ERISA Doesn’t Bar Employee From Suing Over Misrepresentation of Plan Coverage

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act does not preempt a former employee’s state law claims alleging her employer’s health plan administrator wrongfully caused her to cancel her own individual insurance after the administrator told her medical providers that she still had coverage under the ERISA-covered plan, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled Dec. 30 (Hall v. NewMarket Corp.).

Denying Aetna Life Insurance Co.'s motion to dismiss the state law claims as preempted by ERISA, Judge David Bramlette said the former employee could go forward with her claim that Aetna negligently misrepresented to her ...