JURISDICTION, FEDERALISM, FEDERAL COURT JURISDICTION, FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

UNITED STATES
SUPREME COURT

Empire Health Choice Assurance
 v.
 McVeigh

 (05–200)

Oral argument date: April 25, 2006

This case derives from a reimbursement action brought by Empire Health Choice Assurance, a private healthcare provider, against a federal employee who received health care benefits under the terms of a contract brought into being by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act.

 The District and Circuit courts held that federal law did not govern the action, and that the action should have been raised under state contract law in state court. 

The Supreme Court must now decide whether the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act creates a federal common law basis for Empire's claim, and thus whether the federal courts have jurisdiction over cases brought to enforce provisions of contracts created under the Act.