On March 24, 2024, in McKee Foods Corporation v. BFP, Inc. dba Thrifty Med Plus Pharmacy, the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals (Sixth Circuit) held that McKee Foods’ claims that Tennessee’s “any willing pharmacy” (“any-willing-pharmacy”) laws are preempted by ERISA, and that state law does not require it to include Thrifty Med in its approved network of pharmacies, were not rendered moot following changes to the underlying state laws and other factual developments in the case. The Sixth Circuit reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings.

On March 19, 2024, a federal trial court held that the hearing-impaired mother and daughter stated a sufficient claim of “proxy” discrimination under ACA Section 1557 against Regence BlueShield, a health insurer, for its plans’ exclusion of all hearing devices except cochlear implants to proceed to trial.

On February 29, 2024, the Federal District Court of Northern District of California denied Aetna Inc. and Aetna Life Insurance (collectively, Aetna)’s motion to dismiss a case alleging that Aetna health insurance plans discriminate against LGBTQ members seeking fertility treatment coverage by placing additional burdens on couples in same-sex partnerships.

On January 31, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of California (the court) filed a ruling on motions for summary judgement in Zavislak v. Netflix, Inc. , determining, among other issues, that an ERISA health plan beneficiary is not entitled to receive copies of all plan documents under ERISA Section 104.

In February 2024, HHS and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released an updated cybersecurity resource guide to help HIPAA-regulated entities, which include group health plans and their business associates, comply with the HIPAA Security Rule (the Security Rule). This practical guide is organized into five main sections, followed by a wide variety of related resources in the appendices.

On March 18, 2024, HHS’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued an updated bulletin modifying its previous guidance issued in December of 2022 on the use of third-party online tracking technologies by HIPAA-regulated entities, which include covered entities (such as group health plans) and business associates.

On February 29, 2024, in Black v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted in part the motion for summary judgment by Black (the plaintiff), determining that Unum (the defendant) failed to provide a full and fair review of plaintiff’s long-term disability claim. The court remanded the matter back to the defendant to review the claim in line with ERISA requirements.

In February 2024, the DOL issued several revised FMLA Fact Sheets to help employers better understand their compliance obligations under the FMLA. One such fact sheet is Fact Sheet #28J, which discusses how FMLA requirements are applied to airline flight crew employees, as it may be difficult for employers to easily calculate eligibility and leave entitlement for these employees.

On February 7, 2024, in Schinnerer v. Wellstar Health, Inc., the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of failing to timely provide a COBRA election notice. Although not a focus of this article, the court also addressed the defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the plaintiff’s False Claims Act retaliatory termination claim, which was granted.

The DOL's Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans (the Council) recently issued a report examining the scope and impact of limitations on long-term disability (LTD) benefits for mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) conditions. The report highlights the lack of parity in duration limits for coverage of MH/SUD as compared to medical/surgical conditions under LTD benefit plans and makes recommendations to address this disparity.