8th Circuit decides N.D. case Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has issued an opinion in a North Dakota case involving prescription benefits statutes. The court held that several of the statutory sections plaintiffs allege are preempted by ERISA do not meet the connection-with standard because they do not require providers to structure benefit plans in particular ways; as they do not have an impermissible connection with ERISA plans, they are not preempted; with respect to plaintiffs' claims that certain statutory provisions are preempted by Medicare Part D, the court adopts the standard that state laws are preempted by Part D if and only if they either (1) regulate the same subject matter as a federal Medicare Part D standard (in which case they are expressly preempted) or (2) otherwise frustrate the purpose of a federal Medicare Part D standard (in which case they are impliedly preempted); here, several of the challenged state law provisions are not preempted under this standard; a provision requiring plans to disclose certain information to patients or prohibiting plans from prohibiting pharmacies from disclosing certain information are preempted, as are provisions regarding collection of retroactive fees from pharmacies.

Read the court's opinion at: https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/21/11/182926P.pdf