Catholic Health Initiatives Wins Church Plan Dispute

Catholic Health Initiatives scored a court order allowing it to operate its pension plan free from federal funding requirements (Medina v. Catholic Health Initiatives, 2015 BL 402753, D. Colo., 1:13-cv-01249-REB-KLM, 12/8/15).

The Dec. 8 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado upheld the company’s decision to treat its pension plan as a church plan exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which mandates certain funding requirements.

In the past few years, more than a dozen pension plans sponsored by religiously affiliated health-care companies have been targeted in class actions. These suits accuse ...