Thursday, March 11, 2021
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld an award of attorneys’ fees payable by a health plan sponsor to the plan administrators that the plan sponsor had sued.
See Central Valley Ag Cooperative, et al. v. Leonard, et al., Nos. 19-3044 and 20-1378, Eighth Circuit (Feb. 1, 2021). The plan sponsor aggressively pursued meritless Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) claims.
Central Valley Ag Cooperative, an agricultural cooperative, sued several defendants that provided marketing and administrative services to Central Valley’s self-funded health plans. Beginning in 2015, a third-party administrator, The Benefits Group (TBG), would receive participants’ medical bills and forward certain bills to a reviewing company, Anasazi Medical Payment Solutions, Inc. (AMPS). AMPS would then review the bills and recommend to TBG how much of the original bill should be paid. TBG sent the recommendation to Central Valley, and
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The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld an award of attorneys’ fees payable by a health plan sponsor to the plan administrators that the plan sponsor had sued.
See Central Valley Ag Cooperative, et al. v. Leonard, et al., Nos. 19-3044 and 20-1378, Eighth Circuit (Feb. 1, 2021). The plan sponsor aggressively pursued meritless Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) claims.
IN DEPTH
Central Valley Ag Cooperative, an agricultural cooperative, sued several defendants that provided marketing and administrative services to Central Valley’s self-funded health plans. Beginning in 2015, a third-party administrator, The Benefits Group (TBG), would receive participants’ medical bills and forward certain bills to a reviewing company, Anasazi Medical Payment Solutions, Inc. (AMPS). AMPS would then review the bills and recommend to TBG how much of the original bill should be paid. TBG sent the rec
The Eighth Circuit upheld an award of attorneys’ fees payable by a health plan sponsor to the plan administrators that the plan sponsor had sued. The plan sponsor aggressively pursued meritless Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 claims. Central Valley Ag Cooperative, et al. v. Leonard
The Eighth Circuit upheld the dismissal of Central Valley Ag Cooperative's ERISA lawsuit against the entities that helped it select and run its employee health plan, ruling Monday that only one of these companies shouldered responsibilities under the federal benefits law, and it fulfilled them just fine.