The Supreme Court’s opinion in Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord, 538 U.S. 822(2003) did not hold that treating physician opinions can be neglected.  This recent Eighth Circuit opinion demonstrates an application of an important piece of the Nord decision – that the administrator must take into account treating physicians’ opinions in reaching its conclusions.

In Nord, the Supreme Court stated that while an ERISA plan administrator doesn’t need to give special deference to a treating physician’s opinion, an administrator may not arbitrarily refuse to credit a claimant’s reliable evidence, including the opinions of a treating physician. 

This case involved a claim to long term disability benefits.   The initial claim was denied and a claim for benefits filed in the district court.  After observing that the administrator failed to accurately and comprehensively consider the evidence before it, the court turned to the evidence comprised in the opinions of doctors that had examined the plaintiff.

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the plaintiff.  Liberty Life was entitled to seek and obtain a professional peer review opinion, but it was not free to accept this report without considering whether its conclusions follow logically from the underlying medical evidence.

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This entry was posted by Adam V. Russo on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 4:59 pm and is filed under 8th. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.