How To Prepare For Possible Health Plan Litigation

In this article, Joanne Roskey explains that plan sponsors, fiduciaries, and service providers to employee benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) should prepare now for what could be a new wave of class-action ERISA fee and expense litigation - this one crashing down on health care plans. In the last two decades, hundreds of class action lawsuits have been filed against fiduciaries of ERISA retirement plans alleging their imprudence and lack of oversight of plan finances caused their plans to pay too much for investments and plan administration. With new health plan disclosure and transparency laws in place, the groundwork is laid for a new wave of lawsuits focused on health plan expenditures and fees. Like the retirement plan cases, the anticipated health plan fee litigation will be costly to defend. Roskey suggests that as this litigation takes shape, health plan fiduciaries and service providers should carefully review what