Policy & Compliance
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August 06, 2025
Compelling ERISA Arbitration No Sure Thing, 9th Circ. Shows
The Ninth Circuit aligned with several other federal appeals courts when it recently struck down a clause in a food service company's employee health plan that barred class or representative actions, marking the latest in a series of setbacks for employers looking to push federal benefits suits into solo arbitration.
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August 06, 2025
Texas Hospital Should Face Retirement Plan Suit, Judge Says
A Houston hospital shouldn't dodge a proposed class action claiming it failed to remove a J.P. Morgan fund from its $2.8 billion employee retirement plan despite the investment option's consistent underperformance, a Texas federal magistrate judge recommended Wednesday, saying the allegations are solid enough to stay in court.
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August 06, 2025
Spinal Implant Co. CEO Avoids Prison After Plea Deal
The founder and CEO of Massachusetts medical device maker SpineFrontier was sentenced Wednesday to a year of supervised release, the first six months on home confinement, for directing employees to mislead the government about the nature of payments to a surgeon who was using the company's products.
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August 06, 2025
State AGs Want Final OK For $39M Apotex Price-Fixing Deal
Nearly every state attorney general in the country has asked a Connecticut federal judge to give final approval to a $39.1 million deal to settle claims that drugmaker Apotex Corp. schemed with others to fix prices and allocate markets for generic drugs, noting that the Florida-based company has already made the payment.
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August 05, 2025
Crowell Lands 16 Reed Smith Health Partners Across 4 Cities
Crowell & Moring LLP announced Wednesday that it is expanding its healthcare practice with dozens of attorneys from Reed Smith LLP, including 16 healthcare litigation partners based in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas, where the firm is launching a new shop with a former Reed Smith lawyer at the helm.
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August 05, 2025
Wash. Judge Questions Injunctions' Scope In Head Start Case
A Washington federal judge asked attorneys Tuesday to explain how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision concerning nationwide injunctions might impact efforts by a group of Head Start associations to halt federal directives restricting noncitizen access to the program and use of funds for diversity initiatives.
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August 05, 2025
OptumRx Urges Panel To DQ Motley Rice In LA Opioid Suit
OptumRx told a California appellate panel Tuesday that Motley Rice should be disqualified from representing Los Angeles County in a lawsuit alleging it colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid crisis, saying the firm violated state law by using confidential information obtained in the case in other lawsuits it's handling against Optum.
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August 05, 2025
Key Opioid Theory Actually Irrelevant, Drug Cos. Tell 4th Circ.
With federal judges in West Virginia suddenly split over the central legal theory in opioid litigation, major drug distributors are insisting the theory actually doesn't matter, telling the Fourth Circuit it can uphold their triumph in a landmark trial without even touching the hot-button issue.
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August 05, 2025
Law, Medical School Orgs Face Application Fee Antitrust Suits
The Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges have each been hit with a proposed class action in Pennsylvania and D.C. federal courts, respectively, by candidates who said the nonprofits conspired with their member schools to charge excessive application fees that have been fixed at the same price regardless of the school.
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August 05, 2025
Ex-USPTO Heads, Judges Oppose Anti-Patent Thicket Bill
A pro-innovation group composed of former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials and former Federal Circuit judges on Tuesday asked Congress to oppose a bill introduced last month that would limit so-called patent thickets used by pharmaceutical companies to restrict the production of generic counterparts to their drugs.
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August 05, 2025
UBH Patients Score Partial Win In Mental Health Claims Fight
A California federal judge handed a partial win Tuesday to a class of participants in employee health benefit plans who sought coverage for mental health and substance use disorder treatments from United Behavioral Health, holding the company's overly restrictive guidelines breached fiduciary duties under federal benefits law.
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August 05, 2025
A Free Exercise 'Blueprint' In Colo. Abortion Reversal Order
A Colorado federal judge's decision to allow medication abortion "reversals" on free exercise grounds could serve as a model for other lawsuits meant to legitimize a practice that is outside the standard practice of medicine.
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August 05, 2025
Meet FDA Chief Counsel Sean Keveney
The new top attorney at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described as a "tremendous technical lawyer," rose through the ranks as a federal prosecutor before helping lead President Donald Trump's confrontation with elite universities this year.
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August 05, 2025
'Shocked' By Eye-Watering Fines, Fed. Judges Redo FCA Math
District courts handling big-dollar False Claims Act cases are increasingly wrestling with the Eighth Amendment ban on excessive fines as more defendants go to trial and face whopping jury verdicts. An order last month in a New York case reducing an FCA penalty was the third of its kind in 18 months.
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August 05, 2025
Law Profs Urge 11th Circ. To Toss Judge-Shopping Sanctions
A group of seven law school professors is urging the Eleventh Circuit to toss a sanctions ruling against three attorneys for judge shopping, arguing that federal law does not forbid the practice and citing the "potentially chilling effect the order will have on counsel, especially those involved in pro bono representation."
