On October 7, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States asked the U.S. solicitor general to file a brief in the case Mulready v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, where the state of Oklahoma appealed a Tenth Circuit decision invalidating a law regulating pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). In an environment where less than 5 percent of appeals are granted certiorari, the invitation by the Supreme Court for the federal government to file a brief signals that the Court is seriously contemplating hearing this case in the upcoming term.

Oklahoma’s appeal stems from an August 2023 decision in which the Tenth Circuit found that four specific provisions of a state law regulating PBMs—the Oklahoma Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act—were preempted by ERISA and Medicare: