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ALI-ABA Topical Courses
Health Plans: Maximizing Your Flexibility - Is Your
Plan
Ready for All the Possibilities?
February 28, 2012
Video Presentation
Through a Glass Darkly: Musings About CIGNA Corp. v. Amara
Slides
By
T. David Cowart
SNR Denton
Dallas, Texas
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Through a Glass Darkly:
Musings About CIGNA Corp. v. Amara
Maximizing Your Flexibility—
Is Your Plan Ready For All The Possibilities?
ALI-ABA Health Plans Webcast
T. David Cowart
February 28, 2012
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
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Administrative Impact
Many U.S. Supreme Court opinions
seem to have little apparent impact on
the everyday lives of plans and plan
administrators.
CIGNA Corp. v. Amara looks to be an
exception.
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
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Administrative Impact
Five potential areas of immediate impact (outside of litigation) are:
Plan documents;
SPDs;
Communications about benefits;
Management of a plan; and
The in-house benefits communication function.
Unlike regulatory and statutory changes, however, the impact of
this case will be evolutionary, slower in coming and susceptible to
geographic differences.
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
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Plan Documents
• ERISA requires every ERISA plan to be in writing. ERISA section
402(a)(1).
In practice, that written plan is called a plan document.
In practice, the plan document is intelligible only to lawyers.
• ERISA requires every ERISA plan to identify at least one named fiduciary
to control and manage the plan. ERISA section 402(a)(1).
In practice, a plan document often specifies more than one fiduciary.
In practice, a plan document usually describes how to delegate
fiduciary power (and status) to others.
• ERISA requires every ERISA plan to establish a procedure for amending
the plan. ERISA section 402(b).
In practice, an amendment adopted without using this procedure can
be in serious trouble.
Copyright © 2012 by T. David Cowart. All rights reserved
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