ERISA Review Standard Questioned by 5th Cir. Judges

A dispute over health insurance coverage for eating disorder treatments prompted a panel of Fifth Circuit judges to call for a re-examination of the proper standard of judicial review in cases challenging denied benefits under ERISA (Ariana M. v. Humana Health Plan of Tex., Inc., 2017 BL 132111, 5th Cir., No. 16-20174, 4/21/17).

In affirming Humana Health Plan of Texas Inc.'s denial of coverage to a plan beneficiary with eating disorders, three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit questioned 26-year-old circuit precedent governing the standard of review in cases brought under the Employee ...