What is an employee benefit plan?: ERISA preemption of "any willing provider" laws after Pegram

This note considers the implications of a recent Supreme Court decision, Pegram v. Herdrich, for preemption of state laws under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Though Pegram dealt with a fiduciary liability question, and not preemption specifically, the Court in arriving at its decision laid out a definition of the word "loan"--a word that is used in both the fiduciary liability section of ERISA and the preemption section. The Court's definition focuses upon the relationship between the managed care organization and the employer that hires it. The definition, however, excludes from the meaning of "plan" the relationship between the managed care organization and the health care providers it hires. Thus, this Note argues that according to Pegram, state laws that regulate the relationship between managed care organizations and health care providers, such as "any willing provider" laws, should not be preempted by ERISA.