Policy & Compliance

  • February 24, 2026

    Philips Unit Escapes CPAP Machine Whistleblower Case

    Philips Respironics, a unit of Koninklijke Philips NV, fended off a whistleblower suit alleging it provided kickbacks to CPAP suppliers that bought its products, with a Pennsylvania federal judge ruling that a former Philips manager failed to show that the company willfully engaged in illegal conduct.

  • February 24, 2026

    PE-Owned Doc Staffing Raises ER Fraud Risk

    As private equity firms scoop up physician staffing companies, healthcare litigators say emergency rooms and referrals are fertile ground for fraud and False Claims Act enforcement.

  • February 24, 2026

    AbbVie Tests Exclusion Strategy In Drug Price Fight

    Following a series of drugmaker losses in suits challenging Medicare drug price negotiations, AbbVie Inc. is trying something new in a challenge focused on Botox and a legal exclusion for drugs made from human plasma.

  • February 24, 2026

    AstraZeneca Drug Price Challenge Falls Short In Hawaii

    A federal judge in Hawaii temporarily upheld the state's law that prevents drug manufacturers from blocking safety-net hospitals from contracting with an unlimited number of outside pharmacies to dispense discounted prescription drugs under the 340B Drug Discount Program. 

  • February 24, 2026

    Mintz Lands IP Pro From Wilson Sonsini In San Francisco

    Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC. announced Tuesday that it has added a patent litigation attorney who was at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC for more than two decades to bolster its intellectual property division.

  • February 23, 2026

    DC Circ. Talks Sharks, Moats In Vertex HHS Kickback Appeal

    Sharks and moats were top of mind Monday morning for one judge on the D.C. Circuit, as gene therapy drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals attempted to convince the court that its fertility preservation program does not violate the Anti-Kickback Statute.

  • February 23, 2026

    Zynex Faces Securities Suit Following Arrest Of Former Execs

    After being arrested last month on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy, the former CEO and ex-chief compliance officer of bankrupt medical device maker Zynex have been hit with a securities class action that alleges they and others caused the company to engage in fraudulent billing practices that inflated its stock price and led to investor losses once the truth came to light.

  • February 23, 2026

    Ferguson Braswell Adds Healthcare Practice With 2 In Texas

    Ferguson Braswell Fraser Kubasta PC announced Monday that it has opened a healthcare practice with a pair of new shareholders in Houston, expanding the firm's corporate platform.

  • February 20, 2026

    DOJ Says Ohio Health System's Contracts Violate Antitrust

    The U.S. Department of Justice and Ohio's attorney general's office sued OhioHealth Corp. Friday in federal court, accusing the healthcare system of using contractual restrictions to block insurers from offering plans that include lower-cost rivals.

  • February 20, 2026

    Court OKs $376K Arb. Victory For Accountant In PWFA Suit

    A Texas federal court approved a $376,000 arbitration award for a former community center accounting employee who alleged she was belittled by a supervisor and denied telework as a temporary accommodation following childbirth.

  • February 20, 2026

    Kaiser Sues Insurers To Tap $95M D&O Policy For Fraud Deal

    Kaiser Foundation Health Plan sued Chubb and other insurers in California federal court Friday seeking to tap $95 million in directors and officers liability coverage for a recently settled whistleblower action that accused Kaiser of submitting false diagnoses for Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees. 

  • February 20, 2026

    Judge Says Texas Can't Enforce Optometry Anti-Steering Law

    A Texas federal judge on Friday blocked the state from enforcing an anti-steering law that banned managed care plans from telling insureds about optometrists who offer cheaper options, saying that the law violated protected commercial speech. 

  • February 20, 2026

    Lack Of Standing Dooms GardaWorld Health Fees Suit

    A North Carolina federal judge on Friday threw out a suit alleging that GardaWorld Cash Service violated federal employment law with surcharges on its employee health plan for those who use tobacco or refused COVID-19 vaccination after finding that the two named plaintiffs did not participate in the health plan.

  • February 19, 2026

    Judge Denies Mylan And Aurobindo's Bid To Escape Trial

    A Connecticut federal judge has once again rejected generic-drug makers' bid to escape a multistate lawsuit accusing them of engaging in an overarching antitrust conspiracy, saying the evidence supports the need for a jury trial on whether the companies colluded to fix prices and divvy up markets for dozens of generic drugs.

  • February 19, 2026

    Texas Suit Says Sanofi Paid Kickbacks For Prescriptions

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Sanofi-Aventis US LLC in state court Thursday, accusing the pharmaceutical company of paying kickbacks to providers so they would prescribe Sanofi's drugs.

  • February 19, 2026

    Red State AGs Back La. Bid To Halt Eased Abortion Pill Rules

    A coalition of 21 Republican state attorneys general, led by Nebraska, urged a federal judge to grant Louisiana's bid to block the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2023 rules easing access to the abortion drug mifepristone, arguing that the policy undermines states' authority to enforce their own abortion laws and imposes a "pocketbook injury" on states.

  • February 19, 2026

    EEOC, Urology Co. Secure OK For Pregnancy Bias Settlement

    An Oklahoma federal judge signed off on a $90,000 deal on Thursday to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit claiming a urology practice placed a pregnant employee on unpaid leave rather than allow her to sit on the job.

  • February 19, 2026

    Conn. Medical Office Faces 3 'Insomnia' Data Breach Suits

    A Connecticut medical practice failed to secure its patients' and employees' private information ahead of a ransomware attack that likely affected thousands of people, then flouted its duty to provide the victims with proper notice, according to three proposed class actions filed in the past week.

