Costs of a multidisciplinary court expert opinion in disability insurance

Facts

By order of 20 January 2015, the IV-Stelle Luzern (Disability Insurance Office Lucerne) revoked the insured person A.'s entitlement to a pension that had existed since February 2001. A. filed a complaint against this, which the Cantonal Court of Lucerne partially upheld and awarded the insured person a half pension from March 2015 onwards. The Cantonal Court imposed the court costs, consisting of a decision fee and the costs for a court expert opinion obtained from MEDAS Zentralschweiz, on the IV-Stelle. The IV-Stelle Luzern filed a complaint with the claim that the costs of the court expert opinion should only be imposed on it to the extent of CHF 10,882.10. The Federal Supreme Court dismisses the complaint.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court states that, according to the previous case law, Art. 45 para. 1 GSSLA provides a sufficient legal basis for imposing the costs of a court expert opinion on the insurance carrier. However, there is no federal legal basis for the Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV) to conclude tariff agreements with the MEDAS with validity also for court appeal proceedings. Such a legal basis would be indispensable, as the implications of this case law should not be underestimated in several respects. In abandoning the previous case law, the cantonal insurance courts and the Federal Administrative Court are not bound by the tariff according to Annex 2 of the agreement between the BSV and the MEDAS. This means that the IV-Offices must bear the…