Karen L. Handorf

Washington, DC

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.