From: Michael Quirk

Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 8:10 PM

To: EBSA, E-ORI - EBSA

Subject: RIN: 1210-AB39

By E-Mail: Office of Regulations and Interpretations,

Employee Benefits Security Administration

Room M-5655

U.S. Dept. of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue NW

Washington D.C. 20210

Re: Re-Examination of Claims Procedure Regulations for Plans Providing Disability Benefits

RIN No.: 1210-AB39

Regulation: 29 C.F.R. §2560.503

Dear Deputy Assistant Secretary Hauser:

My name is Michael Quirk and I am an attorney at Pillsbury & Coleman, LLP, an insurance 

policyholder law firm. Over the past two decades, our firm has represented thousands of 

policyholders in insurance benefit litigation. A large number of those cases involve disability 

benefit claims under ERISA-governed disability plans.

The Department of Labor (“DOL”) should not modify or delay the final ERISA disability claim 

regulations scheduled to go into effect on April 1, 2018. The industry has alleged the regulations 

will result in increased premiums, yet there is no reliable evidence to show an increase in 

industry costs that would require a corresponding rise in insurance premiums.

The industry already made this cost argument during the administrative process before final 

adoption. And the DOL already concluded that costs would not outweigh the benefits associated 

with the new claims regulations. The DOL does not need to allow the industry to re-submit data 

regarding the cost argument, or “conduct a formal cost-benefit analysis in which each advantage 

and disadvantage is assigned a monetary value.” Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, 

135 S. Ct. 1699, 2711 (2015).

Nonetheless, the DOL already has the evidence it seeks. Bureau of Labor statistics available at 

https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-4/disability-insurance-plans.htm show that since the year 

2000, a year when substantive disability claims regulations were implemented, access and 

participation in employer-based disability insurance has actually increased. 

Moreover, even if financial costs are associated with implementation of the regulations, the 

benefits those regulations provide to insureds surely outweigh the cost. The DOL has stated the 

purpose of the regulations is ensure disability claims are fairly adjudicated and to prevent 

unnecessary financial and emotional hardship, and has acknowledged that the disability claims 

industry has been needlessly adversarial toward insureds. Assuming there are costs associated 

with the final regulations, the vast majority of ERISA participants I work with would gladly 

accept higher premiums in return for greater regulatory protection.
Very Truly Yours,

Michael James Quirk, Esq.

--

MICHAEL QUIRK

ASSOCIATE

PILLSBURY & COLEMAN, LLP

THE TRANSAMERICA PYRAMID

600 MONTGOMERY STREET, 31ST FLOOR

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94111

TEL. 415-433.8000 FAX 415.433.4816

MQUIRK@PILLSBURYCOLEMAN.COM WWW.PILLSBURYCOLEMAN.COM 

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