Opinion ID: 173275
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hartford’s Conflict of Interest

Text: We begin by concluding that Hartford’s conflict of interest warrants only little weight in our review of the decision. In denying Loughray’s claim and her appeals, Hartford employed the services of an independent medical examiner, Dr. Truchelut, and Loughray never presented persuasive evidence undermining Dr. Truchelut’s independence.4 See Holcomb, 578 F.3d at 1193 (noting that the administrator “took steps to reduce its inherent bias by hiring two independent physicians”). Moreover, in addition to considering the appeal to which Loughray was entitled, Hartford also twice considered additional information submitted by Loughray after having resolved her initial appeal— once at Loughray’s request, and once at the request of a state agency. Although Hartford and Dr. Truchelut did not affirmatively seek out this new information, they did diligently consider it before reaching their respective conclusions. See id. (commending the 4 Loughray attempts to challenge Dr. Truchelut’s independence by merely crossreferencing an argument made before the district court. Loughray’s counsel apparently found websites, which do not facially appear affiliated with Hartford or CNA, that identified Dr. Truchelut as the “medical director” for CNA Insurance, which handled Loughray’s claim until it was acquired by Hartford. (Aplt. App. at 179-83 & n.3, 207.) The district court concluded that Dr. Truchelut was in fact independent because (a) he “maintained his own private practice as a Board Certified specialist in Internal Medicine at all times he provided independent consulting services to CNA Group Benefits,” (b) at least one affidavit indicated he had served as an independent consultant for CNA on various occasions, but never had been employed by CNA or Hartford, and (c) there was no evidence that the content of Dr. Truchelut’s reports were at all influenced by CNA or Hartford. (Aplt. App. at 9.) We agree with the district court’s conclusion that “[t]he evidence simply does not support Ms. Loughray’s argument that Dr. Truchelut’s evaluations were unreliable due to a lack of independence.” (Id.) 18 administrator for “diligently endeavor[ing] to discover the nature of [the claimant’s] ailments”). Accordingly, we do not perceive a significant risk that Hartford’s dual-role conflict affected its decision, and we afford that conflict little weight. Next, we address the various disabling conditions from which Loughray asserts she suffers, concluding that Hartford had a reasonable basis to find that the evidence showing Loughray was not disabled outweighed the evidence showing she was disabled.