Policy & Compliance

  • October 07, 2025

    EMTs Appeal Losses Ahead Of False Death Declaration Trial

    First responders facing trial for declaring a woman dead, only for a funeral home to discover she was alive, are urging a Michigan state appeals court to review what they say are "contradictory legal frameworks" imposed by a judge ahead of trial.

  • October 07, 2025

    La. Challenges Mail-Order Access To Abortion Medication

    The state of Louisiana on Monday sued federal regulators for expanding access to the abortion medication mifepristone under the Biden administration, alleging the removal of an in-person dispensing requirement allows the drug to be mailed illegally into anti-abortion states.

  • October 07, 2025

    Air Medic Ends EEOC Disability Bias Suit Over Nixed Job Offer

    A helicopter ambulance company has agreed to pay an air mechanic $59,000 to resolve a disability bias suit in an Alabama federal court from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging the business yanked back a job transfer offer because the worker was prescribed opioids.

  • October 06, 2025

    Judge Certifies Class In United Behavioral Health Billing Suit

    A California federal judge has agreed to certify a class of employee health plan participants claiming United Behavioral Health and a billing contractor shorted them on coverage for out-of-network substance use disorder treatments, finding the plaintiffs submitted new billing evidence that meets the court's requirements.

  • October 06, 2025

    Justices Hint At Barring Del. Med Mal Law In Federal Court

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared to side with a retired attorney's position that a Delaware medical malpractice statute clashes with federal rules of procedure and is therefore unenforceable in federal court, with several justices saying the law appears to be an improper procedural requirement.

  • October 06, 2025

    Supplement Co. Sold Soviet-Era Drug As Sleep Aid, Suit Says

    An addict in recovery hit Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Inc. with a proposed class action on Friday in Georgia federal court alleging that he bought a sleep aid sold as a dietary supplement that actually contains a dangerous, addictive sedative first developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

  • October 06, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Vacates J&J's $20M Loss Over Patent Ownership

    The Federal Circuit freed Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Synthes from a $20 million infringement verdict on Monday, saying the orthopedic surgeon suing it didn't own the asserted knee replacement patents.

  • October 06, 2025

    High Court Won't Take Up Md. Retirees' Drug Benefits Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a Fourth Circuit decision concluding that Maryland wasn't contractually bound to provide benefits to employees upon retirement, turning away a case that challenged the state's transition of retirees' prescription drug benefits from a state subsidy to Medicare.

  • October 06, 2025

    3rd Circ. Rejects Novo Nordisk's Medicare Pricing Challenge

    The Third Circuit on Monday shot down another challenge to the Medicare drug price negotiation program, denying claims by pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk that Congress illegally delegated too much authority to the executive branch.

  • October 06, 2025

    Cooley Adds Life Sciences Trio From WilmerHale, Sidley

    Cooley LLP announced Monday that it is boosting its life sciences bench with a bicoastal trio of partners from WilmerHale and Sidley Austin LLP.

  • October 06, 2025

    Justices Won't Review 5th Circ. Ending ACA Trans Policy Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the Fifth Circuit's decision to shut down a challenge to a Biden-era interpretation of the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination-in-healthcare policy as also protecting against gender identity bias, which an appellate panel told a Texas court to dismiss in December.

  • October 06, 2025

    Mass. Justices Say Harvard Must Face Cadaver Theft Claims

    Massachusetts' highest court on Monday reinstated claims against Harvard University over what one justice called a "ghoulish" and "macabre scheme" by its former medical school morgue manager to dissect, steal and sell body parts from donated medical research cadavers.

  • October 06, 2025

    Justices Skip Fight Over NJ Healthcare Worker Vax Mandate

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it won't review the challenge by four New Jersey nurses to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's executive orders in the first three months of 2022 mandating a COVID-19 vaccine booster for healthcare workers.

  • October 03, 2025

    Up First At High Court: Election Laws & Conversion Therapy

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in six cases during the first week of its October 2025 term, including in disputes over federal candidates' ability to challenge state election laws, Colorado's ban on conversion therapy, and the ability of a landlord to sue the U.S. Postal Service for allegedly refusing to deliver mail. 

  • October 03, 2025

    6th Circ. Will Hear Ohio PBM Fight Arguments In December

    The Sixth Circuit will hear arguments from the state of Ohio and the pharmacy benefit managers it's accusing of colluding to raise the price of prescription medications in December to decide whether the matter belongs in state or federal court.

  • October 03, 2025

    11th Circ. Pushes Forward Fla.'s ACA Trans Health Appeal

    The Eleventh Circuit resolved a jurisdictional question that will allow Florida to continue pursuing its challenge against Biden-era policies impacting Affordable Care Act coverage for gender-affirming care.

  • October 03, 2025

    Nurse Staffing Exec Says Jury Misled In Wage-Fixing Case

    A nurse staffing executive convicted of wage fixing and wire fraud is asking a Nevada federal court for a new trial, arguing that prosecutors misled the jury about a cooperating witness's leniency deal.

  • October 03, 2025

    Cigna Inks $5.7M Ghost Network Suit Settlement

    Cigna has struck a $5.7 million deal to settle a proposed class action alleging the insurer violated federal benefits law by advertising out-of-network providers as in-network to participants in benefit plans it administered, counsel for plaintiffs announced Friday.

