Policy & Compliance

  • July 29, 2026

    Health Economist's Report Cleared For Generic-Drug MDL

    The Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over generic-drug price-fixing claims has ruled that Humana's health economist's expert report can be admitted into evidence, rejecting several pharmaceutical companies' argument that his findings were based on a flawed methodology.

  • July 29, 2026

    NC Attorney General's Clash With HCA Cleared For Trial

    The North Carolina Business Court has cleared a path to trial in the state attorney general's suit accusing HCA Healthcare of letting the quality of care at Mission Hospital in Asheville languish.

  • July 28, 2026

    Ed Dept. Can't Cancel K–12 Mental Health Grants Worth $1B

    A Washington federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from terminating nearly $1 billion in K–12 mental health grants serving 15 states, finding that the plaintiff states are likely to prove the U.S. Education Department bypassed federal procedures when attempting to cut off the funds.

  • July 28, 2026

    J&J $5.5B Talc MDL Deal, $25.4M Cooley Judgment And More

    Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion commitment in a proposed settlement to resolve thousands of suits alleging its talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer, a New Jersey state court's order that Cooley LLP pay $25.4 million in litigation over its representation of a biotech founder, and other key resolutions in healthcare litigation over the last week.

  • July 28, 2026

    No COVID Immunity For Mich. Hospitals In Malpractice Revival

    Just because a motion is unopposed doesn't mean it should be granted, Michigan appellate judges said in a published opinion Tuesday, reversing a trial court's decision that the Pandemic Health Care Immunity Act shielded Beaumont Hospital Farmington Hills from a medical malpractice suit.

  • July 28, 2026

    Judge Mulls Pausing Medicaid Work Rule For 'Frail' Recipients

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he anticipates deciding by the end of the week whether the Trump administration will have to pause part of a new rule states must follow in determining whether medically frail Medicaid recipients are exempt from new work or school requirements.

  • July 28, 2026

    Nursing Facility Pays $15M In Calif. AG's Understaffing Suit

    Sweetwater Care and its affiliates agreed to resolve the California attorney general's consumer protection suit alleging they understaffed their skilled nursing facilities in more than 14,000 instances, exposing patients to neglect, abuse and injury with delayed care, while the defendants accepted nearly $200 million from Medicare and Medi-Cal.

  • July 28, 2026

    340B Appellate Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Drugmakers are pressing appellate judges in the back half of 2026 to strike down state laws blocking them from restricting 340B contract pharmacy arrangements. Law360 Healthcare Authority has the cases to watch.

  • July 28, 2026

    Med Center To Pay $200K To End EEOC Disability Bias Probe

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday that a California medical center has agreed to pay $200,000 to wrap up an investigation into a nurse's claim that it violated disability bias law by firing her instead of letting her transfer to another role.

  • July 27, 2026

    Albertsons Opioid Trial Told Of Needles, ODs In Library

    A witness in Washington's case accusing Albertsons Cos. Inc. of fueling the state's opioid crisis testified at a bench trial Monday that problem drug use was evident in a city library system she's led for nearly a decade, pointing to syringes scattered across the facility and multiple instances of overdoses.

  • July 27, 2026

    Wash. Panel Revives Island Health Wage, Break Class Action

    A Washington Court of Appeals panel has reinstated a worker's proposed class action accusing public hospital district Island Health of denying employees meal breaks and illegally rounding time worked when calculating wages, finding Monday that a trial court wrongly concluded the claims must be arbitrated under a union agreement.

  • July 27, 2026

    Cigna Must Face Pa. Suit Over Portal Health Data Tracking

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday allowed a group of Cigna health plan participants to pursue most of their claims alleging the company unlawfully disclosed their protected health information for marketing purposes by using an Adobe tracking pixel.

  • July 27, 2026

    Hygiene Co. Can't Fight FTC's Need To Back Up COVID Claims

    Xylitol-based hygiene products company Xlear can't challenge the Federal Trade Commission's general insistence that companies "substantiate" health claims like COVID-19 protections, because the FTC isn't currently suing over those claims, a Utah federal judge ruled Monday.

  • July 27, 2026

    Health Data Co. Inks $4.8M Settlement To End Investor Suit

    The health diagnostics company formerly known as Sema4 has reached a $4.8 million settlement with investors accusing the company of misleading them about a nonexistent, artificial intelligence-driven data platform it claimed to operate.

  • July 24, 2026

    Va. Court Orders FDA To Reconsider Mifepristone Restrictions

    A Virginia federal judge held that a 2023 regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unlawfully placed prescribing restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone, agreeing with a group of abortion providers that the agency inadequately addressed burdens on the healthcare system.

  • July 24, 2026

    Federal Bill Seeks CDC Set-Aside For Tribal Health

    A coalition of U.S. lawmakers from New Mexico and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have introduced legislation that would guarantee that tribal nations have equal access to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Emergency Preparedness program.

  • July 24, 2026

    Yale Age Test, Allergy Death, Wine Royalties: A Midyear Report

    In the second half of 2026, Connecticut courts are being called upon to decide closely watched issues such as whether the state's largest hospital group violated federal disability and age discrimination laws when requiring providers over age 70 to undergo mandatory cognitive tests.

  • July 24, 2026

    Mental Health Agency Sues Mass. Prison System For Records

    A Massachusetts mental health legal advocacy committee has filed a lawsuit against the state's department of correction, claiming it was denied access to data about health services provided in one state prison by a private contractor.

  • July 24, 2026

    Novo Asks NJ Judge To Stop Lilly's 'Deceptive' GLP-1 Ads

    Novo Nordisk Inc. asked a New Jersey federal court Friday to block rival Eli Lilly & Co. from running ads allegedly comparing their respective GLP-1 drugs using "outdated" clinical trials and "false superiority messages," arguing the ads are damaging its reputation and misleading consumers.

