Health IT Goes to the U.S. Supreme Court

On December 2, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual case involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The state of Vermont wants insurers to report payments to a database. But self-insured employers feel that a federal law, ERISA, preempts the state's desire. Such mandated data reporting, they argue, might evolve into a hodgepodge of regulation, with every state requiring a slightly different set of data requirements. One key point is the difficulty of the data reporting. If IT enables it to be swift, painless, and easy, then the burden is low and the law might stand. If data reporting is difficult, or if states come up with multiple rules, there could be problems.