The?US Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in?Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA)?was a victory for states. The ruling affirmed that states can regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) despite PCMA’s assertion that?the?federal?Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)?preempted such regulation.?The?Rutledge?ruling thereby extended the reach of state PBM regulation to include PBM’s serving self-funded plans, otherwise regulated by federal law through ERISA.?PBM regulation is already the most common form of drug pricing-related legislation in state legislatures, and the?Rutledge?ruling has fueled continue interest in this area.?Attendees to this “safe harbor” state-only webinar learned: 

• How?Rutledge?has?impacted state regulation of?PBMs; 
• The impact of?Rutledge?beyond PBM regulation, including broader state health care cost regulation; 
• How states have reacted to?Rutledge. 

Moderator:?Jennifer Reck, MA, Project Director, Center for Drug Pricing, National Academy for State Health Policy 

Speakers: 

• Erin C. Fuse Brown, JD, MPH, Catherine C. Henson Professor of Law & Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society, Georgia State University College of Law 
• Booth Rand, JD, Managing Counsel, Arkansas Insurance Department 
• David Cooney, FLMI, AIRC, Associate Commissioner, Life and Health, Maryland Insurance Administration 

Background Resources: 

• Erin C. Fuse Brown and Elizabeth Y. McCuskey, Health Affairs Blog (Dec. 2020), ?The Implications Of Rutledge v. PCMA For State Health Care Cost Regulation. 
• Jennifer Reck and Trish Riley, NASHP Blog (Dec. 2020)?In Major Victory for States, Supreme Court Clears the Way for State Health Reform.