidation – Labor, Employment, and Benefits
How ERISA Litigators Strengthen Plan Compliance and Risk Management: One-on-One with Jeb Gerth
#WorkforceWednesday®: New DOL Guidance - ERISA Plan Cybersecurity Update - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
ERISA Blog | Changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rules A Primer for Self-Insured Group Health Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What the J&J Case Means for Plan Administrators
The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Federal Rule Aims to Hold Investment Advisors to a Higher Standard
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 – Top-Hat Plans — Special Edition Podcast
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Getting Ready for 2024 - Health and Welfare Plan Developments — Special Edition Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Partial Plan Terminations
Podcast Episode 189: Adding Context to Compliance and Color To Your Legal Practice
#WorkforceWednesday: SECURE Act 2.0 - What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Plan Administrators’ 2022 Year-End Checklist
An Inside Look as a Juror - FCRA Focus Podcast
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Court Decisions Impacting Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries
(A)ESOP's Fables - The Income and Estate Tax-Free ESOP
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - What Constitutes Plan Assets Under ERISA?
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Group Health Plan Service Provider Compensation Disclosure Requirements
A federal appeals court just illustrated the importance of an employer’s duty to monitor service providers that assist with the administration of employee welfare benefit plans. In the May 21 decision of Tiara Yachts v. Blue...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently issued an opinion with critical implications for the healthcare industry. This court decision clarifies the expansive reach of the Employee Retirement Income Security...more
Within days of one another, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits ruled—on issues of first impression for both—that ERISA expressly preempts state law breach of contract and promissory estoppel claims...more
On May 31, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals published an opinion in Bristol SL Holdings, Inc. v. Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, which has significant implications for the healthcare industry, most notably by...more
We are pleased to present our annual End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. This Part 1 covers year-end health and welfare plan issues....more
On July 1, 2021, the Office of Personnel Management, Department of the Treasury, Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and Department of Labor (“DOL”) (collectively, the “Departments”), released the interim final...more
The Ninth Circuit significantly limited insurers' ability to rely on anti-assignment provisions in ERISA health plans in Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital v. Community Insurance Company dba Anthem Blue Cross Blue...more
In Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. v. BioHealth Labs., Inc., No. 20-2312-CV, — F.3d –, 2021 WL 476111 (2d Cir. Feb. 10, 2021), Cigna, as administrator of employee health plans, sued six out-of-network lab companies for...more
Recently, a three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a district court dismissal of an out-of-network provider’s claims against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (“BCBSIL”). The unanimous...more
In July, we reported (here) on a Third Circuit decision that held an out-of-network provider’s direct claims against an insurer for breach of contract and promissory estoppel were not pre-empted by ERISA. That opinion was a...more
Anti-assignment clauses in ERISA health plans are useful to plan sponsors in fending off lawsuits by out-of-network providers. Federal courts have consistently upheld anti-assignment provisions contained in the plan document...more
Beginning in 2022, employer-sponsored health plans will be required to pay providers certain emergency and out-of-network charges that would have otherwise been balance billed to participants. That is the centerpiece of...more
In an important win for healthcare providers, on July 17, 2020, the Third Circuit determined in a published opinion that an out-of-network provider’s direct claims against in insurer for breach of contract and promissory...more
In Mitchell v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.D., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 8818 (8th Cir. Mar. 20, 2020), the Eighth Circuit upheld the payment of 150% of Medicare rates for an out-of-network air ambulance flight, although the...more
Seeking to control healthcare costs, many group health plans have adopted amendments that lower reimbursement rates for the treatment of end-stage renal disease ("ESRD"), which requires long-term dialysis treatment or a...more
In its decision, the Court concluded that UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (“United”) was not authorized to engage in “cross-plan offsetting.” What is cross-plan offsetting? It is a “self-help” practice that third party...more
The Third Circuit recently held that anti-assignment clauses in ERISA-governed healthcare plans are enforceable as long as they are unambiguous. The Court concluded that the anti-assignment clause clearly stated that...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A provider that is not seeking benefits based upon an assignment of a patient’s claims under ERISA but instead is pursuing state law claims based solely on agreements and representations made directly by...more
On January 15, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit considered whether certain plan documents allowed UnitedHealth Group Inc. and affiliates (“United”) to engage in a practice known as “cross-plan...more
A recent Eighth Circuit decision regarding “cross-plan offsetting” serves as an important reminder of how ERISA’s fiduciary duties impact both employers and fiduciaries who handle claims. The case involved the common...more
On January 15, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued an order affirming a lower court’s ruling that UnitedHealth’s interpretation of ERISA plan documents to authorize cross-plan offsetting was...more
The Northern District of California recently considered a case brought by a hospital against a self-funded health plan claiming the underpayment of out-of-network claims (Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System vs. Rocket...more
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed the insurance industry a small victory by holding that, in American Orthopedic & Sports Med. v. Indep. Blue Cross Blue Shield, unambiguous anti-assignment...more
In Eden Surgical Ctr. v. Cognizant Tech. Sols. Corp., No. 16-56422, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 10597 (9th Cir., Apr. 26, 2018), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court’s Order dismissing the...more
U.S. Courts of Appeals in all but four Circuits have now held that anti-assignment provisions in health insurance plans governed by ERISA are enforceable. In American Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine v. Independence Blue Cross...more