Moran v. Rush Prudential HMO

• Citation: 230 F.3d 959
• Decision Date: 19 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-2574,99-2574
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) DEBRA C. MORAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, and STATE OF ILLINOIS, Intervenor-Appellant, v. RUSH PRUDENTIAL HMO, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

Page 959

230 F.3d 959 (7th Cir. 2000)

DEBRA C. MORAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, and STATE OF ILLINOIS, Intervenor-Appellant, v. RUSH PRUDENTIAL HMO, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-2574

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued April 18, 2000

Decided October 19, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 98 C 442--Suzanne B. Conlon, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before FLAUM, Chief Judge, and RIPPLE and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Section 4-10 of Illinois' Health Maintenance Organization Act ("the HMO Act"), 215 ILL. COMP. STAT. ANN. 125/1-1 et seq., requires HMOs to submit to an independent physician review when there is a disagreement over whether a course of treatment is medically necessary between a patient's primary care physician and the HMO. In the event that the independent reviewer determines that the treatment is necessary, the HMO is required under sec. 4-10 of the HMO Act to cover the treatment.

Debra Moran's primary care physician recommended a specific surgery for her, but Rush Prudential HMO, Inc. ("Rush"), the service provider for Ms. Moran's ERISA-governed medical benefits plan, denied coverage for that surgery. Rush offered instead to cover a less expensive surgery to be performed by a Rush-affiliated doctor. At her own expense, Ms. Moran underwent the surgery proposed by her physician. She later sought to enforce her rights under sec. 4-10 of the HMO Act by bringing an action in state court. Rush removed the action to federal district court on ERISA preemption grounds. After additional proceedings, including a remand to state court and another removal by Rush, the district court granted summary judgment to Rush. The district court determined that sec. 4-10 of the HMO Act, and Ms. Moran's claims based on that act, were preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. sec. 1001 et seq. The district court also concluded, upon reviewing Rush's decision to deny coverage, that Rush's denial of coverage was not improper. Ms. Moran now appeals.¹ For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we reverse the judgment of the district court.

I BACKGROUND

A.

Ms. Moran is covered by a medical benefits plan sponsored by her husband's employer. The plan is governed by ERISA, and it is fully insured. Rush is the HMO provider for the plan. Two aspects of the plan are worth noting. First, the plan's member certificate delegates to Rush "the broadest possible discretion" to interpret the terms of the plan and to determine which benefits the participants are entitled to receive. R.1-1, Ex.A. at 7. Second, the certificate provides that services that are not "medically necessary" will not be covered by the plan. Id. at 21.²

B.

Starting in 1996, Ms. Moran began experiencing pain, numbness, loss of function, and decreased mobility in her right shoulder. Ms. Moran sought treatment for these symptoms from Dr. Arthur LaMarre, her primary care physician and a Rush- affiliated physician. At first Dr. LaMarre treated Ms. Moran through physiotherapy and other conservative therapies, but these efforts did not relieve her symptoms. While she was undergoing these conservative therapies, Ms. Moran obtained the name of Dr. Julia Terzis, an out-of-network surgeon in Virginia who specializes in microreconstructive surgery. After Rush denied Ms. Moran's request for a out-of-network referral to consult with Dr. Terzis, Ms. Moran traveled on her own accord to Virginia to be examined by Dr. Terzis. Dr. Terzis diagnosed Ms. Moran with brachial plexopathy and thoracic outlet syndrome ("TOS"), a nerve compression syndrome caused by the compression of nerves in Ms. Moran's brachial plexus.

Most nerve compression syndromes are mild and effectively treated with conservative physiotherapy, and surgery is not indicated unless more conservative measures fail to manage the symptoms. If surgery becomes necessary, the standard procedure for TOS involves decompression by way of first rib resection (the complete removal of the uppermost rib) or first rib resection with scalenectomy (the removal of the rib and the attached muscle). If necessary, a surgeon may use loupe magnification, in which the surgeon wears a goggle-like apparatus to magnify the immediate view, to conduct a neurolysis, which is removal of scar tissue surrounding the injured nerve. Dr. Terzis, however, performs a more complicated surgery for patients with Ms. Moran's condition. Dr. Terzis' surgery consists of rib resection, extensive scalenectomy, and, if indicated, microneurolysis of the lower roots of the brachial plexus under intraoperative microscopic magnification. Dr. Terzis concluded that Ms. Moran was a candidate for the more complicated microneurolysis surgery. She also indicated to Ms. Moran that she had successfully treated other patients with Ms. Moran's condition.

