Policy & Compliance

  • June 30, 2026

    Remedies, Not Suits: How FTC Approaches Health Mergers

    The Federal Trade Commission has not sued over any healthcare provider mergers since President Donald Trump's return to the White House. Attorneys at the American Health Law Association annual meeting say that's not a signal that the agency is backing off.

  • June 30, 2026

    Judge To Mull Surgeon's Dismissal Bid In 'No Surprises' Suit

    A New Jersey court will soon decide whether allegations that a plastic surgeon abused No Surprises Act arbitration can move forward. Law360 looks at a closely watched case testing what role courts play in this and other NSA disputes.

  • June 30, 2026

    Cigna, Others Fight Ohio AG's Drug Price-Fixing Suit

    Ohio pharmacy benefit managers and their corporate parents urged a federal judge to toss the state's drug price-fixing lawsuit, saying in a series of briefs that the state is trying to skirt federal pleading standards, collapse corporate separateness and stretch Ohio's antitrust law beyond its limits.

  • June 30, 2026

    GEO Still Blocking Parts Of NJ Detention Center, State Says

    New Jersey and its Department of Health told a federal judge that despite consent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to tour its Newark detention center, facility operator GEO Group Inc. is still barring entrance to certain areas.

  • June 30, 2026

    Patience Thin On Bench For Dragged-Out FCA Probes

    Judicial frustration was on display in recent rulings in which judges took issue with repeated DOJ requests for sealed records. A desire to speed up fraud cases factors into a fish-or-cut-bait policy for federal prosecutors.

  • June 29, 2026

    Feds Sue Mich., Other States For Not Sharing SNAP Records

    The U.S. Department of Justice is asking federal courts to force Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania to turn over their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applicant data that the Trump administration claims it needs to uncover billions of dollars in overpayments and fraud.

  • June 29, 2026

    26 States Sue To Nix Medicaid Work Rule For Medically Frail

    More than two dozen states sued the Trump administration Monday in Massachusetts federal court in a bid to strike down new Medicaid work requirements for certain enrollees, saying the administration did not consider the consequences the requirements would have on vulnerable Medicaid enrollees.

  • June 29, 2026

    AstraZeneca To Pay $34M In Texas Kickbacks Settlement

    AstraZeneca has agreed to pay nearly $34 million to the state of Texas to put to rest allegations the pharmaceutical company gave kickbacks to providers for prescribing its drugs, many of which were covered by the Lone Star State's Medicaid program, according to an announcement made Monday.

  • June 29, 2026

    Hospital That Halted Gender Care Must Show Cause

    A Colorado state court judge issued a citation on Friday to Children's Hospital Colorado ordering it to show cause for why the hospital refuses to provide gender-affirming care to patients in violation of a preliminary injunction order issued by the Colorado Supreme Court. 

  • June 29, 2026

    Insurers Seek NJ Mass Tort For No Surprises Act Suits

    Five of the largest health insurers in the Garden State have asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to designate 160 pending cases seeking the enforcement of alleged independent dispute resolution payment determinations issued under the federal No Surprises Act as multicounty litigation, according to a notice to the Bar Association.

  • June 29, 2026

    8th Circ. Backs Tossing Ark. Worker's Pharmacy Network Suit

    The Eighth Circuit on Monday turned down an employee health plan participant's bid to revive a proposed class action alleging CVS Caremark unjustly enriched itself by failing to comply with Arkansas laws on pharmacy network adequacy, holding a lower court didn't err in tossing the dispute.

  • June 29, 2026

    Supreme Court To Review Wash. Youth Gender Care Law

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Washington state's law permitting shelters not to notify the parents of runaway teens who seek gender-affirming treatment, reviving a lawsuit that a Ninth Circuit panel unanimously shot down after a district judge found the plaintiffs could only show speculative injury.

  • June 29, 2026

    Justices Skip New York Health Workers' Fight Over Vax Rule

    The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to take up religious healthcare workers' challenge to a pandemic-era New York state policy requiring healthcare providers to make their employees get vaccinated against COVID-19, drawing a dissent from Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

  • June 26, 2026

    Conn. Provider Must Share Takeover Data After $49M Verdict

    A Connecticut state court has ordered Westchester Medical Group PC to produce corporate takeover documents and leadership information as the court contemplates the provider's bid to set aside a $49 million jury verdict over claims its staff failed to diagnose a woman with cervical cancer.

