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Expert Analysis

• Alleging An LLC's Citizenship With Imperfect Information

  

  Determining a limited liability company's citizenship to establish diversity jurisdiction and remove a case from state court can be difficult when the LLC's owners are unclear, and the Corporate Transparency Act will likely offer only limited help when it takes effect — but the right steps can still get a case to a federal courtroom, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

• 9th Circ. Jurisdiction Ruling Guides On Class Action Strategy

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent decision revoking class certification in Moser v. Benefytt punted on personal jurisdiction questions left by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bristol-Myers decision, but provides some guidance on how to raise jurisdictional defenses in nationwide class actions, say attorneys at Dechert.

• Humana FLSA Case Shows Risks Of Nurse Misclassification

  

  The recent settlement in O'Leary v. Humana Insurance, a Wisconsin federal court case over the Fair Labor Standards Act employment status of 200 registered nurses, demonstrates the potential long-term and unexpected costs of erroneously classifying employees, says John Dudrey at Stoel Rives.

• FCA Ruling Deepens Circuit Split Over Qui Tam Dismissals

  

  The recent Third Circuit ruling in Polansky v. Executive Health Resources Inc. further widens a split over the standard for government-initiated motions to dismiss qui tam actions under the False Claims Act, and evinces increased scrutiny for motions filed after a defendant has entered the fray, say Kenneth Abell and Katherine Kulkarni at Abell Eskew.

• 4 Economic Takeaways From 6th Circ. ProMedica Decision

  

  The Sixth Circuit's recent decision to let ProMedica Health drop insurance contracts with its competitor St. Luke's Hospital highlights economic questions to consider when assessing alleged monopolization, particularly through provider network formation, say Loren Smith and Josephine Duh at The Brattle Group.

• Disability Claim Ruling Holds ERISA Fiduciary Duty Lessons

  

  A Massachusetts federal court’s recent disability claim ruling in Host v. First Unum Life Insurance admonished the defendant for breaching its Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duties when it failed to conduct an independent claim investigation, signaling that plan administrators should be wary of relying solely on employer communications, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.

• Mental Health Parity Act: A Compliance Wake-Up Call

  

  Recent developments, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s settlement with UnitedHealth, suggest that the DOL is taking a renewed and more aggressive approach to enforcing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, say Tim Kennedy and Anne Hall at Hall Benefits Law.

• Insurance Commissioner's Agenda

  

  State insurance commissioners discuss their enforcement and regulation priorities in this Expert Analysis series.

• Takeaways From DC Circ. Medicare Overpayment Ruling

  

  The D.C. Circuit's recent decision in UnitedHealth v. Becerra, reinstating a rule that requires Medicare Advantage organizations to refund certain overpayments, is a near-complete victory for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, but arguably abandons the rule's negligence standard, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• Why The Future Of Telehealth Parity Remains Murky

  

  Though the federal government, states and private insurers have united during the pandemic in recognizing the value of expanding telehealth access, there is no consensus on the merits of long-term telehealth parity, say Adriana Riviere-Badell and Alexandria Swette at Kobre & Kim.

• A Primer On DOL Probes For ERISA Plan Service Providers

  

  As the U.S. Department of Labor shifts its enforcement resources from Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan sponsors to financial institutions that service such plans, nonfiduciary providers should know what to expect and how to respond to agency investigations, say attorneys at Groom Law Group.

• 5th Circ. Opinion Is Right To Question ERISA Review Norms

  

  A concurrence in the Fifth Circuit’s recent J. P. v. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas decision rightly criticizes the standard of review in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases as misplaced, nearly impossible for claimants to meet, and at odds with the holistic assessment required by the U.S. Supreme Court, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.

• Benefits Ruling Raises Jury Trial Question For ERISA Cases

  

  An Ohio federal court's recent ruling in Phillips v. Sun Life Assurance has reopened the debate over the utility of jury trials in Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefit denial cases, highlighting how the law’s silence on the issue leads courts to make up rules that lack statutory support, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.