Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40916515›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics2026

ERISA and the Failure of Employers to Perform Their Fiduciary Duties: Evidence from a Survey of Health Plan Administrators.

Barak Richman, Amy Monahan, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Sara Singer

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Prospect of Fiduciary Duty as a Mitigating Factor for Healthcare Expenses.The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics · 2026
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Barak RichmanSchool of Law, https://ror.org/00y4zzh67The George Washington University, United States.ORCID 0000-0001-7172-9956
Amy Monahanhttps://ror.org/017zqws13University of Minnesota Law School, United States.
Jeffrey Pfefferhttps://ror.org/00f54p054Stanford Graduate School of Business, United States.
Sara SingerStanford School of Medicine, https://ror.org/04yv9ex91Clinical Excellence Research Center, United States.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Employers purchase health benefits for more than 60% of the nonelderly population, making employers both important custodians of employee well-being and important actors in the health care ecosystem. Because employers typically have unilateral control over health and retirement benefits, the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), enacted in 1974, imposes fiduciary obligations on employers when they manage or administer benefits. We provide evidence, from a novel survey of respondents who administer or oversee health benefits for their companies, that many employers appear to neglect even the most basic of their fiduciary obligations to their employees. This neglect may help explain the poor performance of employer plans in controlling costs and providing access to health care, and it suggests that many employers may be vulnerable to liability from ERISA lawsuits.

Indexed as

Employee Retirement Income Security ActHealth Benefit Plans, EmployeeHumansUnited Statesemployer fiduciariesemployer health plansemployer-sponsored insuranceerisagroup health plans

Identifiers

PMID40916515
PMCPMC13053122

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.