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ERISA Watch with Elizabeth Hopkins
ERISA stands for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and governs most of our employee benefits. While this area of law may not seem as engrossing as other areas of law such as criminal law, the impact labor laws have on our lives are just as compelling and the stakes are just as high.
ERISA law blankets areas such as mental health, long-term disability, retirement accounts, life insurance, and more. ERISA watch will tell stories of individuals whose lives have been dramatically affected and show why ERISA law matters. Elizabeth Hopkins is a partner at Kantor & Kantor LLP and leads their Retirement Benefits team, is a highly regarded lawyer on ERISA class action lawsuits and is an expert analyst with Law360.
Enjoy hearing Elizabeth and her guests dig deep and discuss the behind-the-scenes stories on these important cases. Real talk about real legal cases!
ERISA Watch with Elizabeth Hopkins
The Cutting Edge
Here in the United States we have some of the best surgeons, specialists, and some of the best, most innovative treatments in the world.
But when the company that runs your health plan refuses to authorize these treatments, what does this mean for the very progress of medicine in this country?
In this episode of ERISA Watch, host Elizabeth Hopkins speaks with Aaron Monheim, a 34 year old husband and father of a three year old daughter. Aaron lives with Relapsing- remitting Multiple Sclerosis.
Aaron tells Liz the story of his diagnosis of and its affect on his life. All of Aaron's signs showed that he was the perfect candidate for a certain type of stem cell transplant that would give him the best long-term outcome. Unfortunately for Aaron, the decision makers at Kaiser did not agree. The treatment was deemed experimental and Kaiser refused to authorize these treatment.
Elizabeth and Aaron discuss the irony of the fact that even though this stem cell treatment would likely work, and is considerably less expensive than the pharmaceutical counterpart, insurance companies would rather we all use treatment options that are repeatable, and are something we would pay for for years and years.
Although in some cases when refusing to authorize treatments, insurance companies have a legitimate foot to stand on. But the problem of standing on one foot is balance.
Please enjoy, and be on the lookout for our next episode on June 4
