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Tina Safi Felahi

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Tina represents health care clients, including health plans and health care insurers, in complex business litigation matters. She is particularly experienced in handling managed care disputes from inception through trial.

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Chris Willis, co-chair of the CFS Regulatory Practice, Announces the Publication of the 2022 CFS Year in Review and a Look Ahead

Troutman Pepper’s Consumer Financial Services Practice Group consists of more than 120 attorneys and professionals nationwide, who bring extensive experience in litigation, regulatory enforcement, and compliance. Our trial attorneys have litigated thousands of individual and class-action lawsuits involving cutting-edge issues across the country, and our regulatory and compliance attorneys have handled numerous 50-state investigations and nationwide compliance analyses.

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. Our team has prepared this organized and thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2022, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

Recently, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held an arbitration provision impermissibly blocked rights afforded to a retirement plan participant under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and was therefore unenforceable.

As background, in Harrison v. Envision Management Holding, Inc. (Envision), the plaintiff, a former employee of Envision and participant in Envision’s defined contribution…

On February 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule strengthening their authority to recover alleged overpayments made to Medicare Advantage plans. The rule formalizes the Medicare Advantage Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV), which CMS uses to risk-adjust payments made by CMS to a Medicare Advantage Organization (MAO). While legal…

On January 9, the district court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed a pro se plaintiff’s TCPA lawsuit for failure to properly allege that the defendants used an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) when placing calls to the plaintiff.

In Kannon v. Warranty Protection Services, the plaintiff alleged that the auto warranty…

Effective September 1, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) has finally updated its Commercial Rules and Mediation Procedures, concluding a two-year internal review. The amendments provide greater procedural discretion to arbitrators, further streamline expedited arbitrations, change the amount-in-controversy requirements for certain arbitration paths, and provide express confidentiality protections, among other things.

First, the amended…

On March 22, the Ninth Circuit reversed the trial court’s order and underlying decision in Wit et. al. v. United Behavioral Health and Alexander et al. v. United Behavioral Health (Case Numbers 20-17363, 20-17364, 21-15193, and 21-15194). In doing so, the court undid a pair of orders that had required UnitedHealthcare Group, Inc.’s (United) behavioral…

2021 was a transformative year for the consumer financial services world. As we navigate an unprecedented volume of industry regulation, Troutman Pepper is uniquely positioned to help its clients find successful resolutions and stay ahead of the curve.

In this report, we share developments on auto finance, background screening, bankruptcy, consumer class actions, consumer…

On June 23, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interim final rule (“IFR”) intended to make it easier for consumers to transition out of COVID-19-related financial hardship and easier for mortgage services to assist those consumers. The IFR will become effective on July 1, 2020.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES…

The Tenth Circuit developed a new rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) in Ellis v. Liberty Assurance Company of Boston (case number 19-1074), holding last week that courts should adhere to choice-of-law provisions in ERISA health benefits plans.

In Ellis, the Tenth Circuit considered whether Michael Ellis’ health benefits…

Earlier this week, the American Council on Education (“ACE”) wrote a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) requesting extended student loan relief on behalf of more than 30 higher education organizations. In the letter, which focuses on the likely long-term economic impact of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) …