After meeting with Dr. Terzis, Ms. Moran asked Dr. LaMarre to obtain approval from Rush for Dr. Terzis' proposed surgery. Dr. LaMarre first had Ms. Moran see two Rush-affiliated thoracic surgeons, Dr. Raymond A. Dieter and Dr. William H. Warren. After examining Ms. Moran, both doctors confirmed Dr. Terzis' diagnosis of TOS and recommended that Ms. Moran undergo the standard TOS surgery. Ms. Moran, however, was not impressed by the prognosis offered by these doctors, and she decided that she wanted to have Dr. Terzis perform her proposed surgery.

On October 14, 1997, Dr. LaMarre asked Rush to approve Dr. Terzis' microneurolysis surgery for Ms. Moran. In his recommendation letter, Dr. LaMarre stated that, in his opinion, Ms. Moran would be "best served" by having Dr. Terzis' procedure performed. R.45, Ex.5. Rush denied approval on the grounds that Dr. Terzis' surgery was out of network. Ms. Moran appealed the administrator's decision. In response to her appeal, Rush requested additional information from Dr. Dieter and Dr. Warren about Dr. Terzis' proposed surgery and the need for microneurolysis. Both doctors reported that microneurolysis was unnecessary for Ms. Moran. After reviewing the reports of Dr. Dieter and Dr. Warren, and after conducting its own analysis of relevant medical literature, Rush affirmed its denial of coverage for Dr. Terzis' microneurolysis surgery on the ground that the procedure was not "medically necessary" as defined by the plan. In a letter to Ms. Moran, Rush provided a detailed discussion of its reasons for denying coverage for Dr. Terzis' proposed surgery and informed Ms. Moran that it would cover the standard TOS surgery, by a network surgeon, of first rib resection with scalenectomy. Ms. Moran then made a final appeal to Rush's Membership Advisory Committee, but the committee voted to uphold Rush's denial.

The next month, in February 1998, Ms. Moran underwent Dr. Terzis' microneurolysis surgery. The surgery took nearly 14 hours and, with post- operative care, cost $94,841.27. Ms. Moran paid for the surgery herself. Ms. Moran submitted a copy of the bill for her surgery to Rush, and she and Dr. Terzis also submitted other materials related to the surgery. Rush treated these submissions as a renewed benefits claim, and it opened another investigation into whether Ms. Moran's now-completed surgery should be covered.

As part of its investigation, Rush sought the opinions of additional experts, and it provided these experts with Ms. Moran's medical records as well as information concerning Dr. Terzis' microneurolysis surgery. The first two opinions obtained by Rush were from Dr. Gerald Harris and Dr. John C. Alexander. These doctors were skeptical of the need for microneurolysis in Ms. Moran's case, but they admitted that they lacked expertise in the area. Rush next consulted with Dr. Susan E. MacKinnon, the Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. MacKinnon opined that Dr. Terzis' microneurolysis was unnecessary.

C.

In January 1998, the month before she underwent surgery, Ms. Moran made a written demand to Rush for it to comply with sec. 4-10 of the HMO Act. Under the Act, HMOs are required to provide a mechanism for a review by an independent physician when the patient's primary care physician and HMO disagree about the medical necessity of a treatment proposed by the primary care physician. See 215 ILL. COMP. STAT. ANN. 125/4- 10. Section 4-10 further provides that the HMO must provide the proposed treatment in the event that the reviewing physician determines that it is medically necessary. See id. Rush did not act on Ms. Moran's request, and Ms. Moran then filed a complaint in Illinois circuit court seeking a court order requiring Rush to appoint an independent physician to review her claim. Rush removed the action to federal district court on the ground that ERISA completely preempts Ms. Moran's claim.

The district court remanded the case to the state court. The court noted that preemption is generally a defense and that, under the well- pleaded complaint rule, an anticipated federal defense could not be the basis for removal. Nonetheless, the district court also noted that a "completely preempted" state law claim could be removed, but the court explained, in the ERISA context, only state law claims that conflicted with ERISA's civil enforcement provisions were completely preempted by ERISA. In this case, the district court concluded, Ms. Moran's request for specific performance was not a claim under ERISA's civil enforcement provisions and therefore was not completely preempted. The district court left open the possibility that a claim for reimbursement under sec. 4-10 of the HMO Act, in contrast to a request to have the independent review performed, might be a claim for benefits that would be completely preempted by ERISA's civil enforcement provisions.

D.

Upon remand, the state court ordered...