Opinion ID: 770872
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellee's Failure to Conduct a Vocational Assessment of Appellant

Text: 25 Appellant's next contention is that the appellee was unreasonable in terminating her benefits without conducting a vocational assessment to determine what specific jobs she was, or could become, qualified to perform. We agree with the district court that such an assessment was not necessary in this case. 26 The only case cited by the appellant to support such a requirement is Quinn v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield, 161 F.3d 472 (7th Cir. 1998). As the magistrate's report and recommendation correctly noted, Quinn involved a termination of benefits in the face of conflicting medical evidence and, importantly, where the plan administrator made no inquiry, nor did any doctor's opinion state whether there were any limitations in [the claimant's] ability to work. Id. at 476. The facts of this case are quite different. First, appellee asserts that the initial termination of benefits was based on the combination of (1) a lack of evidence of appellant's ongoing disability and (2) her refusal or failure to undergo an IME requested by appellee (as it was entitled to request under the plan). This alone would likely justify the termination of benefits, because we decline to read contractual language such as that of this insurance plan to allow a beneficiary to avoid termination of benefits simply by studiously refusing to document her present condition. 2 Second, and even more damaging to appellant's argument, when she eventually did submit herself to IME's, both of the physicians who evaluated her opined explicitly as to the limitations on her ability to work and concluded that a modest weight limit on her lifting and (in the opinion of the orthopedic specialist) the avoidance of repetitive neck movements were the only conditions required to make her fit to perform any number of jobs. 3 Granted, no physician or other person proceeded to speculate or investigate and report on actual particular positions that would be appropriate for appellant to fill, but in light of the medical evidence and the conclusions of the reviewing physicians such a job-specific laundry list hardly seems necessary. Under these circumstances, we are unwilling to require the insurance company to do more than it did in this case -- evaluate the claimant's medical condition and, based on that evaluation, determine if she was able to perform any job comparable in compensation to her previous position. The touchstone of our review, as we have said, is reasonableness, and we find appellee's determination in this case entirely reasonable and well supported by the record.