Before the Court en banc. Opinion by Douglas.
In this appeal from a district court order granting summary judgment, the Nevada Supreme Court considered whether ERISA section 514 preempts a state law claim of negligence against a managed care organization (MCO) that an ERISA plan contracted with to develop the ERISA plan’s health care provider network. Appellant Cervantes alleged that she contracted hepatitis C after treatment at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada (ECSN) due to the failure of the MCO hired by her union to insure the quality of care provided by ECSN as required by NRS 695G.050. In upholding the district court’s summary judgment finding that Cervantes’s claims were preempted, the Nevada Supreme Court followed the reasoning of several United States Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit opinions limiting section 514(a)’s preemption of state laws that are “related to” any employee benefit plan, by requiring that a state law be “connected with” or “refer to” an ERISA plan. Concluding that only the “connection with” test applied in this case, the Court determined that the MCO’s acts were connected with the ERISA plan because the MCO’s negotiation of contracts with health care providers selected by the ERISA plan involved the administration of an ERISA plan. Therefore, Cervantes’s claims against the MCO pursuant to NRS 695G are preempted by ERISA section 514(a). Affirmed. (Seth T. Floyd, Associate in the Las Vegas office of McDonald Carano Wilson)
