This code feels... itchy... to me. No offense ;)

Let's assume ref($hash) ne 'HASH', then $data = $hash, so ref($data) will never eq 'HASH', so that statement modifier on the last line is redundant in this case.

However, say ref($hash) eq 'HASH' is true, then $data = $$hash{$name}, and then $data = $$data{CONTENT} provided that $$hash{$name} is a hashref. For the sake of argument, let's say it isn't. Then $data will still be $$hash{$name}. Is that how it's supposed to work?