NU Online News Service, Aug. 15, 2:49 p.m. EDT

Friday's decision by an appeals court panel on the healthcare law ensures that the Supreme Court will be the ultimate arbiter of the law's constitutionality, but otherwise further muddies the water as to what benefits employers will have to provide to their employees, industry officials said.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision rejected the individual-mandate provision of the Patient Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but upheld its other provisions.

Ed Fensholt, director of the health reform advisory practice at the Lockton benefit Group, Kansas City, says the constitutionality of the individual mandate is an issue that the Supreme Court was almost certainly going to take up anyway in the coming months, but the recent decision "virtually guarantees it."

At the same time, "more than anything else, employers need certainty in order to focus on their core business mission," says James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council.

He adds that while the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has now ruled the mandate unconstitutional, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently found the mandate to be a valid exercise of the Commerce Clause.

"The fact that the 11th Circuit's decision upheld the rest of the law, while striking down the mandate, does not make the situation any clearer," Klein says.

He states, "Citizens, employers and all stakeholders deserve the clarity that only the Supreme Court can provide."

Special Reports /

U.S. Supreme Court Health Care Decision Necessary for Clarity

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