Kentucky Assn. of Health Plans, Inc. v. Miller, 538 U.S. 329, 7 (2003)

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Cite as: 538 U. S. 329 (2003)

Opinion of the Court

has failed to specifically direct its AWP laws at the insurance industry.

Neither of Kentucky's AWP statutes, by its terms, imposes any prohibitions or requirements on health-care providers. See Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 304.17A-270 (West 2001) (imposing obligations only on "health insurer[s]" not to discriminate against any willing provider); § 304.17A-171 (imposing obligations only on "health benefit plan[s] that includ[e] chiropractic benefits"). And Kentucky health-care providers are still capable of entering exclusive networks with insurers who conduct business outside the Commonwealth of Kentucky or who are otherwise not covered by §§ 304.17A-270 or 304.17A-171. Kentucky's statutes are transgressed only when a "health insurer," or a "health benefit plan that includes chiropractic benefits," excludes from its network a provider who is willing and able to meet its terms.

It is of course true that as a consequence of Kentucky's AWP laws, entities outside the insurance industry (such as health-care providers) will be unable to enter into certain agreements with Kentucky insurers. But the same could be said about the state laws we held saved from pre-emption in FMC Corp. and Rush Prudential. Pennsylvania's law prohibiting insurers from exercising subrogation rights against an insured's tort recovery, see FMC Corp., supra, at 55, n. 1, also prevented insureds from entering into enforceable contracts with insurers allowing subrogation. Illinois' requirement that HMOs provide independent review of whether services are "medically necessary," Rush Prudential, supra, at 372, likewise excluded insureds from joining an HMO that would have withheld the right to independent review in exchange for a lower premium. Yet neither case found the effects of these laws on noninsurers, significant though they may have been, inconsistent with the requirement that laws saved from pre-emption by § 1144(b)(2)(A) be "specifically directed toward" the insurance industry. Regulations "directed toward" certain entities will almost always disable

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