Reliance Standard Loses Long Covid Disability Benefit Appeal

A Mitre Corp. engineer with long-haul Covid was properly awarded more than $210,000 in disability benefits from Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., the Fourth Circuit said in an opinion weighing ERISA’s claims procedures.

Reliance’s decision denying the engineer’s internal appeal isn’t subject to judicial deference because the company neither resolved the appeal within the 45-day period set by law nor identified a special circumstance that would justify an extension, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said Tuesday.

Reliance sent a letter informing the engineer that its review would take longer because it had requested an independent medical ...