Digital Health & Technology
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February 28, 2025
Robotic Surgery Co. Appealing Tossed Intuitive Antitrust Case
Surgical Instrument Service Co. Inc. is appealing to the Ninth Circuit after a California federal court tossed its $140 million antitrust case accusing Intuitive Surgical Inc. of blocking third parties from refurbishing components for its popular da Vinci surgery robot at the end of trial.
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February 27, 2025
Harvard Pilgrim To Pay $16M To Settle Data Breach Claims
Healthcare company Harvard Pilgrim and its parent company Point32Health Inc. have agreed to pay $16 million to settle a class action over a 2023 data breach that affected nearly 3 million individuals and providers, according to a filing late Wednesday.
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February 25, 2025
Walgreens Inks $595M Deal To End COVID-19 Testing Suit
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has agreed to pay $595 million to a lab testing and diagnostics company to put to rest a dispute over COVID-19 tests, according to a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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February 25, 2025
A Year After Change Hack, Healthcare Still A Data 'Honeypot'
A year after a massive data breach disrupted healthcare nationwide, hospitals and other providers are engaged in an "arms race" against hackers as they navigate tough budget choices and remain vulnerable to cyberattacks.
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February 25, 2025
Masimo Aims To DQ Hueston Hennigan As Ex-CEO's Counsel
Masimo Corp. is urging the Delaware Chancery Court to disqualify Hueston Hennigan LLP from representing its founder and former CEO in a lawsuit over his quest for a $450 million payout from the medical technology company, arguing the firm has a conflict of interest.
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February 20, 2025
Warby Parker Hit With $1.5M Fine After HHS Breach Probe
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it has imposed a $1.5 million fine on Warby Parker Inc. following a cyberattack on the eyewear manufacturer's website that exposed the protected health information of nearly 200,000 customers.
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February 20, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs TTAB's Denial Of Health Co.'s Proposed TM
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board correctly denied a healthcare management company's bid to register "Formularyhub" because it's a descriptive term, the Federal Circuit said Thursday.
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February 19, 2025
Meta Should've Preserved Health Tracking Data, Judge Says
A California federal judge considering sanctions against Meta for deleting data in privacy litigation over a Facebook tool's collection of patient health information said Wednesday that he's not convinced Meta had "malintent," but said, "I do think this information should have been preserved."
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February 19, 2025
Tech Co.'s Software Doesn't Meet CMS Needs, Judge Says
A Court of Federal Claims judge denied IntelliBridge LLC's attempt to block the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from seeking bidders for its hybrid cloud product engineering and operations contract, finding on Tuesday the agency isn't trying to replicate its batCAVE software.
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February 19, 2025
Walgreens Says $1B COVID Testing Award Must Be Nixed
Walgreens is urging a Delaware federal judge to rethink his decision enforcing a $987 million arbitral award to a lab testing and diagnostics company in a dispute over COVID-19 tests, arguing Tuesday that he ignored that the arbitrator "invented" language in the contract to arrive at his conclusion.
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February 18, 2025
Human Rights Atty Sees 'Serious Risks' Of Neural Data Abuse
International human rights attorney Jared Genser spoke with Law360 Healthcare Authority about the "serious risks of misuse and abuse of neurotechnologies" that have led California and Colorado to expand their state consumer privacy laws in the last year to include neural data, with similar bills pending in Montana, Massachusetts and Illinois.
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February 18, 2025
Attys Talk AI Risks, Compliance At Health Law Conference
Amid the generative artificial intelligence boom, the healthcare industry is navigating the challenge of incorporating new technology — such as automated clinical documentation and fraud detection algorithms — into their systems while anticipating enforcement action, litigation and regulatory requirements.
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February 13, 2025
UnitedHealth Can't Escape All Claims In AI Denial Suit
A Minnesota federal judge Thursday allowed Medicare Advantage patients and the estates of deceased enrollees to pursue breach of contract claims against UnitedHealth over its alleged use of AI to override physician recommendations, finding they are not preempted by the Medicare Act, but tossed others by holding they are preempted.
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February 11, 2025
Wash. Health Privacy Law Debuts In Amazon Tracking Suit
A Washington resident has launched the first claims under the state's groundbreaking health privacy law, as part of a proposed class action accusing Amazon of unlawfully harvesting location data from tens of millions of mobile phone users through third-party apps that are running the company's software development kit.
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February 11, 2025
Ore. Rep. Nelson Talks New AI Bill And 'Sacred' Nurse Title
As healthcare organizations grapple with the arrival of artificial intelligence in the workplace, Oregon state Rep. Travis Nelson, a registered nurse, recently introduced a bill that would prohibit a nonhuman entity from being called "nurse" or other similar titles. In a recent Q&A, he spoke to Law360 Healthcare Authority about House Bill 2748 and the use of AI in the industry.
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February 11, 2025
Fla. Judge OKs $7M Deal In Health Data Breach Class Action
A Florida federal judge Tuesday granted final approval of a $7 million class action settlement as part of multidistrict litigation over the theft of personal information from millions of U.S. citizens in a health data breach linked to a Russian ransomware group.
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February 04, 2025
Politics Swirl Around HIPAA As DOJ Drops Doc Leaker Case
The government's decision in the early days of the Trump administration to drop charges that a Texas surgeon leaked information about minors receiving gender-affirming care to a conservative journalist is raising concerns about the "politicization" of federal health privacy enforcement.
