Employment, Labor & Benefits Alert: Warning: ERISA “Plan Assets” May Be Involved
7/12/2011
Last week, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announced it would credit customers some $4.26 million in the form of policy credits on individual and group health policies. The announcement came in response to a report by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, which was critical of a severance benefit paid to its former Chief Executive Officer Cleve Killingsworth in the same amount.
This client alert explains the ERISA-related issues raised by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announcement and suggests ways that employers might choose either to sidestep the need to apportion, or to apportion, policy credits, as the case may be. While the policy credits in question relate to both individual and group health insurance policies, this alert covers only the issues relating to group health plans that are subject to ERISA—generally, private sector group health plans.
