Policy & Compliance

  • August 27, 2025

    Scholars Tell High Court To Back Conversion Therapy Ban

    A group of health law experts told the U.S. Supreme Court that Colorado's conversion therapy ban doesn't violate healthcare providers' First Amendment rights, arguing that the law is consistent with states' and the federal government's ability to regulate healthcare.

  • August 27, 2025

    BREAKING: Boehringer Wins Another Zantac Cancer Trial In Ill.

    An Illinois state court jury sided with Boehringer Ingelheim on Wednesday in a man's lawsuit claiming over-the-counter Zantac use contributed to his colorectal cancer development, adding another tally on the German drugmaker's list of victories over similar accusations.

  • August 26, 2025

    Split 9th Circ. Upholds Oregon Pharmaceutical Reporting Law

    A split Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday vacated a lower court's order blocking an Oregon law requiring drug manufacturers to report information related to certain prescription drugs to the state, ruling that the law is indeed constitutional under both the First and Fifth amendments.

  • August 26, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs HHS In Low-Income Patient Payment Dispute

    The D.C. Circuit has delivered a blow to a group of hospitals in a recent decision finding they had challenged a key component of their Medicare reimbursements too early, despite hospital associations' warnings that such a ruling could slow healthcare providers' ability to seek review and "ultimately harm" patients.

  • August 26, 2025

    Mich. AG Lambasts UMich For Halting Trans Youth Care

    Michigan's attorney general publicly warned the University of Michigan Tuesday that her office was "considering all of our options" after the university's hospital system said it would cease providing gender-affirming care to minors under pressure from the Trump administration. 

  • August 26, 2025

    Maine Medicaid Cuts, Medicare Radiation Ruling And More

    A Maine federal court turned down a family planning organization's request to temporarily block a congressional mandate withdrawing Medicaid funds to abortion providers. In South Carolina, Planned Parenthood filed a new complaint challenging a state policy kicking the provider out of the state's Medicaid program for providing abortions. 

  • August 26, 2025

    Doctors Press 5th Circ. To Reverse Surprise Billing Ruling

    Three physician trade associations urged the full Fifth Circuit to reverse a panel's ruling on how qualifying payments are calculated under the No Surprises Act, writing that the current decision harms underserved communities by narrowing provider networks.

  • August 26, 2025

    Cigna Strikes ERISA Ghost Network Suit Settlement Deal

    Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. has agreed to settle a proposed class action alleging the health plan administrator violated federal benefits law by advertising providers as in-network who were out-of-network to participants in employer-sponsored health benefit plans that Cigna administered, according to filings in Illinois federal court.

  • August 26, 2025

    Frier Levitt Adds FDA Regulation Specialist Duo

    New Jersey-based national healthcare law boutique Frier Levitt added a partner and senior counsel pair from a life science law boutique this week to expand its expertise in Food and Drug Administration regulation and compliance and the cannabis and hemp industries.

  • August 26, 2025

    TikTok Takes State's Addictive App Case To NC Top Court

    TikTok and its Chinese parent company are taking the state of North Carolina's lawsuit accusing it of intentionally designing the app to addict young users to the state's highest court after a Business Court judge rejected their early exit bid.

  • August 26, 2025

    Foley Hoag Adds Healthcare Co-Leader From Manatt

    Foley Hoag LLP has hired the former president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization as the new co-chair of its healthcare department.

  • August 25, 2025

    DOJ Wants $10.5M From Convicted Nursing Exec For Fraud

    U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors asked a Nevada federal judge Friday for a $10.5 million preliminary forfeiture order against a nurse staffing executive convicted of wage-fixing, an amount that matches what he was paid for his staffing company after deceiving the buyer into thinking there was no criminal antitrust investigation.

  • August 25, 2025

    Greenberg Traurig Adds Healthcare Atty From Baker Donelson

    Greenberg Traurig LLP has brought on a shareholder from Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC at its Tallahassee office, adding an experienced attorney to its healthcare and U.S. Food and Drug Administration practice, the firm announced Monday.

  • August 25, 2025

    Generic-Drugs Group Asks 9th Circ. To Nix Pay-For-Delay Law

    A trade group for generic drugmakers urged the Ninth Circuit to fully scrap a California law banning brand pharmaceutical companies from paying to delay generics competition, in a brief targeting both the law's in-state features upheld by a district court and the extraterritorial reach the state wants revived.

  • August 22, 2025

    Texas, Fla. Want In On Abortion Medication Challenge

    Texas and Florida have asked a Lone Star State federal court to allow them to intervene in litigation challenging federal approvals for the abortion medication mifepristone, arguing that their interests may "no longer be adequately represented" by Missouri, Kansas and Idaho, which are currently leading the suit.

  • August 22, 2025

    Chicago Feds Create New Healthcare Fraud Section

    The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced Friday it has created a section within its Criminal Division dedicated solely to prosecuting healthcare fraud, which the U.S. Department of Justice has identified as a fraud enforcement priority.