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February 03, 2025
Kochava Still Can't Get FTC Location Privacy Suit Thrown Out
An Idaho federal judge on Monday again refused to throw out the Federal Trade Commission's suit accusing mobile app analytics provider Kochava Inc. of selling consumers' geolocation data without proper consent, ruling that nothing meaningful has changed since Kochava's previous dismissal bid.
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February 03, 2025
Apple Seeks Bench Trial Win In Masimo's Trade Secret Suit
Apple Inc. urged a California federal judge Monday to issue a bench trial ruling that it didn't steal Masimo Corp.'s pulse oximetry technology for its smartwatches, arguing no actual trade secrets were at issue and that it used its own independently developed innovations to create the blockbuster product.
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January 31, 2025
Supreme Court Eyes Its 'Next Frontier' In FCC Delegation Case
A case about broadband subsidies will give the U.S. Supreme Court the chance to revive a long-dormant separation of powers principle that attorneys say could upend regulations in numerous industries and trigger a power shift that would make last term's shake-up of federal agency authority pale in comparison. And a majority of the court already appears to support its resurrection.
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January 31, 2025
JAMS Adds AI-Focused Litigation Vet To Arbitration Team
The alternative dispute resolution service JAMS has expanded its arbitration and mediation team with the addition of an attorney with over three decades of experience spanning complex commercial litigation, independent arbitration and leadership positions at the American Bar Association.
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January 30, 2025
NC Biz Court Bulletin: Sanctions Miss, Philip Morris Refund
In the second half of January, the North Carolina Business Court tussled with sanctions against a biogas company, heard claims an insurer tried to deliberately embarrass Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP and ordered an $11 million tax refund for Philip Morris.
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January 28, 2025
4th Circ. Raises Questions Over Health Data Access Order
A Fourth Circuit panel focused Tuesday on whether an exception to federal law barring electronic health record companies from blocking the exchange of patient data applies to a request from Real Time Medical Systems to access nursing home data from PointClickCare.
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January 28, 2025
New York Eyes Tightened Health Data Privacy Law
New York is set to join a handful of states putting broad new legal safeguards around the collection and sale of sensitive health information, adding to an increasingly complex landscape of health privacy laws.
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January 28, 2025
Remote Access To Anti-Addiction Meds Unclear Under Trump
Depending on what the Trump administration does next with a telehealth rule finalized in the last days of the Biden administration, remote access to a lifesaving medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder could either be expanded or constricted.
Expert Analysis
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Assessing FDA Pathways For Genome-Edited Plant Foods
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent clarification of the regulatory pathways for foods produced from genome-edited plants seeks to strike a balance between public health and innovation, and may hold broader significance for developers of novel human foods subject to voluntary notification programs, say Emily Marden and Diane McEnroe at Sidley Austin.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection
Recent enforcement actions in the fintech and finance industries show that the government is increasingly pursuing fraud enabled by artificial intelligence — at the same time it’s using AI innovations to enforce regulations and investigate fraud, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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BIPA's Statutory Exemptions Post-Healthcare Ruling
The Illinois Supreme Court's November opinion in Mosby v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, which held that the Biometric Information Privacy Act's healthcare exemption also applies when information is collected from healthcare workers, is a major win for healthcare defendants that resolves an important question of statutory interpretation, say attorneys at Quinn Emanuel.
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What's New In FDA's Updated Data Monitoring Guidance
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new guidance on the use of data monitoring committees in clinical trials is set to replace the agency's 2006 guidance on the topic, with notable updates including stronger language indicating a more stringent stance against financial conflicts of interest and adaptation to recent changes in DMC structure, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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Keeping Up With Class Actions: Data Breach Litigation In Flux
In this monthly look at notable class action decisions, Gerald Maatman at Duane Morris examines a recent mixed-bag data breach ruling from an Illinois federal court — in the context of case law developments over the last year — which illustrates the range of issues confronting litigants going forward.
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Inside The PTAB's Seagen Cancer Drug Patent Decision
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's recent finding that Seagen's claims for antibody-drug conjugate technology were unpatentable — for lack of enablement, lack of written description and anticipation — mark the latest chapter in the complex patent dispute as the case heads for director review, says Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb.
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Despite Risks, AI Is A Worthy Tool For Healthcare Industry
Artificial intelligence appears to provide a productive path forward for the healthcare industry, improving economic and human health outcomes, though companies must continue to address certain technology and compliance pain points, says Sarah Abrams at Bowhead Specialty Underwriters.
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Potential Defendant Strategies Amid Calif. Privacy Questions
Although the current case law surrounding the California Consumer Privacy Act is in its infancy, courts have begun addressing important issues related to the notice-and-cure provisions of the statute, and these decisions show defendant-businesses would be wise to assert their notice rights early and repeatedly, say Viola Trebicka and Dan Humphrey at Quinn Emanuel.
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Health Policy Legislative Landscape May Remain Frozen
With Congress again delaying the full resolution of fiscal year 2024 federal spending legislation, there is now an additional window in which Congress could work through several priority issues for healthcare stakeholders, though these issues are unlikely to be resolved in time, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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What Businesses Should Know About NJ Privacy Bill
New Jersey’s recently passed comprehensive privacy bill S.B. 332 presents businesses with a nuanced framework and compliance obligations, including opt-in consent requirements for sensitive data, with recommendations for businesses to organize data, review consent requirements and more, says Trisha Sircar at Katten.
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Staying Ahead Of The AI Policymaking Curve
With artificial intelligence poised to be the hottest legislative and regulatory topic in 2024, expect the AI policymaking toolbox to continue to expand and evolve as stakeholders in the U.S. and abroad develop, deploy, use and learn more about these technologies, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.