Policy & Compliance
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December 11, 2024
Split 9th Circ. Nixes Trump-Era Hospital Reimbursement Rule
A split Ninth Circuit on Wednesday struck down a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy that boosted the Medicare reimbursement rate for hospitals in lower-income communities, saying the agency's former secretary lacked authority to issue the policy despite his "laudable goal" of helping lower-wage hospitals.
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December 11, 2024
LA Fitness Fights To End DOJ's Gym Accessibility Suit
LA Fitness urged a California federal judge to toss the U.S. Department of Justice's civil enforcement lawsuit alleging the gym chain failed to accommodate patrons with disabilities at its nearly 700 locations across the country, arguing the lawsuit relies on "isolated" incidents and doesn't show "a pattern and practice."
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December 11, 2024
Wisconsin Healthcare Co. Strikes Deal To End 401(k) Fee Suit
A Wisconsin healthcare organization has agreed to settle a proposed class action alleging it allowed its 401(k) plan to pay exorbitant administrative fees and cost employees millions of dollars in retirement savings, according to a Wednesday federal court filing.
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December 10, 2024
Md. Jury Convicts Ex-Biotech Execs On Some Fraud Counts
Two former biotech executives were convicted on some counts Monday following a monthlong Maryland federal court trial in a case alleging they juiced CytoDyn Inc.'s share price by lying to investors about the development of a drug to treat HIV and COVID-19.
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December 10, 2024
3rd Circ. Judge Unsure Subpoena Chills Anti-Abortion Donors
A Third Circuit panel on Tuesday weighed whether an anti-abortion pregnancy center would suffer irreparable harm absent a court order blocking the enforcement of a subpoena seeking information about its donors, questioning whether donors would be imminently chilled if their names are disclosed to New Jersey investigators.
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December 10, 2024
9th Circ. Says Idaho Can't 'Veto' Federal Law In Abortion Row
The Ninth Circuit seemed poised on Tuesday to turn away fresh arguments from Idaho officials claiming a state abortion ban does not conflict with a federal emergency stabilizing law, after the officials said the federal government can't impose conditions on private hospitals receiving Medicare funds.
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December 10, 2024
2nd Circ. Backs Deloitte's Win In 401(k) Fee Suit
The Second Circuit said a trial court correctly tossed a proposed class action by a group of workers claiming Deloitte saddled its $7.3 billion retirement plan with excessive recordkeeping fees, stating they couldn't overcome concerns that their claims amounted to comparisons of apples to oranges.
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December 10, 2024
Transgender High Court Case Puts Light On Parental Rights
When the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a legal battle over a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors, the conservative justices appeared gripped by a looming issue not directly before them: the rights of parents.
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December 10, 2024
United Health Denials, Patent Antitrust Fight And Neb. Pot Law
United Healthcare must take a third look at its coverage denial for a patient's mental health and substance abuse treatment, and a former state senator asked the Nebraska Court of Appeals to wade into his fight against medical marijuana legalization. Here, Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at the significant cases and decisions that shaped the industry over the last week.
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December 10, 2024
Mich. Panel Advances Bill To Raise Med Mal Damage Caps
Michigan lawmakers could increase the state's caps on certain medical malpractice damages and lift damages caps entirely in cases of extreme misconduct under a proposal approved by a state Senate committee Tuesday.
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December 10, 2024
Doctors Notch Free Speech Wins In 9th Circ. Abortion Cases
A pair of Ninth Circuit rulings last week finding that Idaho can't stop doctors from talking to patients about seeking abortion care in other states is being cheered by abortion and First Amendment advocates as a legal win and a chance to protect healthcare providers' free speech rights.
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December 10, 2024
FTC's Holyoak Says Chair OK With Some Cartels
Federal Trade Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said Lina Khan, the agency's current chair, is suggesting enforcers ignore anticompetitive activity if it's not being committed by what she considers "dominant firms."
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December 10, 2024
FDA Drug Approval Guidance: What You Need to Know
Federal regulators may set clinical trial enrollment targets and impose other conditions on certain studies that pharmaceutical companies must carry out under an accelerated drug-approval program, according to new draft guidance released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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December 10, 2024
NC Addiction Clinic To Pay $825K To End Medicaid Fraud Suit
An addiction treatment and behavioral health clinic based in Raleigh will pay $825,000 to settle claims that it billed the North Carolina Medicaid program for medically unnecessary drug tests and treatment support programs, the state Attorney General's Office announced Tuesday.
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December 10, 2024
OptumHealth Rejects ERISA Fee Class Deal, Eyes Trial
OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC has told a North Carolina federal court that it is ready to bring a certified ERISA class action to trial following its rejection of a settlement that had been taking shape for nearly a year because the deal would not include a full release of all claims.
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December 10, 2024
Fed. Circ. Overturns VA Rule On 'Special' Ambulance Rates
The Federal Circuit has vacated a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rule effectively reducing the rates the VA pays for "noncontract" ambulance services for disabled veterans, saying the rule exceeded the agency's statutory authority.
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December 10, 2024
Ohio Justices Reject Opioid Nuisance Claims In $650M Appeal
The majority of the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the state's product liability law doesn't allow for public nuisance claims to be brought over the opioid crisis, in a challenge to a $650 million verdict won by two counties.
