Tennessee Disability and Life Insurance Blog
In an ERISA disability case in which a plaintiff is challenging a plan administrator’s denial of long-term disability benefits, a court can do one of three things: (1) It can uphold the plan administrator’s decision; (2) it can reverse the decision and award the plaintiff disability benefits; or, (3) it can order the plan administrator to re-evaluate the plaintiff’s disability claim.
The third option is called a remand. Usually, in a remand, the court will order the plan administrator to follow specific instructions in re-evaluating the disability claim. The court’s instructions could require the plan administrator to evaluate medical evidence it previously ignored. A remand could also require a plan administrator to take a closer look at the physical and cognitive demands of the plaintiff’s occupation.
Although a remand may seem like an unsatisfactory conclusion to a lawsuit, it can prompt the plan administrator to make a reasonable settlement offer to the plaintiff, since the court has already determined that the plan administrator’s review of the disability claim was flawed. It is likely that the plan administrator will be influenced by the fact that, if it denies the claim again, it may be before the same court that previously found fault with its decision-making process.
An award of disability benefits is obviously preferable to a remand. Once a court decides to overturn a plan administrator’s denial of long-term disability benefits, how does it determine whether to order a remand or make an award of benefits? If the court is able to determine from the administrative record whether the plaintiff is clearly disabled under the terms of the Policy, it will award the benefits that the plan administrator should have awarded. If the court finds that the review of the disability claim was flawed but cannot determine from the record whether the claimant is disabled, it will have to remand the matter.