ERISA Preemption of State PBM Regulation After Rutledge
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case of Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Mgmt Ass’n, holding that an Arkansas statute regulating pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) was not preempted by ERISA. The Rutledge decision may have narrowed the scope of ERISA preemption of state law in some respects. The below article discusses general ERISA preemption concepts, the Rutledge decision and the impact of that decision on other states’ regulation of PBMs, looking specifically at a recent 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decision and a law recently enacted in Tennessee.