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December 09, 2024
19 Republican AGs Win Order Against DACA Health Coverage
Nineteen states secured an order on Monday that bars the federal government from requiring them to comply with a regulation that extends federal health coverage to immigrants brought to the U.S. as children without authorization, blocking enforcement of a Biden administration rule.
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December 09, 2024
UCLA Student Sues Doctors Over Transgender Misdiagnosis
A UCLA student has sued a group of doctors in Los Angeles state court, alleging she was misdiagnosed with gender dysphoria when she was 12 and rushed into taking puberty blockers and testosterone and having a mastectomy before she realized she wasn't transgender.
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December 06, 2024
Philly Jury Clears B. Braun In Cancer Emissions Case
A Philadelphia jury has cleared B. Braun Medical Inc. of claims that emissions of a sterilizing chemical from a Pennsylvania manufacturing facility caused a neighbor's leukemia.
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December 06, 2024
Biden Admin Says Abortion Drug Fight Can't Stay In Texas
The Biden administration and mifepristone-maker Danco Laboratories LLC doubled down Friday on their bids to end the litigation challenging federal approvals for the abortion medication, arguing the three intervening states can't continue to litigate in Texas federal court now that the private plaintiffs have dropped their claims.
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December 06, 2024
5th Circ. Judge Notes Inconsistencies In Medicare Rate Policy
A Fifth Circuit judge called out inconsistencies in a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services policy, asking the government to explain apparent discrepancies that four Texas anesthesia practices say will cost them $4 million in reduced reimbursements.
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December 06, 2024
Two Firms To Rep CVS Investors In Benefit Unit Losses Suit
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP will co-lead a proposed class of investors in consolidated litigation alleging CVS Health Corp. hurt investors as it announced its benefit unit's unanticipated losses.
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December 06, 2024
Black Doctor Says BCBS Axed Her From Network Due To Race
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan wrongfully terminated a Black dermatologist from its network of health providers because of her race, the doctor told a Michigan federal court, alleging the health insurer terminated her after it claimed her "error rate" in billing was too high.
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December 06, 2024
4 Big Developments In ERISA Cases From 2nd Half Of 2024
The Sixth Circuit reopened a retirement plan mismanagement suit against Parker-Hannifin Corp. and revived a manufacturing company worker's disability benefits bid, while the nation's highest court declined to review a plan trustee's unsuccessful attempt to force an employee stock sale dispute into arbitration. Here, Law360 looks at four recent decisions in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases that benefits attorneys should know.
Expert Analysis
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A Look At Healthcare Timelines Set By Biden's AI Order
President Joe Biden's artificial intelligence executive order establishes standards for using AI in the healthcare industry, including a number of staggered deadlines that should help coordinate a more unified federal approach to AI governance, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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A Look At Successful Bid Protests In FY 2023
Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin look beyond the statistics in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent annual report on bid protests, sharing their insights about nine categories of sustained protests, gained from reading every fiscal year 2023 decision in which the protester had a positive result.
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Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information
As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.
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FDA's Lab-Developed Test Rule May Bring Historic Challenges
If finalized, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed rule for regulating laboratory-developed tests will provoke some of the most interesting legal challenges that the agency has faced in decades, with outcomes that will likely reverberate across the agency's product centers, says Stacy Amin at MoFo.
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Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD
Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.
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AI Use May Trigger False Claims Act's Public Disclosure Bar
The likely use of publicly available artificial intelligence tools to detect government fraud by combing through large data sets will raise complex questions about a False Claims Act provision that prohibits the filing of claims based on previously disclosed information, say Nick Peterson and Spencer Brooks at Wiley Rein.
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Beware Privacy Risks In Training AI Models With Health Data
Because data used to train artificial intelligence models may be protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or other regulations, users of these models should conduct proper diligence to avoid costly compliance failures, say Neha Matta and Barbara Bennett at Frost Brown.
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Unpacking GAO's FY 2023 Bid Protest Report
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's recent bid protest report reflects an increase in sustained protests, illustrating that disappointed offerors may see little reason to refrain from seeking corrective action — but there is more to the story, say Aron Beezley and Patrick Quigley at Bradley Arant.
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White House AI Order Balances Innovation And Regulation
President Joe Biden’s recently issued executive order on artificial intelligence lays out a sprawling list of directives aimed at establishing standards for safety, security and privacy protection, and may help strike the balance between the freedom to innovate and the need to impose regulation in this rapidly evolving space, say Kristen Logan and Martin Zoltick at Rothwell Figg.
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Reading Between The Lines Of HHS' National Lab Opinion
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General recently rejected a national laboratory's request to pay a referring lab to process specimens, but the request might have been an attempt to exploit the OIG's advisory opinion process for a competitive advantage, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.
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A Closer Look At Proposed HHS Research Misconduct Rule
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' proposed updates to its policies on research misconduct codify many well-known best practices, but also contain some potential surprises for the research community and counsel, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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Handling Religious Objections To Abortion-Related Job Duties
While health care and pharmacy employee religious exemption requests concerning abortion-related procedures or drugs are not new, recent cases demonstrate why employer accommodation considerations should factor in the Title VII standard set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 Groff v. DeJoy ruling, as well as applicable federal, state and local laws, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.
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Why Hemp-Synthesized Intoxicants Need Uniform Regs
State laws regulating hemp-synthesized intoxicants are a patchwork with little consistency between any given state, and without the adoption of a uniform regulatory framework, producers and consumers alike will need to be very cautious, say Dylan Anderson and Seth Goldberg at Duane Morris.