In principle, I agree with the author's point. Practically speaking, though, I suspect there will be few if any state privacy laws that sufficiently "relate to" employee welfare benefit plans so as to be preempted by ERISA. How strictly "relate to" is construed will, of course, depend on the case law in the federal circuit courts of appeal. Judi
Judith A. Langer, Attorney HIPAA Project Director Privacy Official Cobalt Corporation Legal Department 401 W. Michigan Street, C-10 Milwaukee, WI 53203 Phone (414)-226-6062 Fax (414)-226-6229 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This electronic message is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender by telephone and delete the original message. Thank you for your cooperation. -----Original Message----- From: Tomak-Maurer, Tonya (Chicago) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2002 10:36 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: State Preemption and ERISA Anyone have any thoughts on HIPAA state pre-emption and ERISA. I found the below paragraph in a published article...any concurring or differing opinions. "In general, HIPAA preempts all state laws that establish privacy standards that are contrary to the Privacy Rule. However, state laws that are deemed to be "more stringent" than the Privacy Rule are excepted from preemption by HIPAA. Therefore, the Privacy Rule establishes a "federal floor" approach whereby many state privacy laws will continue in effect. However, HIPAA does not change the traditional preemption analysis under ERISA, whereby any state law that "relates to" an employee benefit plan is preempted by ERISA, except for insurance regulation. Therefore, self-insured health plans arguably would continue to be exempt from state privacy laws under current ERISA preemption analysis leaving only insured health plans and health plans exempt from ERISA (such as church and governmental plans) to be subject to state laws that are more stringent than the Privacy Rule." Thanks, Tonya W: 312.704.2494 > Notice of Confidentiality > This transmission contains information that may be confidential and that > may also be privileged. Unless you are the intended recipient of the > message (or authorized to receive it for the intended recipient), you may > not copy, forward, or otherwise use it, or disclose its contents to anyone > else. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us > immediately and delete it from your system. > > The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited. The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited.
