Policy & Compliance
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May 20, 2025
Genital Mutilation Expert On DOJ Anti-Trans Care Enforcement
A recent memo from the U.S. Department of Justice marks a turning point as the first time U.S. government officials, publicly and at the national level, have conflated female genital mutilation with gender-affirming therapies and surgeries.
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May 20, 2025
Manners, Experts And A Plan: Immigration Agents In Hospitals
As the Trump administration increases deportation efforts, hospitals and medical staff may find themselves caught between federal immigration agents pressing pointed questions about patients or medical records and privacy laws designed to prevent probing eyes.
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May 19, 2025
Feds Get Early Win In Drugmakers' Suit Over 340B Rebates
A D.C. federal judge awarded an early win to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday on claims it illegally blocked drugmakers' efforts to implement rebates instead of discounts in a decades-old drug pricing program, finding the agency has the authority to pre-approve the price reduction models.
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May 19, 2025
9th Circ. Backs Family's Win In Suit Over Denied Benefits
The Ninth Circuit declined to upend a guild member's win in his lawsuit challenging his healthcare plan's decision to deny coverage for his son's mental health treatments, but said a lower court was wrong to award the family additional damages on their breach of fiduciary duty claim.
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May 19, 2025
Doc Loses 4th Circ. Fight Over $5.5M Order After FCA Deal
A North Carolina district court was right to reject a doctor and his wife's request to overturn or modify a $5.5 million judgment against them for allegedly hiding assets after settling a previous False Claims Act case with the government, the Fourth Circuit ruled Monday.
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May 19, 2025
5th Circ. Affirms Masculinity Gibe Can't Sustain Gay Bias Suit
The Fifth Circuit backed a hospice company's win over a former nurse who said a supervisor failed to take action when a colleague insulted him for being gay, saying the coworker's offensive comment wasn't enough to sustain a bias case.
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May 16, 2025
Fla. Gov. Says He Will Veto Bill To Expand Death Damages
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he will veto a bill recently passed by Florida lawmakers to repeal a statute limiting pain-and-suffering damages in fatal medical malpractice cases, saying a veto will prevent a flood of lawsuits against healthcare providers.
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May 16, 2025
Biotech Co. Hit With Investor Suits Over Cancer Drug Launch
Cancer treatment company Iovance Biotherapeutics has been hit with two proposed shareholder class actions accusing the company of misleading the public about the success of its commercial rollout of an FDA-approved skin cancer treatment.
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May 16, 2025
HHS Says Pain Clinic's Delay Hurts $11M Bill Challenge
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday fought a pain clinic's bid in North Carolina federal court for a pretrial win in the clinic's suit challenging $11 million in overpayments for urine drug screening tests, saying the clinic waited too long to bring evidence that the testing was justified.
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May 16, 2025
Feds Want Ex-McKinsey Exec To Serve Time For Obstruction
Prosecutors urged a Virginia federal judge Thursday to sentence a disbarred, former senior McKinsey & Co. partner to one year in prison for obstructing an investigation into the consulting giant's work with opioid-manufacturer Purdue Pharma, while defense counsel pushed for probation so that he can return to his home in Thailand.
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May 16, 2025
23 States Win Order Halting Billions In HHS Public Health Cuts
A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from cutting off billions of dollars in funding to state public health programs, determining the abrupt grant terminations likely violated congressional authority over spending.
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May 16, 2025
Trucking Co. Worker Says Tobacco Surcharge Violates ERISA
An employee of Marten Transport Ltd. is suing the trucking company in Wisconsin federal court, alleging that a tobacco surcharge in its health plan violates federal antidiscrimination law.
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May 16, 2025
Surgical Center Operator Inks $15M Deal Over Data Breach
Shields Health Group Inc., which runs dozens of MRI and surgical centers around New England, has agreed to pay around $15 million to resolve claims in a proposed class action stemming from a data breach that compromised the personal information of over 2 million people.
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May 16, 2025
Trump Admin Settles Vaccine Contract Info Suit For $10K
The Trump administration has reached a $10,000 settlement with a consumer advocacy group over allegedly withholding information about the government's billion-dollar contracts with companies that developed and manufactured the COVID-19 vaccine, including Pfizer and Moderna.
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May 15, 2025
Ex-CEO Cops To Conspiracy Charge In $212M Fraud Case
A New Jersey-based former CEO of a medical billing company has pled guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud in connection with government claims he was part of a $212.5 million scheme to inflate the value of his company to defraud potential investors in a go-private transaction.
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May 15, 2025
Feds Freeze Parity Enforcement As Agencies Rethink Regs
Federal agencies said Thursday they will hold off on enforcing a rule requiring employer group health plans to analyze how they restrict coverage for mental health and substance use disorder treatments, citing ongoing litigation aimed at blocking the policy and broader plans to reevaluate enforcement priorities.
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May 14, 2025
Mont. Court Blocks 'Ideological' Transgender Youth Care Ban
A Montana judge on Tuesday struck down a state statute that banned gender-affirming care for minors, holding that the state's interest is "ideological rather than medical" and violates the constitutional rights of transgender youth seeking gender-affirming care and of healthcare professionals who provide it.
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May 14, 2025
9th Circ. Doubts Wash. Anti-Vaxxers' Stance In Med Board Suit
A Ninth Circuit judge expressed skepticism on Wednesday that the federal appellate court could revive Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s suit against the Washington Medical Commission for initiating disciplinary proceedings against physicians who publicly aired anti-vaccination views, pointing out that federal courts generally "don't interfere" with ongoing state litigation.
