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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
Treating to Recovery
In our 6th episode of ERISA Watch, our host Elizabeth Hopkins discusses one of the things that attracted her about the idea of coming to Kantor & Kantor after a very fulfilling time at the US Department of Labor. Liz appreciated the way the firm helps individuals and their families navigate getting the proper treatment they are promised from their employers through the insurance companies. Specifically, those living with eating disorders.
Despite the existence of the Mental Health Parity Act, the acts of gaslighting from doctors on the insurance companies' payroll still happen. Of course this dangerously limits the treatment that is covered. Believe it or not, in some instances, insurance companies want these individuals to get more sick before approving treatment. How does this ever make sense?
In order to give this sordid healthcare and insurance ecosystem a real-life example, Liz has a conversation with Kantor & Kantor's Insurance Advocate Kathleen MacDonald.
Listeners will be moved by Kathleen's story of perseverance, hope, and empathy. In many respects, Kathleen should be considered the successful "after" picture of a person's journey through mental health and eating disorder, all the way to recovery. Even as Kathleen shies away from any spotlight because she knows there are scores more people living through circumstances worse than hers, listeners will benefit from hearing the conversation.
As Kathleen stresses in the podcast and in her daily life: To anyone who is living with and through mental health and eating disorder struggles, please know you are necessary, and worth the fight!
Please enjoy this episode. Episode 7 will be back on October 1.
