Niedermaier v. Southern Tier Building Trades Benefit Plan

DECISION AND ORDER

ELIZABETH A. WOLFORD, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Karl Niedermaier (“Plaintiff’) is a natural gas pipeline superintendent *278who is eligible for health benefits coverage under the Southern Tier Building Trades Plan (the “Plan”). Plaintiff has a long history of bilateral hearing loss. In 2011, he received a cochlear implant at the University of Rochester Medical Center (“URMC”). The Plan, through Defendant the Joint Board of Trustees of the Southern Tier Building Trades Benefit Plan (the “Board”), denied his requests for coverage for his cochlear implant surgery, the…