Just a week before a bench trial was scheduled to begin, Salesforce reached a settlement with as many as 50,000 of its employees in a class action lawsuit over its 401(k) plan. The San Francisco-based software company faced claims of breach of its fiduciary duties under ERISA for failing to replace costly and underperforming investment options in the 401(k) plan. The workers had sought over $5 million in damages, Read More

Several important benefits cases are pending before various U.S. Courts of Appeals. Benefits attorneys should look out for the upcoming appellate arguments in these cases. Tanika Parker et al. v. Tenneco Inc. et al., case number 23-1857, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit In this class action lawsuit, workers allege that their automotive company employers mismanaged their 401(k) plan by charging Read More

Texas-based insurance industry plaintiffs, including a nonprofit trade group, have filed the first lawsuit to challenge the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently issued final regulations that broaden the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The regulations expand the scope of a fiduciary to include many forms of advice by investment professionals and amend three sets Read More

The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury, along with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), released FAQs about the implementation of Title I of Division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 or the No Surprises Act (“the Act”). Questions have arisen about implementing the Act due to the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued a final rule rescinding a 2018 rule entitled “Definition of Employer Under Section 3(5) of ERISA – Association Health Plans,” which is commonly known as the 2018 AHP Rule. DOL rescinded this rule because it determined that its provisions were inconsistent with the statutory requirements of ERISA concerning the definition of "employer" in establishing group health Read More

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a proposed rule entitled “Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities.” The proposed rule, designed to advance health equity and protect people from discrimination, revises the implementing regulation for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The rule also proposes revisions to nondiscrimination provisions in Centers for Medicare & Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) final regulations broaden the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to include more investment advisors. However, the eight hundred pages of final regulations, which consist of a final rule and three sets of amendments to ERISA prohibited transaction exemptions, contain crucial differences from the proposed regulations. Therefore, Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued the Retirement Security Rule. This final rule expands the definition of a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to include a much broader range of situations involving investment advice. ERISA fiduciaries must legally act in the best interests of the retirement plan participants they advise. The final rule now requires a larger group of Read More

Overbilling in the healthcare industry continues to increase dramatically across the United States, to the tune of billions of dollars annually. The existing system has caused skyrocketing annual premium renewals for employers and sharply climbing out-of-pocket costs for plan members. These high costs have led to frustration, dissatisfaction, and the first reported ERISA breach of fiduciary duty litigation over Read More

As noted in a recent prior blog, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has permitted a class action lawsuit under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and ERISA to proceed. Ruling on procedural grounds, the court found that it was sufficient for plaintiff Ryan S. to allege that United Health Group was applying an algorithm to mental health/substance use disorder (MH/SUD) claims that Read More