  • July 24, 2026

    Surgical Co. Trims Tobacco Fee Suit In Texas

    A Texas federal judge pared some claims from a proposed class action alleging that a surgical company wrongly imposed a surcharge on the health plans of workers who used tobacco, while opening discovery on other allegations she found had stated a claim for violating federal benefits law.

  • July 23, 2026

    UnitedHealth's $5M Demand Challenged By Wash. Dental Co.

    A dental practice is urging a Washington federal court to stop UnitedHealth from withholding future reimbursements, saying the insurer has failed to fully explain its assertion that it overpaid the practice more than $5 million for past claims, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

  • July 23, 2026

    Okla. Chiropractor Convicted Of $30M Medical Fraud Scheme

    A Florida federal jury convicted an Oklahoma chiropractor of attempting to bilk $30 million from federal health insurance programs, finding him guilty of a fraud conspiracy charge after he obtained patient information to produce fake doctors' orders for unnecessary medical equipment, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • July 23, 2026

    Texas Panel Overturns Abortion Injunction Against Midwife

    A Texas appellate court overturned a temporary injunction against a licensed Houston-area midwife accused by state prosecutors of violating Texas' abortion ban, finding Thursday a trial court wrongly admitted probable-cause affidavits from a related criminal case.

  • July 22, 2026

    Late Emails Undercut BCBS Pricing Suit, Walgreens Says

    Walgreen Co. is urging an Illinois federal judge to again sanction a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer and its subsidiary for allegedly failing to produce key email evidence the pharmacy retailer says "upends" the insurers' 6-year-old claim that it intentionally overcharged them for prescription drugs.

  • July 22, 2026

    Target Beats ERISA Suit Over Tobacco Health Surcharge

    A Minnesota federal judge on Wednesday tossed a proposed class action alleging that a tobacco fee on Target workers' health plan violated nondiscrimination provisions in federal benefits law, agreeing with the retail giant that the suit failed to state a claim.

Expert Analysis

  • Top 5 Antitrust Issues For In-House Counsel To Watch In 2026

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    With Trump administration enforcement policy having largely taken shape last year, antitrust issues that in-house counsel should have on the radar range from scrutiny of technology-assisted pricing to the return of merger remedies, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • 2025 Legal Milestones That Will Shape Psychedelics Sector

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    As 2025 draws to a close, psychedelic drug development stands at an inflection point, experiencing unprecedented momentum through recent sweeping regulatory changes and landmark clinical milestones, amid rapidly evolving regulatory expectations, say Odette Hauke at Odette Alina LLC and Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell.

  • 2025 State AI Laws Expand Liability, Raise Insurance Risks

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    As 2025 nears its end, claims professionals should be aware of trends in state legislation addressing artificial intelligence use, as insurance claims based on some of these liability-expanding statutes are a certainty, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Learning From 2025 FCA Trends Targeting PE In Healthcare

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    False Claims Act enforcement trends and legislative developments from this year signal intensifying state and federal scrutiny of private equity's growing footprint in healthcare, and the urgency of compliance, says Lisa Re at Arnold & Porter.

  • How 11th Circ.'s Qui Tam Review Could Affect FCA Litigation

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    On Dec. 12, the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, setting the stage for a decision that could drastically reduce enforcement under the False Claims Act, and presenting an opportunity to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the act's whistleblower provisions, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

  • How MAHA Is Taking Shape At The State Level

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    The national spotlight on the federal government's Make America Healthy Again movement is bolstering state-level actions regarding potential health impacts of certain food ingredients, increasing the difficulty and importance of maintaining effective compliance programs, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • A Look At Middlemen Fees In 340B Drug Discount Program

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    A U.S. Senate committee's recent hearing on the Section 340B drug discount program, along with statistical analysis of payment amounts, contribute to a growing consensus that middlemen fees are too high, say William Sarraille at the University of Maryland, and Shanyue Zeng and Rory Martin at IQVIA.

  • Nursing Home Abuse Cases Face 3 Barriers That Need Reform

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    Recent headlines reveal persistent gaps in oversight and protection for vulnerable residents in long-term care, but prosecution of these cases is often stymied by numerous challenges that will require a comprehensive overhaul of regulatory, legal and financial structures to address, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

  • Mulling Differing Circuit Rulings On Gender-Affirming Care

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    Despite the Eleventh Circuit's recent holding in Lange v. Houston County that a health plan's exclusion for gender-affirming surgery did not violate Title VII, employers should be mindful of other court decisions suggesting that different legal challenges may still apply to blanket exclusions for such care, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

  • State AGs May Extend Their Reach To Nat'l Security Concerns

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    Companies with foreign supply-chain risk exposure need a comprehensive risk-management strategy to address a growing trend in which state attorneys general use broadly written state laws to target conduct that may not violate federal regulations, but arguably constitutes a national security threat, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Unique Aspects Of Texas' Approach To AI Regulation

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    The Texas Responsible AI Governance Act — which will soon be the sole comprehensive artificial intelligence law in the U.S. — pulls threads from EU and Colorado laws but introduces more targeted rules with fewer obligations on commercial entities, say attorneys at MVA Law.

  • Surveying The Healthcare Policy Landscape Post-Shutdown

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    With last week's agreement to reopen the federal government, at least through the end of January, key healthcare legislation that has been in limbo since a December 2024 spending bill fell apart may recapture the attention of Congress, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • FDA Biosimilar Guidance Should Ease Biologics Development

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, indicating that the agency may no longer routinely require comparative efficacy studies when other evidence provides sufficient assurance of biosimilarity, underscores the FDA's trust in analytical technology as a driver of biologics access, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.