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May 14, 2025
Sage Therapeutics Brass Sued Over Drug Candidate Claims
The top brass of Sage Therapeutics Inc. have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in New York federal court alleging they misled investors about the safety, efficacy, durability and commercial prospects of three of the company's drug candidates and overstated their likelihood to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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May 14, 2025
Houston Midwife Says AG Has No Evidence To Close Clinics
A Houston-area midwife who was arrested earlier this year on a charge of providing an illegal abortion is arguing to a state appellate court that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton "came nowhere close to meeting the state's burden" in his bid to shut down her clinics.
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May 14, 2025
RFK Jr. Defends HHS Cuts, Pledges To 'Spend Smarter'
In his first appearance on Capitol Hill since his confirmation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday characterized a massive reorganization and reductions in workforce as practical moves to optimize the sprawling agency.
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May 13, 2025
Healthcare Hires: Ex-DOJ, Fresenius Attys On The Move
An ex-federal prosecutor who led healthcare fraud investigations in Texas has joined Hicks Thomas LLP, and an attorney with in-house experience at Fresenius Medical Care and GE Healthcare joined King & Spalding LLP in its government investigations practice. Here, Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at the week's most notable lateral hires in the healthcare industry.
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May 13, 2025
Health Co. Elevance Faces Suit Over Post-COVID Costs Claims
Health insurance provider Elevance Health Inc. and some of its executives face a proposed investor class action alleging the company hurt shareholders by mismanaging expectations about its Medicaid business's costs amid the post-pandemic eligibility redetermination process in certain markets it served.
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May 13, 2025
A Trump Do-Over On 'Most Favored Nation' Drug Prices
President Donald Trump's move this week to "equalize" U.S. drug prices with lower overseas prices hearkens back to a similar effort made in his first term that faced a swarm of legal challenges before being shelved.
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May 13, 2025
Planned Parenthood Wants Teen Program Fund Rule Blocked
Planned Parenthood on Monday urged a D.C. federal judge to vacate the U.S. government's "unlawful" requirements to "align" with President Donald Trump's executive orders lest risk losing Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program funding, arguing its facilities will suffer staff cuts and loss of medically accurate, age-appropriate education services absent an injunction.
Expert Analysis
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The Future Of GLP-1 Policy After Drug Shortage Ends
If and when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determines that GLP-1 RA drugs are no longer in short supply, regulators will face questions of how to balance access to GLP-1 RAs with statutory and policy considerations applicable to compounded drugs, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Top 10 Whistleblowing And Retaliation Events Of 2024
From a Florida federal court’s ruling that the False Claims Act’s qui tam provision is unconstitutional to a record-breaking number of whistleblower tips filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, employers saw significant developments in the federal and state whistleblower landscapes this year, say attorneys at Proskauer.
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How White Collar Defense Attys Can Use Summary Witnesses
Few criminal defense attorneys have successfully utilized summary witnesses in the past, but several recent success stories show that it can be a worthwhile trial tactic to help juries understand the complex decision-making at issue, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Nutraceutical Patent Insights As Market Heats Up
Companies entering the expanding nutraceutical market and seeking patents to protect their innovations should evaluate successful nutraceutical claim language and common patent challenges in this field, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.
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How White Collar Attys Can Use Mythic Archetypes At Trial
A careful reading of a classic screenwriting guide shows that fairy tales and white collar trials actually have a lot in common, and defense attorneys would do well to tell a hero’s journey at trial, relying on universal character archetypes to connect with the jury, says Jack Sharman at Lightfoot Franklin.
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What 2024 Election Means For Drugs, Medicare And Medicaid
With Republicans running the White House, U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, the incoming administration is likely to provide pathways — through new initiatives and others returning from Trump's previous presidency — for a range of potential changes to drug pricing, Medicare and Medicaid, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case
After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.
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Key Takeaways From FDA's Latest Social Media Warnings
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest untitled letter concerning a drug company's social media promotion provides lessons for how companies should navigate risk presentation, FDA labeling requirements and superiority claims, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Rank-And-File DOJ Attorneys Will Keep Calm And Carry On
Career prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice often pride themselves on their ability to remain apolitical in order to ensure consistency and keep the department’s mission afloat, and the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to upend this tradition, says Michael Landman at Bird Marella.
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Unpacking Arguments From High Court's Rural Hospital Case
During oral arguments in Advocate v. Becerra, the U.S. Supreme Court justices focused questions on the meaning of being "entitled to" supplementary security income assistance, and there's reason for optimism that the likely split decision will break in favor of hospitals, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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Health Policy Predictions For Trump's Second Administration
As President-elect Donald Trump's nominations for health policy and enforcement heads work their way through the confirmation process, healthcare organizations can look at nominee backgrounds, campaign statements and actions from Trump's previous presidency to predict incoming priorities, say attorneys at McDermott.
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What Trump's Next Term May Mean For Biz Immigration
Leonard D'Arrigo at Harris Beach discusses the employment-based immigration policies businesses can potentially expect during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, based on policies enacted during his first administration, statements made during his campaign and proposals in Project 2025.
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Weak Reasoning Underlies Fla. Judge's Bold Qui Tam Ruling
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Mizelle's groundbreaking decision in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates LLC, holding that qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act are unconstitutional, relies on weak logic to reach a conclusion that differs from every other court that has ruled on the issue, says Ethan Greenberg at Anderson Kill.