Karen Handorf, J.D.
Karen L. Handorf, J.D. is a Full Professor of the Practice at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. At CHIR, Karen’s work focuses on the application of ERISA to employer sponsored health insurance, including fiduciary status of service providers, application of ERISA’s fiduciary standards to health plan fiduciaries, cost containment, service provider claims payment, service provider fee transparency, and plan participant protections.
From 1982 until 2007, she worked for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), providing ERISA litigation and counseling support to the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA). In 2007, she entered private practice where, among other things, she represented health plan participants and fiduciaries in litigation challenging the fiduciary status of third-party administrators (“TPAs”) and TPA practices relating to plan claims data access, undisclosed fees, cross-plan offsetting, claims adjudication and mental health parity. Ms. Handorf also advised employers and other plan sponsors on their ERISA fiduciary duties with respect to their administrative service agreements and ongoing duty to monitor their service providers.
Ms. Handorf has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education & the Workforce, Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions on “ERISA’s 50th Anniversary: The Path to Higher Quality, Lower Cost Health Care.” She has also testified before the DOL ERISA Advisory Council on the impact of TPA practices on health insurance claims.
Ms. Handorf received her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls.