ERIC spearheaded a coordinated effort to convince California lawmakers to remove harmful patient steering language from SB 524 and protect our member companies and their thousands of employees throughout the state.
The bill originally included language that would have broadly restricted self-insured plans from steering patients within their own benefit designs, essentially eliminating a core tool that self-insured plans use to negotiate lower costs for their employees and drive plan value.
ERIC’s advocacy focused heavily on the strong ERISA preemption concerns raised by such state action and the merits a legal challenge to the bill would carry, swaying lawmakers to remove the problematic language entirely.