Long Term Care Insurance Litigation

Long Term Care Insurance Litigation

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Long-term care insurance is a unique insurance product, and Dentons has developed a comprehensive mastery of its evolution, the actuarial science underlying its development and pricing, and the regulatory and legislative framework in which long-term care insurers operate.

We are acutely aware of the laser-like focus which plaintiffs’ lawyers, consumers and insurance regulators have put on long-term care insurance in recent years, so we work with you on compliance strategies to help you avoid costly litigation. When litigation becomes necessary, we apply our knowledge to formulate complete, formidable defenses in these high-stakes cases. Our team’s aggressive approach to cut off class actions and other significant challenges in a variety of jurisdictions and forums is just one reason why clients return to Dentons for efficient, successful strategies.

Our team has represented many of the leading long-term care insurance companies in the US in some of the most important challenges to their business. We have been engaged repeatedly in challenges to implementation of long-term care insurance premium rate increases, involving allegations of fraudulent and defective underpricing or breach of contract and regulatory challenges to the actuarial justification for the requested increase. We also represent long-term care insurers in litigation that typically involves claims for breach of contract and the tort of “bad faith”.

We achieve success for our clients at all stages of the litigation process, including:

Obtaining creative early dismissals
Prevailing on summary judgment after a full evidentiary record has been established
Trying cases to conclusion in a variety of courts and administrative forums
Drafting persuasive briefs and delivering powerful oral arguments to prevail on appeal
Negotiating favorable settlements.

Look to Dentons for creative counsel that succeeds.

Experience

Transamerica Life Insurance Company: Moving successfully to dismiss a putative Kansas-wide class action, which alleged that Transamerica Life Insurance Company issued long-term care insurance policies using flawed actuarial assumptions and thereafter shifted these "known actuarial defects" to the policyholders through multiple premium increases. The Kansas federal district court dismissed in its entirety the complaint, which alleged fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and other similar state law claims, as barred by the filed rate doctrine, which generally holds that a filed rate is per se reasonable and unassailable in lawsuits brought by a taxpayer.
Transamerica Life Insurance Company: Defending Transamerica Life Insurance Company in an administrative hearing involving the Kentucky Department of Insurance (DOI), in which several policyholders were challenging the Kentucky DOI’s approval of premium rate increases on Transamerica’s long-term care insurance policies in Kentucky. After a four-day hearing in 2009, Transamerica was permitted to proceed with its rate increases.
Life Investors Insurance Company of America: Obtaining summary judgment for Life Investors Ins. Co. of America in a putative nationwide class action alleging that Life Investors fraudulently underpriced its long-term care insurance policies with a pre-existing, undisclosed intent to later implement premium rate increases. Affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Life Investors Insurance Company of America: Obtaining reversal of a federal district court's grant of summary judgment against Life Investors Insurance Company of America on a breach of contract claim relating to denial of benefits under a long-term care insurance policy.
Genworth Life Insurance Company: Obtaining reversal of a federal trial court judgment and a complete victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on behalf of General Electric Capital Assurance Company (now known as Genworth Life Insurance Company) in a lawsuit pertaining to denial of insurance benefits under a long-term care insurance policy. The Tenth Circuit reversed in its entirety both an adverse summary judgment breach of contract ruling and a US$4 million jury award rendered after the Oklahoma district court’s directed verdict on plaintiff’s bad faith denial of benefits claim.

Insights

IREG Update - The emerging regulatory battleground over long-term care insurance rate increases

March 4, 2016

As class action lawsuits challenging premium rate increases on long-term care (LTC) insurance have faced dismissal in recent years, regulatory and policyholder pushback has reached a boiling point. However, regulatory action to severely limit increases may have unintended consequences…