Policy & Compliance

  • July 16, 2026

    Aramark Tells Full 5th Circ. To Nix Aetna ERISA Arbitration Bid

    Food services company Aramark urged the full Fifth Circuit to deny Aetna's request to arbitrate allegations that it cost Aramark millions by bungling health benefits claims, arguing that the insurer is attempting to twist U.S. Supreme Court precedent to kick the case out of court.

  • July 16, 2026

    Diagnostics Co. Labcorp Settles FCA Claims For $14.5M

    Diagnostics testing company Labcorp will pay $14.5 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that it submitted unnecessary Medicare claims for urine drug tests, the Massachusetts U.S. attorney's office announced.

  • July 15, 2026

    Albertsons Slow To Review Wash. Opioid Sales, Judge Told

    Albertsons conducted few reviews of opioid dispensing by its Washington pharmacies for years after establishing a controlled substances compliance team, according to testimony played on Day 3 of a bench trial in the state's lawsuit accusing the company and its Safeway subsidiary of exacerbating Washington's opioid epidemic.

  • July 15, 2026

    Acorda Can't Add $66M To Award In Ampyra Royalty Fight

    The Second Circuit on Wednesday refused to alter an arbitral award issued to Acorda Therapeutics to include nearly $66 million beyond the $16.6 million it won in a multiple sclerosis drug dispute, saying the company "slept on its rights" and couldn't change the result now.

  • July 15, 2026

    2nd Circ. Revives NY Provider's BCBS Underpayment Suit

    The Second Circuit on Wednesday revived a New York healthcare provider's suit accusing out-of-state Blue Cross Blue Shield licensees of underpaying insurance claims, saying the carriers' long-standing business relationship with a New York licensee to obtain preferential prices in the state supports jurisdiction there.

  • July 15, 2026

    Local Gov'ts Seek To Bar HHS Teen Health Program Changes

    A group of local governments and health nonprofits urged a D.C. federal court Wednesday to block recent federal mandates requiring Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grant recipients to incorporate abstinence education and other changes to their reproductive health programming, arguing the changes are arbitrary and capricious.

  • July 15, 2026

    NC Panel Nixes Nurse Noncompetes For Being 'Too Broad'

    A medical clinic provider couldn't convince a North Carolina state appeals court to overturn a ruling that noncompete agreements for two former nurses were unenforceable, after a split panel ruled Wednesday that the terms were overly broad and voidable under public policy.

  • July 15, 2026

    United Owes $630K In Fight Over Teen's Mental Health Care

    United Healthcare must pay $630,000 to a mother who challenged the insurance company's decision to deny coverage for her son's residential mental health treatment, a Utah federal judge ordered, after rejecting the company's bid to slim her requests for interest and attorney fees.

  • July 15, 2026

    Mass. Says UnitedHealth FCA Case Belongs In State Court

    Massachusetts asked a federal judge to send its $100 million state False Claims Act lawsuit alleging overbilling by UnitedHealthcare back to state court, accusing the insurer of forum shopping with a theoretical defense touching on federal law.

  • July 15, 2026

    DC Circ. Affirms Ratings For Alignment Medicare Plans

    The D.C. Circuit sided with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding its decision not to discard certain unfavorable surveys for Alignment Healthcare's Medicare Advantage plans, saying there is no indication of an administrative error.

  • July 14, 2026

    Albertsons Probed On Pharmacy Compliance Staffing At Trial

    Two former Albertsons pharmacy compliance executives testified in video depositions played Tuesday before a Washington judge considering whether Albertsons failed to prevent the diversion of opioids in the state, acknowledging the nationwide compliance team consisted of just six staffers between 2015 and 2020 despite heightened scrutiny amid the opioid epidemic.

  • July 14, 2026

    3rd Circ. Revives Providers' Underpayment Suit Against Cigna

    The Third Circuit partially revived several New Jersey-based healthcare practices' Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit alleging Cigna improperly underreimbursed them for covered healthcare services provided to Cigna's subscribers, ruling Monday the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged they were underpaid for some out-of-network services when compared to their normal charges for similar services.

