July 14, 2015
On June 29, 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance. This means the Court has agreed to review the case related to Vermont’s requirement for insurers and self-insured plans to report plan data to a state database. The issue is whether the state law applies to self-insured plans because of ERISA preemption. As reported in the Feb. 25, 2014 edition of Compliance Corner, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. Donegan, 2014 WL 401708 (2d Cir., Feb. 4, 2014), that ERISA did indeed preempt the state law, which exempted self-insured plans from the reporting requirement. The state of Vermont appealed the decision and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. The ruling could affect similar requirements in other states.
Order »