Digital Health & Technology

  • June 08, 2023

    FTC's Health Privacy Efforts Raise Specter Of Litigation

    The Federal Trade Commission is moving to step up its already aggressive policing of how health apps use and share sensitive personal information, but unresolved questions over the scope of the agency's authority is likely to spark challenges that could sharply curtail these efforts.

  • June 08, 2023

    Harvard Health Plan Faces Class Action In Hack Affecting 2.5M

    A Massachusetts-based health care provider and insurer skimped on data security, then sat on information about a data breach affecting more than 2.5 million patients and providers for nearly two months, a proposed class action filed Wednesday alleges.

  • June 05, 2023

    Broker Seeks Early Win In Coverage Row With Health Network

    A health care network's breach of contract and negligence suit against its former insurance broker should be dropped, the broker told a North Carolina federal court, asserting that the claims are premature since the underlying insurance dispute and putative data breach class action remain pending.

  • June 02, 2023

    Judge Calls Apple's Conduct In Smartwatch Row 'Careless'

    A federal judge in California on Friday ripped Apple's failure to preserve emails from a former top executive in its health division as "irresponsible and careless, and perhaps even grossly negligent," a day after a Silicon Valley medical device startup tried to draw the attention of a federal appeals court to alleged misconduct at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • May 31, 2023

    Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Moon Landing And VA Records

    Law360 highlights significant contracts from May 2023, including long-pending and over-budget projects such as NASA's purchase of Blue Origin's $3.4 billion lunar lander and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' renewal of a troubled $10 billion record systems project.

  • May 30, 2023

    Data Of Nearly 9 Million People Swiped In Dental Insurer Hack

    Nearly nine million people's personal medical data and Social Security numbers were stolen in a cyberattack earlier this year on one of the largest dental insurers in the U.S., new filings with state regulators show.

  • May 24, 2023

    On Deck In JPML: FTX, Cheer Abuse, T-Mobile

    The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Thursday will consider whether to centralize sprawling fallout from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, as well as claims of hearing loss from the drug Tepezza and allegedly exploding solar panel systems.

  • May 23, 2023

    Nurse Targets Chicago Hospitals Over Biometric Cabinets

    A Chicago health system and two of its hospitals have been hit with biometric privacy claims by a nurse who says she and others were unlawfully required to scan their fingerprints to access a medicine cabinet without first providing informed consent.

  • May 23, 2023

    Health Care Pro Departs Jones Day For Mintz In San Francisco

    Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC has continued its San Francisco expansion by adding a partner from Jones Day as a member of its health law practice.

  • May 22, 2023

    Patient Wants Pa. Health Co. Nude Photo Leak Suit Alive

    A patient accusing Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley Health Network of negligently allowing ransomware attackers to steal and publish her nude photos has asked a federal judge to keep her lawsuit alive, claiming that the hospital should have bolstered its defenses after acquiring a company that had suffered a prior data breach.

  • May 22, 2023

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Delaware's Chancery Court was tough last week for former executives of SeaWorld, VMware and Momentus, who all saw their lawsuits for alleged unpaid benefits dismissed. The court also rejected an attempt from Warner Bros. Discovery to shift legal fees and a request by Fox Corp. to keep court documents under wraps. Here's your wrap of weekly news out of Delaware's Chancery Court.

  • May 19, 2023

    Tort Report: Spectrum Deal To End $1B Verdict Appeal

    Cable TV and internet giant Spectrum's pending deal to end an appeal of a $1.1 billion wrongful death award and a $96 million trucking crash verdict in Michigan lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

  • May 19, 2023

    Ohio Health System Agrees To Pay $1.75M In Data Breach Suit

    An Ohio health care system has agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle class action claims that it failed to protect more than 216,000 patients' personal and medical information from being illegally accessed during a 2021 data breach, according to federal court filings.

  • May 17, 2023

    Aetna Sued After Russian Hack Stole Data Of 3M Customers

    Health insurer Aetna has been hit with a proposed class action alleging that the company's outdated security measures allowed Russian hackers to access sensitive personal information in a breach targeting multiple health care providers and over 3 million customer records.

  • May 16, 2023

    EyeMed Cuts $2.5M Multistate Deal Over Data Breach

    Vision insurance company EyeMed has agreed to pay $2.5 million to officials in Oregon, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania to end a probe into whether its allegedly lax data security led to a 2020 hack that compromised the data of more than two million people.

  • May 15, 2023

    Mass. Hospital To Pay $1M To End Kronos Data Breach Claims

    The University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center will pay $1.2 million to settle a data breach class action and federal wage lawsuit tied to a 2021 hack of workforce management company Kronos Inc. that took the hospital's payroll processing system offline for more than a month.

  • May 11, 2023

    NC Suit Over Health Care Co.'s Data Breach Migrates To Fla.

    A proposed class action against a health care provider accused of letting hackers steal patients' personal information is being transferred from North Carolina to Florida, the named plaintiff's attorney confirmed Thursday after a joint dismissal stipulation was filed in the Tar Heel State venue.

  • May 10, 2023

    FCA Chases 'Shrewder' Kickbacks As 50-Year Hunt Intensifies

    When sophisticated drug and device companies have confronted deadly diseases and daunting approval standards, they've hired the brightest scientific and legal minds — or bribed prescribers with cash, liquor, steaks, vacations and lap dances. The latter approach undergirds a landmark law that has been fueling litigation for 50 years and enters its next half-century chasing a new generation of camouflaged kickbacks.

  • May 08, 2023

    Pa. Health Co. Says Patients Can't Blame It For Stolen Nudes

    Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley Health Network sought to toss out a proposed class action over online ransomers stealing and posting nude photos of patients from their medical files, arguing to a federal court that the complaint lacked specifics on how the hospitals, rather than the hackers, were at fault.