  • August 22, 2025

    Judge Blocks Most ACA Rule Changes, Lets Others Proceed

    A Maryland federal judge Friday largely froze the Trump administration's changes to Affordable Care Act regulations, handing a win to three cities, a coalition of doctors and a small business advocacy group that contend the changes would cause at least 1.8 million people to lose their healthcare coverage.

  • August 21, 2025

    CVS, Drugmakers Illegally Inflated Insulin Prices, City Claims

    Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Co., Novo Nordisk Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis US LLC, pharmacy benefit managers CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx, and others have been hit with civil racketeering and state unfair trade practices law claims by the city of Torrington, Connecticut, over an alleged scheme to inflate insulin prices.

  • August 21, 2025

    DOJ Gets Backing In Fight Over Public Benefits

    A group that fights to restrict immigration into the U.S. is urging a Rhode Island federal court to let the Trump administration narrow noncitizens' access to programs like Head Start, homeless shelters and food banks, arguing Thursday that a coalition of 20 states is trying to obstruct immigration enforcement and give benefits to "illegal aliens."

  • August 21, 2025

    High Court Allows Trump Admin To Cancel $783M In NIH Grants

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to resume the mass termination of scientific grants, overturning rulings by lower courts that had kept the funds flowing to universities and other recipients. 

  • August 21, 2025

    Feds Claim Fla. Billing Co. Aided $15M Medicare Fraud

    The U.S. government urged a Florida federal judge to deny an outsourcing company's motion to toss a $15 million False Claims Act lawsuit, saying the business aided a Miami-based laboratory to fraudulently bill Medicare for genetic tests that weren't used to treat patients. 

  • August 21, 2025

    11th Circ. Backs Health System In Black Worker's Bias Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit ruled Thursday that a fired Black worker can't revive her race and disability bias suit against a Georgia health system, saying her failure to provide a proposed date to return from medical time off amounted to an unreasonable request for indefinite leave.

  • August 21, 2025

    Seton Hall Gets COVID-19 Death Suit Tossed For Good

    A New Jersey federal judge wasn't swayed by new arguments brought by parents of a Seton Hall University sophomore who died during a COVID-19 isolation period, saying their contract-related claims failed to establish one existed at all.

  • August 21, 2025

    Employer Plans In Limbo As Courts Grapple With Trans Care

    Despite appellate courts' apparent willingness to allow states to ban gender-affirming care for minors, employers are still waiting for clarity on whether federal anti-discrimination laws require health plans to cover transgender healthcare access, experts say.

  • August 20, 2025

    17 States, DC Urge FDA To Lift Mifepristone Restrictions

    Seventeen states and the District of Columbia Wednesday joined four others in urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lift restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone, saying that data their health departments collected overwhelmingly back the drug's safety.

Expert Analysis

  • 9th Circ.'s Kickback Ruling Strengthens A Prosecutorial Tool

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    The Ninth Circuit's decision last month in U.S. v. Schena, interpreting the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act to prohibit kickback conduct between the principal and individuals who do not directly interact with patients, serves as a wake-up call to the booming clinical laboratory testing industry, say attorneys at Kendall Brill.

  • Fla. Misses Opportunity To Rectify Wrongful Death Damages

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    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' recent veto of a bill that would have removed certain arbitrary and unfair prohibitions on noneconomic wrongful death damages in medical negligence cases highlights the urgent need for reforms to current state law, say attorneys at Farah & Farah.

  • A Shifting Trend In FDA Form 483 Disclosure Obligations

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    A New York federal court's Checkpoint Therapeutics decision extends a recent streak of dismissals of securities class actions alleging that pharmaceutical companies failed to disclose U.S. Food and Drug Administration Form 483 inspection reports, providing critical guidance for companies during the FDA approval process, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • The Future Of Lab-Test Regs After FDA Rescinds Rule

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently rescinded its laboratory-developed tests rule in response to a Texas federal court decision this spring, reinforcing a separation of authority between the FDA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and calling into question the FDA's role in overseeing such tests without congressional action, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Unpacking Ore. Law's Limits On PE Healthcare Investment

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    A recent Oregon law imposes significant restrictions on nonphysicians owning or controlling medical practices, but newly enacted amendments provide some additional flexibility in certain ownership arrangements without scuttling the law's intent of addressing concerns about the rise of private equity investment in healthcare, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Criminal Healthcare Fraud Takeaways From 4th Circ. Reversal

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    After the Fourth Circuit reversed a doctor’s postconviction acquittal in U.S. v. Elfenbein last month, defense attorneys should consider three strategies when handling complex criminal healthcare matters, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • AG Watch: Texas Embraces The MAHA Movement

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    Attorneys at Kelley Drye examine Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's actions related to the federal Make America Healthy Again movement, and how these actions hinge on representations or omissions by the target companies as opposed to specific analyses of the potential health risks.

  • How States Are Regulating Health Insurers' AI Usage

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    The absence of a federal artificial intelligence framework positions states as key regulators of health insurers’ AI use, making it important for payors and service providers to understand the range of state AI legislation being passed in California and elsewhere, and consider implementing an AI-focused compliance infrastructure, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • 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.