  • October 02, 2025

    FDA OKs New Generic Abortion Pill, Drawing Conservative Ire

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a second generic version of the abortion medication mifepristone, prompting outrage from anti-abortion groups and conservative politicians.

  • October 02, 2025

    NC Court Rejects McGuireWoods' Immunity In Defamation Suit

    A North Carolina appellate court dismissed an interlocutory appeal by McGuireWoods and a former partner in a defamation case over statements about an investigation into the onetime CEO of a managed care organization during a press conference, reiterating its opinion that the statements were "too far afield" to be considered part of a judicial proceeding.

  • October 02, 2025

    Feds Eye Partial Pretrial Ruling In Regeneron FCA Case

    The government has urged a Massachusetts federal judge to rule that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals "naturally or foreseeably" caused providers to present false claims for its macular degeneration drug Eylea, arguing that it does not need to prove the tougher "but-for causation" standard for its theory of false certification.

  • October 02, 2025

    Colo. Healthcare Nonprofit Sues Gov. Over Medicaid Cuts

    A Colorado healthcare nonprofit seeks a court order to reverse a recent executive order from Gov. Jared Polis which cut state Medicaid spending to pediatric behavioral therapy and autism therapy services.

  • October 02, 2025

    AstraZeneca Asks Judge To Block Colorado's 340B Drug Law

    AstraZeneca urged a Colorado federal judge on Wednesday to block the enforcement of a recently enacted state law that aims to extend a federal drug discount program to certain pharmacies, saying the Colorado law is costly for manufacturers and preempted by federal law.

  • October 02, 2025

    Mass. Court Denies States' Bid To Block ACA Subsidy Cuts

    A Massachusetts federal court has rejected a bid by a coalition of 21 states to stay implementation of a rule that will cut Affordable Care Act subsidies and enforce enrollment restrictions, saying the states hadn't shown imminent or irreparable harm from the policy's costs or possible coverage losses.

  • October 02, 2025

    Justices To Hear Clash Over State Med Mal Laws In Fed. Court

    The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Monday on whether a Delaware medical malpractice statute can be applied in federal court, in a case that is expected to offer legal guidelines for similar laws in 28 other states.

Expert Analysis

  • HHS Plan To Cut Immigrant Benefits Spurs Provider Questions

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    A recent notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identifying new federal public benefit programs for which nonqualified aliens are not eligible may have a major impact on entities that participate in these programs — but many questions remain unanswered, say attorneys at Foley.

  • Noncompete Forecast Shows Tough Weather For Employers

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    Several new state noncompete laws signal rough conditions for employers, particularly in the healthcare sector, so employers must account for employees' geographic circumstances as they cannot rely solely on choice-of-law clauses, say lawyers at McDermott.

  • Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots

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    New York, Nevada and Utah have all recently enacted laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence to deliver mental health services, offering early insights into how other states may regulate this area, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently effective data security requirements carry profound implications for how healthcare providers collect, store, share and use data — and approach vendor oversight — that go far beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Texas Med Spas Must Prepare For 2 New State Laws

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    Two new laws in Texas — regulating elective intravenous therapy and reforming healthcare noncompetes — mark a pivotal shift in the regulatory framework for medical spas in the state, which must proactively adapt their operations and contractual practices, says Brad Cook at Munsch Hardt.

  • DOJ-HHS Collab Crystallizes Focus On Health Enforcement

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    The recently announced partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to combat False Claims Act violations, following a multiyear trend of high-dollar DOJ recoveries, signals a long-term enforcement horizon with major implications for healthcare entities and whistleblowers, say attorneys at RJO.

  • How The Healthline Privacy Settlement Redefines Ad Tech Use

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    The Healthline settlement is the first time California has drawn a clear line in the sand around how website tracking must function in practice, so if your site uses tracking technologies, especially around sensitive content like health or finance, regulators are inspecting your website's back end, not just its banner, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • How Sweeping Budget Bill Shakes Up Health Industry

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    With the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act marking one of the most significant overhauls of federal health policy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, providers, managed care organizations and life sciences companies must now shift focus from policy review to implementation planning, say advisers at Holland & Knight.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • A Look At Key 5th Circ. White Collar Rulings So Far This Year

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    In the first half of 2025, the Fifth Circuit has decided numerous cases of particular import to white collar practitioners, which collectively underscore the critical importance of meticulous recordbuilding, procedural compliance and strategic litigation choices at every stage of a case, says Joe Magliolo at Jackson Walker.

  • What US Medicine Onshoring Means For Indian Life Sciences

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    Despite the Trump administration's latest moves to onshore essential medicine manufacturing, India will likely remain an indispensable component of the U.S. drug supply chain, but Indian manufacturers should prepare for stricter compliance checks, says Jashaswi Ghosh at Holon Law Partners.

  • FCA Working Group Reboot Signals EHR Compliance Risk

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    The revival of the False Claims Act working group is an aggressive expansion of enforcement efforts by the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services targeted toward technology-enabled fraud involving electronic health records and other data, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • FDA's Hasty Policymaking Approach Faces APA Challenges

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    Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has abandoned its usual notice-and-comment process for implementing new regulatory initiatives, two recent district court decisions make clear that these programs are still susceptible to Administrative Procedure Act challenges, says Rachel Turow at Skadden.