Search
This month’s Friday Five addresses two cases involving disability claims that touch on Covid-19, a Circuit Court ruling for an insurer, a district court ruling that a 20-year-old regulatory settlement precluded an insurer from relying on the opinions of physicians it hired, and a claim for breach of...
On June 22, 2023, the Oregon legislature passed the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA) SB 619 with a nearly unanimous vote in the senate. The bill was developed over the last four years by the Attorney General's Consumer Privacy Task Force, created to answer the call for comprehensive consumer...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to what constitutes a fiduciary function, a finding of disability despite working full-time, an enforcement of suit limitation clause, the circumstances under which reinstatement is an appropriate remedy, and ERISA preemption. The Saul Ewing LLP...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to a plaintiff’s attempts to seal a complaint seeking disability benefits, an administrator’s uncommunicated decision to discontinue its investigation into certain medical conditions, an administrator’s loss of the deferential standard of review for...
The deal reached between the President and House Speaker McCarthy on the debt limit bill includes provisions approving a natural gas pipeline project (Mountain Valley Pipeline) and eliminating any judicial review of its existing and future permits, and also includes some limited reform of the...
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced two (2) different settlements, one with a HIPAA business associate for $350,000 and one with a HIPAA-covered entity pursuant to the OCR Right of Access Initiative for $15,000...
On May 11, 2023, Tennessee became the eighth state to join the most recent trend in state legislation when Governor Lee signed the Tennessee Information Protection Act (TIPA) into law. Tennessee follows other states that have recently enacted comprehensive privacy legislation, starting with...
This month’s Friday Five explores two recent decisions that discuss limitations on benefits when both physical disability and disability arising from mental illness are alleged, whether remand of a claim by the court constitutes a new appeal or a continuation of the previous appeal, whether an order...
New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (“NJDEP”) finalized its long-awaited Environmental Justice Rules (“EJ Rules”) by publishing them in the New Jersey Register on April 17, 2023. The EJ Rules implement New Jersey’s landmark Environmental Justice Law. In a tandem action, the White...
This month’s Friday Five explores recent decisions that reflect the precise nature of rules and definitions in the context of ERISA claims. For example, effective dates of CFR code provisions and contractually defined limitation periods can draw specific points on the timeline of a case. Similarly...
On Wednesday, March 15, Iowa’s House Legislature unanimously voted to approve Senate File 262 (SF 262), a comprehensive data privacy bill that unanimously passed the Senate on March 6. The bill will now move to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law (if the Governor does not sign or veto the bill...
This month's Friday Five covers cases relating to issue preclusion, coverage where the policy terms are inconsistent with the parties’ behavior, application of the abuse of discretion standard of review, applicability of a waiver of premium provision and compliance with a mandatory appeals process...
The 2021 calendar year reports from HHS OCR describe OCR’s efforts that calendar year and are instructive tools for all parties who need to comply with HIPAA to understand macro-level trends. What You Need to Know: OCR continues to receive tens of thousands HIPAA complaints each year. “Large”...
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to potential impacts of COVID-19, full and fair review of the claim file, an attempt to use an insurer’s internal policy against itself, and a “second bite at the apple” by amending a complaint for denial of benefits to include a claim for breach of...
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is soliciting public comment on its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (“Green Guides”), as part of its analysis of whether to modify, retain, or rescind the Green Guides. The issues raised in the Green Guides potentially impact any company that...