We have previously written about the serious problems which result when insurance companies hire doctors to perform “paper reviews” of insurance claims without ever meeting or examining the patient, and then use those paper reviews to justify termination of benefits. In an ERISA context, this is particularly difficult because claimants are denied in most cases the opportunity to confront those professional reviewers or to cross examine them to show they are financially biased or otherwise not competent to speak to the issues about which they have given an opinion. Even so, insurance companies in increasing numbers rely on these unnamed, unknown medical sources to justify termination of benefits. On December 14, 2014, 60 Minutes broadcast a piece which speaks in part directly to this issue and points out the fundamental unfairness, indeed the dangers which can result when insurance companies make claim determinations and deprive people of benefits to which they are entitled and which they desperately need.

www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/u0_Aa3sp_lwp28lFirqom4Ptr_ldUknq/denied/