Washington, D.C., December 16, 2025 – On Monday, The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and allied organizations filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Iowa Ass’n of Business and Industry v. Iowa Commissioner of Insurance (the Iowa PBM Case). The lower court had ruled that certain provisions of a new Iowa state law – Senate File 383 – regulating pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), but that other provisions of the law were not preempted. In its brief with the Eighth Circuit, ERIC asked the court to affirm the lower court’s decision in part and to reverse it in part to provide that all of Senate File 383 is preempted by ERISA.
In the Iowa PBM Case, the plaintiff is challenging the Iowa law requiring that, among other provisions, “any willing pharmacy” be included in a prescription drug plan’s provider network, including self-insured prescription drug plans governed by ERISA. In October, a federal judge blocked enforcement of several portions of the law citing potential conflict with ERISA.
“A core tenet of ERISA is to provide self-funded health benefit plans the freedom to address employee needs wherever the employee may reside, whether that is Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or Grand Rapids, Michigan. Employers rely on that clarity to design value-driven policies that promote more affordable options like lower copays at onsite and in-network pharmacies,” said Tom Christina, Executive Director of the ERIC Legal Center. “Requiring ERISA self-insured plans to comply with the Iowa law increases complexity and drives up health care costs – the exact opposite of what ERISA was intended to accomplish. ERIC urges the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to not only uphold the lower court’s injunction, but to broaden the application of ERISA preemption and block enforcement of the law.”
In the brief, ERIC explains that ERISA preempts Iowa’s law because that law directly interferes with prescription-drug benefit plan design and administration by:
(1) Restricting plan sponsors’ ability to design pharmacy networks for their plans; and
(2) Limiting the ability of plan sponsors to implement effective cost-savings measures for their plans.
ERIC was joined by the American Benefits Council, America’s Health Insurance Plans, Inc., and the Association of Federal Health Organizations on the brief. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP prepared the amicus brief, which is available here.