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August 05, 2025
Teva Settles Claims Over Delayed Generic Asthma Inhalers
Teva Pharmaceuticals has settled a 2023 lawsuit by a coalition of union healthcare funds accusing the company of thwarting the introduction of a generic version of its QVAR inhalers to the market, according to a filing in Massachusetts federal court.
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August 05, 2025
Epstein Becker Adds NJ Health Duo From Wilentz Goldman
Epstein Becker Green has added two attorneys from New Jersey firm Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer PA to bolster its healthcare and life sciences practice, including one it is welcoming back to the firm.
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August 05, 2025
Medicaid Cuts May Worsen Incarceration-Linked Death Risks
A new public health investigation reveals an association between incarceration and elevated risk of early death, not only for people who have been behind bars but for entire communities. Experts caution that impending disinvestment in Medicaid could worsen outcomes in vulnerable populations.
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August 05, 2025
A Texas 'Pressure Test' For State Abortion Shield Laws
A first-of-its-kind federal suit filed in Texas against a California doctor who prescribed abortion pills to the plaintiff's girlfriend promises to "pressure test" reproductive care shield laws in states where abortion remains legal.
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August 04, 2025
Feds Get 2nd Crack At Regeneron FCA Case After Key Ruling
The government may pursue an alternate theory of its False Claims Act kickback case against Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and try again for a pretrial win after a First Circuit ruling created a "critical shift" in the law, a Massachusetts federal judge said Monday.
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August 04, 2025
Holland & Knight Adds King & Spalding Health Pro In Houston
Holland & Knight LLP announced Monday that it has made a valuable addition to its healthcare team with a partner in Houston who came aboard after 17 years with King & Spalding LLP.
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August 04, 2025
Religious Carveout Sinks Nurse's Vax Bias Suit, 8th Circ. Says
The Eighth Circuit refused to reinstate a religious discrimination suit from a nurse who said a Catholic hospital unlawfully fired her for rejecting its COVID-19 vaccination mandate, ruling the institution is shielded from liability under Title VII's exception for religious organizations.
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August 01, 2025
AGs Sue Trump Over 'Onslaught Of Pressure' On Trans Care
The Trump administration has improperly "weaponized" federal laws against drug misbranding, false claims and female genital mutilation as part of a pressure campaign to undermine state protections for gender-affirming care, a coalition of state attorneys general argued in a new suit Friday.
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August 01, 2025
States Urge High Court To Keep NIH Grant Funds Flowing
A coalition of 16 states pressed the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to reject the Trump administration's push to resume the mass termination of scientific research grants, saying a district judge had authority to pause the cuts.
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August 01, 2025
Indiana Health Care Co. Fudged Workers' Time, Suit Claims
An Indiana health care network falsified employees' time sheets to avoid paying their overtime, a financial counselor claimed in a proposed class and collective action in federal court.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Medicare Overpayment Rules Are A Mixed Bag For Providers
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' updated rules for handling agency overpayments adopt a more reasonable definition of what it means to have "identified" an overpayment, which is a win for providers, but their new time frame for investigating related overpayments is unrealistic, says Susan Banks at Holland & Knight.
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Expect More State-Level Scrutiny Of Noncompetes Ahead
Despite the nationwide injunction against the Federal Trade Commission’s noncompete ban, and the incoming Republican administration, employers should anticipate that state legislatures will continue to focus on laws that limit or ban noncompetes, including those that target certain salary thresholds or industries, says Benjamin Fryer at FordHarrison.
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Cos. Should Inventory Issues To Prep For New Congress
As the legislative and oversight agendas of the 119th Congress come into sharper focus, corporate counsel should assess and plan for areas of potential oversight risk — from tax policy changes to supply chain integrity — even as much uncertainty remains, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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Incoming Admin May Shake Up Life Sciences Regulation
Though President-elect Donald Trump has not yet articulated policy priorities regarding the life sciences industry, the sector is positioned to see significant changes that could affect everything from drug exclusivity and generic drug approvals, to the availability of over-the-counter drugs, to laboratory-developed tests and digital health, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Navigating DOJ's Patchwork Whistleblower Regime
In the past few months, the U.S. Department of Justice and several individual U.S. attorney’s offices have issued different pilot programs aimed at incentivizing individuals to blow the whistle on misconduct, but this piecemeal approach may create confusion and suboptimal outcomes, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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What To Expect Next From Federal Health Tech Regulation
Healthcare organizations should pay close attention to federal health information technology regulators' recent guidance concerning barriers to accessing electronic health information, which signals that more enforcement in this area is likely forthcoming, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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5 Areas Congress May Investigate After GOP Election Wins
With Republicans poised to take control of Congress in addition to the executive branch next year, private companies can expect an unprecedented uptick in congressional investigations focused on five key areas, including cryptocurrency and healthcare, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.