  • February 19, 2026

    Texas Panel Unsure Midwife Can Escape Abortion Order

    A Texas appellate court pushed back on a midwife's assertion that a court order blocking her from providing abortions flouted the state's rules of civil procedure, saying Thursday she wasn't facing the lawsuit "for doing appendectomies."

  • February 19, 2026

    Pharma Group Asks 1st Circ. To Ax RI's 340B Drug Price Law

    A pharmaceutical trade group has urged the First Circuit to overturn a district court's order siding with a Rhode Island law that bars drug manufacturers from blocking hospitals and clinics from contracting with outside pharmacies to dispense discounted drugs under the federal 340B Discount Drug Program. 

  • February 19, 2026

    Scientist Must Give Splenda Maker Emails With In-House Attys

    A scientist battling a lawsuit by the maker of Splenda over her research linking the artificial sweetener to cancer-causing chemicals must turn over emails with her employer's in-house counsel, a North Carolina magistrate judge ruled, finding they are not protected by privilege.

  • February 19, 2026

    Northwell Health Should Beat Pension Plan Suit, Judge Says

    Northwell Health inched closer to escaping a proposed class action alleging the hospital system hid cuts to workers' pension plans when converting to a cash-balance plan in the late 1990s, after a New York federal magistrate judge held disclosures about plan changes complied with federal benefits law.

  • February 19, 2026

    Harvard Docs Get Censored Articles Permanently Restored

    The Trump administration agreed to maintain the court-ordered restoration of articles penned by Harvard Medical School researchers that contained references to the LGBTQ+ community after they had previously been scrubbed from a government-hosted website.

  • February 18, 2026

    Blue Shield Of Calif. Says 'Ghost Network' Action Falls Flat

    Trouble finding a mental health care therapist is unfortunate but not something that an entire class action can be based on, argued Blue Shield of California, urging a federal judge to dismiss a suit accusing the company of maintaining a "ghost network" directory of providers who don't exist or don't accept new patients.

  • February 18, 2026

    Sandoz's Case Against Amgen Over Enbrel Biosimilar Tossed

    A Virginia federal court found that Sandoz Inc. should have brought its claims accusing Amgen of blocking competition for Enbrel in a previous patent dispute over the blockbuster autoimmune disease treatment.

Expert Analysis

  • 10 Issues To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting

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    This year, in addition to evergreen developments driven by national security priorities, disruptive new technologies and competition with rival powers, federal contractors will see significant disruptions driven by the new administration’s efforts to reduce government spending, regulation and the size of the federal workforce, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Dispelling 10 Myths About Health Provider-Based Compliance

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    Congress appears intent on requiring hospitals to submit provider-based attestations for all off-campus outpatient hospital locations, so now is the time for hospitals to prepare for this change by understanding common misconceptions about provider-based status and proactively correct noncompliance, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • A Look At HHS' New Opinion On Patient Assistance Programs

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    A recent advisory opinion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General follows a recent trend of blessing patient assistance program arrangements that implicate the Anti-Kickback Statute, as long as they are structured with appropriate safeguards to minimize the risk of fraud and abuse, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 2 Anti-Kickback Developments Hold Lessons For Biopharma

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's Anti-Kickback Statute settlement with QOL Medical and a favorable advisory opinion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provide a study in contrasts, but there are tips for biopharma manufacturers trying to navigate the vast compliance space between them, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.

  • Tips For Pharma-Biotech Overlap Reporting In New HSR Form

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    While there’s no secret recipe for reporting overlaps to the Federal Trade Commission in the new Hart-Scott-Rodino Act form, there are several layers of considerations for all pharma-biotech companies and counsel to reflect on internally before reporting on any deal, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • A Look At Drug Price Negotiation Program's Ongoing Impact

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    More than two years after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the rapid implementation of the drug price negotiation program, attorneys at Ropes & Gray discuss how the IRA has influenced licensing strategies, and how maximum fair prices under the law have economically affected certain drugs.

  • Preparing For A Possible End To The Subminimum Wage

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    The U.S. Department of Labor's proposed rule to end the subminimum wage for employees with disabilities may significantly affect the community-based rehabilitation and training programs that employ these workers, so certified programs should be especially vigilant about compliance during this period of evaluation and scrutiny, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Drug Pricing Policy Trends To Expect In 2025 And Beyond

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    Though 2025 may bring more of the same in the realm of drug pricing policy, business as usual entails a sustained, high level of legal and policy developments across at least six major areas, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Top 10 Healthcare And Life Sciences Issues To Watch In 2025

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    Under the new Trump administration, this coming year may benefit some healthcare and life sciences stakeholders, while creating new challenges for others amid an increasingly complex regulatory environment, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 4 Keys To Litigating In An Active Regulatory Environment

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    For companies facing litigation influenced by government regulatory action — a recent trend that a politically charged atmosphere will exacerbate — there are a few principles that can help to align litigation strategy with broader public positioning in the regulatory and oversight context, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • How Views On Healthcare Price Transparency Are Changing

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    Regulators' attitudes toward price transparency regulation have shifted over the past several years in ways that may seem contradictory, and research into detailed rate information published by hospitals and health plans has yielded mixed results, says Matthew List at Charles River Associates.

  • EEOC Wearable Tech Guidance Highlights Monitoring Scrutiny

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    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's recent fact sheet on wearable technologies cautions against potential issues with federal anti-discrimination laws and demonstrates growing concern from regulators and legislators about intrusive technologies in the workplace, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Navigating The Potential End Of GLP-1 Drug Shortages

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's determination of whether GLP-1 products are in shortage may affect how compounders provide these products and spur a range of litigation including patent disputes and unfair competition suits, say attorneys at Goodwin.