Appeals court prevents MO from restricting certain ACA consumer assister activities

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Friday partially upheld a district court’s preliminary injunction preventing the state of Missouri from imposing certain additional substantive requirements on certified application counselors who facilitate enrollment in exchanges authorized by the Affordable Care Act. Under the Missouri law, for example, CACs would be prohibited from providing advice concerning the benefits, terms and features of particular health plans, which the court said directly controverts the duties assigned to CACs under the ACA. While preventing the enforcement of three challenged CAC provisions in the Missouri law, the 8th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision to apply the injunction to federal navigators or to the other provisions of the Missouri law, declaring that “[b]ecause the challenged portions of the [state’s law] operate independently of the remainder of the law, only those provisions actually preempted should be invalidated.”