Cite as: 538 U. S. 822 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
sonable opportunity . . . for a full and fair review" of dispositions adverse to the claimant. § 1133(2). Nothing in the Act itself, however, suggests that plan administrators must accord special deference to the opinions of treating physicians. Nor does the Act impose a heightened burden of explanation on administrators when they reject a treating physician's opinion.
ERISA empowers the Secretary of Labor to "prescribe such regulations as he finds necessary or appropriate to carry out" the statutory provisions securing employee benefit rights. § 1135; see § 1133 (plans shall process claims "[i]n accordance with regulations of the Secretary"). The Secretary's regulations do not instruct plan administrators to accord extra respect to treating physicians' opinions. See 29 CFR § 2560.503-1 (1997) (regulations in effect when Nord filed his claim); 29 CFR § 2560.503-1 (2002) (current regulations). Notably, the most recent version of the Secretary's regulations, which installs no treating physician rule, issued more than nine years after the Social Security Administration codified a treating physician rule in that agency's regulations. Compare 56 Fed. Reg. 36932, 36961 (1991), with 65 Fed. Reg. 70265 (2000).
If the Secretary of Labor found it meet to adopt a treating physician rule by regulation, courts would examine that determination with appropriate deference. See Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837 (1984). The Secretary has not chosen that course, however, and an amicus brief reflecting the position of the Department of Labor opposes adoption of such a rule for disability determinations under plans covered by ERISA. See Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 7-27. Although Congress "expect[ed]" courts would develop "a federal common law of rights and obligations under ERISA-regulated plans," Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U. S. 41, 56 (1987), the scope of permissible judicial innovation is narrower in areas where other federal actors are engaged,
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