BY HUGH BAILEY
Hearst Connecticut Media
A lawsuit filed by former General Electric workers about the company”™s change to its retiree health plans can continue, a Wisconsin judge ruled Friday.
The lawsuit, filed last year in federal court, claims the company acted illegally when it changed its benefit plans. In September 2012, the company announced that plans would no longer cover retirees who had not turned 65 by Jan. 1, 2015. Last year, the company said it would terminate the plans altogether and give retirees the option of purchasing supplemental coverage through a private exchange.
In December, a judge rejected a request for a preliminary injunction, which would have stopped GE from changing the plans while the suit was in progress, and on Friday ruled on a motion from GE to have the suit dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said GE”™s action shortly in advance of changing the policy, where it issued a benefits-summary handbook that said it “expects and intends to continue the GE Medicare Benefit Plans described in this handbook indefinitely,” was problematic.
“”¦ (I)t is plausible that the expects and intends language ”¦ could be regarded as misleading to the average participant,” Adelman”™s ruling reads.
The ruling noted that GE, as the health plan administrator, has obligations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, which sets standards for private-sector retirement plans.
“(W)hen a defendant acts as a plan administrator, … it acts as a fiduciary, … and must act ”˜solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries,”™” Adelman”™s ruling reads.
Dennis Rocheleau, who retired from GE in 2004, filed the suit in Waupaca, Wis. He said the judge”™s ruling will allow the complaint to be heard fairly, adding that he continues to hear from retirees who have complaints about the new system.
“I think it”™s badly designed, and it ought to be reformed,” he said on Monday.
The issue of timing is key, he said. The last handbook under the old health plan was issued in the summer of 2012, and the change was announced that September. The suit alleges that GE knew, or should have known, that changes were in the offing when it sent out the handbook, which was deceiving to beneficiaries.
GE, which said last week it is considering a move from Connecticut over recent tax increases, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News-Times (Danbury). See ctpost.com for more from this reporter.
