The Employee Retirement Income Security Act supplies a right of action to enforce the terms of employee benefit plans, including plans that provide health care benefits. The Supreme Court decision in Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v Bruch, 489 US 101 (1989), established, with respect to employee benefit plans generally, that courts are to review denials of benefits under a de novo standard of review unless the plan grants discretionary authority to the plan administrator to make decisions concerning eligibility and benefits. Following this decision, these issues have become more problematic. Following this decision, the kinds of plan provisions that grant discretion and the scope of the deferential standards that might apply have been much litigated. Thus, in the case of Doe v Group Hospitalization & Medical Servs., 3 F3d 80 (1993, CA4 Va), the court applied federal judicial precedent to determine whether to apply a deferential standard of review, and how deferential that review should be, in connection with a decision by a health plan administrator to deny health care benefits.