  • May 06, 2023

    Law360's 2023 Health Care Editorial Advisory Board

    Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2023 Health Care Editorial Advisory Board.

  • May 04, 2023

    Lowey, Bursor & Fisher Want To Steer GoodRx Privacy Suits

    Attorneys for GoodRx users who accused the health care platform of breaching privacy laws by sharing their sensitive health information with advertisers Google, Facebook and Criteo asked a California federal judge Wednesday to tap two firms — Lowey Dannenberg and Bursor & Fisher — to lead the charge, citing their extensive experience with privacy class actions.

  • May 03, 2023

    MoFo Litigation Leader Jumps To Paul Hastings

    Global law firm Paul Hastings LLP has brought on Morrison Foerster LLP's former litigation department chair for the Palo Alto office, strengthening the firm's intellectual property litigation practice, the firm announced Wednesday.

  • May 02, 2023

    'Extortion' Charge Roils FCA Bar As Kickback Suits Surge

    False Claims Act litigation targeting health care kickbacks has taken an especially expensive toll on corporate America because top-dollar defense attorneys spurn settlements despite "damning evidence," former U.S. Department of Justice lawyers who now represent FCA whistleblowers told Law360.

  • May 02, 2023

    1st Circ. Receptive To Reviving Rx Delivery Data Breach Suit

    A First Circuit panel appeared open in oral arguments Tuesday to reinstating a data breach lawsuit against a home delivery pharmacy service, with one judge comparing the patients' claims to someone hiring a locksmith that loses the keys to a known burglar.

  • May 02, 2023

    NJ Jury Sides With J&J Unit In Pelvic Mesh Injury Suit

    A New Jersey federal jury on Tuesday cleared Johnson & Johnson's medical device unit Ethicon of liability in a case alleging that a pelvic mesh device caused a Michigan woman disabling injuries, after hearing from the company's attorneys that the device is the "gold standard" in treating urinary incontinence for thousands of doctors.

Expert Analysis

  • The State Of Consumer Class Actions Amid COVID-19

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    While the pandemic has slowed the filing of consumer class actions, they remain a significant part of the litigation landscape — with false labeling claims remaining particularly popular, likely because they are easy to file and frequently survive motions to dismiss, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Anticipating The Biden Administration's Health Care Agenda

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    The Biden administration is unlikely to successfully push sweeping and partisan health care legislation in the next two years, but it will be able to reverse a litany of Trump administration policies pertaining to the Affordable Care Act, reproductive health care and more, say Nick Manetto and Ilisa Halpern Paul at Faegre Drinker.

  • What Biden Presidency May Mean For Data Privacy Litigation

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    The administration of President-elect Joe Biden will likely bring major changes to data privacy law and attendant litigation, including federal legislation that could preempt state laws, renegotiation of conditions for EU data transfers to the U.S., and increased Federal Trade Commission enforcement activity, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • 5 Tips For In-House Counsel Anticipating Cyber Class Actions

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    In light of a 270% increase in data breaches this year, and the attendant class actions, in-house counsel can prepare to efficiently manage litigation by focusing on certain initial steps, ranging from multidistrict litigation strategy to insurance best practices, say David McDowell and Nancy Thomas at MoFo.

  • Where Data Privacy And CFPB Are Headed Under Biden

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    Data privacy is likely to be a key area of legislative and enforcement focus for President-elect Joe Biden, and consumer financial protection is expected to be an immediate priority due to the economic impact of the pandemic, with the most drastic shift likely to occur at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Ethics Considerations For Law Firms Implementing AI

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    Richard Finkelman and Yihua Astle at Berkeley Research Group discuss the ethical and bias concerns law firms must address when implementing artificial intelligence-powered applications for recruiting, conflict identification and client counseling.

  • The Legal Implications Of Mobile Health Advancements

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    With the pandemic rapidly accelerating the timeline for the shift to remote and mobile health care, providers will need to keep a close eye on new privacy and cybersecurity risks, and on new potential to collect real-time information from patients, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • The Post-Election State AG Enforcement Landscape

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    Election results so far have kept the number of Republican and Democratic state attorneys general even, and no matter the outcome of the presidential race, AGs will work across the aisle on important issues like health care, competition and the environment, says former Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan at Kirkland.

  • What A Trump Or Biden Win Will Mean For State AGs

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    The outcome of the presidential election will have significant consequences on cooperation between federal agencies and state attorneys general, but either way robust multistate investigations — especially in the consumer protection space — will continue, says Sean Riley at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Outside Whistleblowers Are Critical To Exposing Fraud

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    Outsiders like industry experts, competitors, public interest organizations and concerned citizens often have deep knowledge, industry data and financial incentives that put them in a better position than insiders to spot fraud, say attorneys at Youman & Caputo, Fox Rothschild, Goldstein & Russell and Herrera Purdy.

  • Comparing Recent State Data Breach Law Updates

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    Public and private entities should revisit their incident response plans to ensure compliance with and understand the differences among heightened data breach notification requirements that five states and Washington, D.C., added or amended this year, says Jane Petoskey at Polsinelli.

  • Best Practices For Health Care Mergers In The COVID-19 Era

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    Health providers considering consolidation as a result of the pandemic's impact should attempt to mitigate antitrust enforcers' concerns by substantiating a merger with evidence of cost and quality efficiencies and making efforts to seek competition-friendly alternatives, say attorneys at Shook Hardy.

  • Assessing Health Data Privacy Damages During A Pandemic

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    Class action litigation related to data privacy in the health care industry is expected to trend upward during the COVID-19 era due to increased reliance on telehealth and contact tracing initiatives, heightening the importance of understanding the different economic approaches and challenges to valuing damages, say analysts at Cornerstone Research.