  • June 26, 2026

    En Banc 4th Circ. Splits Over Stay Of DOD HIV Enlistment Ban

    The Fourth Circuit voted en banc Thursday to grant the federal government's bid to pause a lower court's permanent injunction blocking its policies excluding HIV-positive individuals from enlisting in the military, with a dissenting appellate judge writing that "the government is playing games!"

  • June 26, 2026

    DC Circ. Backs CMS In Medicare Advantage Rating Fight

    A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday upheld the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' calculation of a Louisiana insurer's Medicare Advantage star rating, rejecting the insurer's claims that the agency unlawfully included data from a contract that had been folded into another one.

  • June 26, 2026

    5 ERISA Cases To Keep An Eye On In The Second Half Of 2026

    A U.S. Supreme Court challenge to Intel Corp.'s 401(k) investment lineup tops the list of cases benefits attorneys will be watching this summer and fall, though appeals involving health plan tobacco fees, plan forfeiture spending and a potential Eleventh Circuit precedent shift are also top of mind. Here, Law360 looks at five ERISA cases that attorneys should have on their radar as 2026 rolls on.

  • June 26, 2026

    High Court To Issue Big Decisions In Term's Final Days

    As the U.S. Supreme Court enters the final days of its term, the justices still have several major decisions to issue, including some concerning birthright citizenship, the president's power to remove independent agency officials, transgender athletes and election rules. 

  • June 25, 2026

    Sandoz Still Can't Escape Generics Claims From GM, Others

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday declined to rethink her decision forcing Sandoz's Swiss parent company to face generic-drug price-fixing claims from major employers like American Airlines Inc. and General Motors LLC, saying the pharmaceutical company "has no new evidence" backing up its argument that the court lacks personal jurisdiction.

  • June 25, 2026

    Texas Faces Tough Questions In Tylenol Autism Appeal

    A Texas appellate court seemed skeptical Thursday of an argument that the parent entities of the company that sells Tylenol should have to defend claims that the pain reliever causes autism, suggesting that the companies don't have enough ties to Texas.

  • June 25, 2026

    Netflix Urges Justices Not To Disturb 9th Circ. ERISA Docs Ruling

    Netflix urged the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday not to take up a petition from an employee health plan participant who alleged the company failed to provide him access to plan documents in violation of federal benefits law, arguing the Ninth Circuit's ruling in the case should remain in place.

  • June 25, 2026

    Wash. Therapist Seeks Bar On 'Conversion Therapy' Ban

    A Washington therapist has urged a federal court to bar the state from enforcing its ban on what is commonly known as conversion therapy, arguing that a U.S. Supreme Court decision this year has "vindicated" his right to provide counseling targeted by the ban.

  • June 25, 2026

    Novo Nordisk Gets 401(k) Investment Suit Narrowed

    A New Jersey federal judge dismissed allegations accusing Novo Nordisk of unlawfully keeping underperforming investment options in its employee 401(k) plan, handing the pharmaceutical company a partial win by concluding workers hadn't identified comparable funds that performed significantly better.

  • June 24, 2026

    NY Judge Halts DOJ Bid For Trans Youth Medical Records

    A New York federal judge Wednesday barred the U.S. Department of Justice from seeking medical records of transgender patients who received gender-affirming care as minors in the wake of a grand jury subpoena to NYU Langone Health System, saying the government's investigation doesn't outweigh the patients' privacy interests.

  • June 24, 2026

    Delta Dental Says Wash. Antitrust Suit Echoes Faulty Claims

    Delta Dental of Washington said Tuesday an Evergreen State dentist targeting the dental insurer in a proposed antitrust class action has excluded its national affiliates from the case to "escape from a federal court's rejection of identical arguments" that the companies conspired to stifle insurer competition and suppress reimbursement rates.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine

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    The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • A Rapidly Evolving Landscape For Noncompetes In Healthcare

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    A wave of new state laws regulating noncompete agreements in the healthcare sector, varying in scope, approach and enforceability, are shaped by several factors unique to the industry and are likely to distort the market, say attorneys at Seyfarth.