  • July 14, 2026

    Patent Eligibility Bill Divides Senators Over Health Costs

    Several U.S. senators expressed strong support at a hearing Tuesday for a bill aimed at expanding which inventions are eligible for patents, while others appeared to have reservations about the potential effect of the proposed changes on healthcare costs.

  • July 14, 2026

    Medical Device Co. Settles FCA Claims

    A company that sells compression devices to reduce swelling in patients with certain medical conditions will pay $551,000 to settle allegations that it obtained Medicare reimbursement with falsified medical records, the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts announced Tuesday.

  • July 14, 2026

    FDA Resumes Drug Denial Letters Amid Secrecy Clash

    Drugmakers are examining a new batch of drug application rejection letters released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month — the first disclosure since regulators paused the releases amid industry outcry.

  • July 14, 2026

    CVS Caremark Settles Out Of FTC Suit Over Insulin Pricing

    The Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement on Tuesday with CVS Caremark that includes a number of changes to its business practices, the second deal in a case accusing the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers of inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes.

  • July 14, 2026

    The Latest Medicare Star Lawsuits: What You Need To Know

    Following a win in a Georgia federal court for a health plan challenging a Medicare Advantage Star Ratings calculation, Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at a recent batch of insurer lawsuits seeking to capitalize on the ruling.

  • July 14, 2026

    1st Circ. Backs CDC Ban On Importing Dogs Under 6 Months

    The First Circuit has upheld a rule requiring all dogs imported into the U.S. to be at least six months of age, saying the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had shown it was a reasonable measure to fight rabies.

  • July 14, 2026

    DOJ Asks 9th Circ. Undo Trans Health Ruling Against Premera

    The federal government has backed Premera Blue Cross in its bid at the Ninth Circuit to overturn a Washington federal court's judgment that held the insurance company's coverage policy for gender dysphoria surgery is discriminatory, arguing the decision is out of line with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • July 14, 2026

    Clinics Want Medicaid Abortion Stay Lifted After Pa. Court Win

    Allegheny Reproductive Health Center and other healthcare providers on Tuesday asked a Commonwealth Court judge to unfreeze money for Medicaid-funded abortions in Pennsylvania following the court's landmark ruling that the state's coverage exclusions for such abortions were unconstitutional.

  • July 14, 2026

    Kroger Says Flimsy Claims Doom Tobacco Fee Suit

    Grocery giant Kroger urged an Ohio federal judge to toss a suit challenging the legality of an extra health plan fee it charged tobacco users, stating it complied with federal benefits law by giving workers a 90-day window each year to dodge the fee by enrolling in a wellness program.

  • July 14, 2026

    Amgen Colo. Win May Chill States' Push To Cap Drug Prices

    A Colorado injunction blocking a prescription drug pricing statute may have thrown a wrench into efforts in other states to limit drug costs for consumers through a new crop of state oversight boards.

  • July 13, 2026

    Albertsons, Safeway Face Trial Over Wash.'s Opioid Epidemic

    Albertsons and Safeway ignored signs of problematic opioid prescriptions in Washington for years, an attorney for the state told a Seattle judge Monday during opening statements in a bench trial over allegations that the pharmacy chains failed to prevent the diversion of opioids that fueled the state's long-running overdose crisis.

  • July 13, 2026

    2nd Circ. Says Tylenol Maker Must Face Autism, ADHD Suits

    The Second Circuit said Monday that a lower court had wrongly excluded plaintiffs experts from testifying about an alleged relationship between using Tylenol during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, although the panel cautioned that the decision was not political or scientific.

  • July 13, 2026

    J&J Asks 3rd Circ. To Block Return Of Ex-Worker's Fee Claims

    Johnson & Johnson has asked the Third Circuit to keep dismissed excessive fee claims out of a proposed class action alleging the company charged employees too much for a prescription drug benefits program, arguing that the lower court correctly tossed that portion of the suit for lack of standing.

Expert Analysis

  • How Justices' TPS Ruling Affects Workforce Planning

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent holding in Mullin v. Doe that courts lack jurisdiction to review temporary protected status determinations greenlights the end of TPS for thousands of Syrian and Haitian nationals, and means employers must reevaluate TPS-designees' employability while avoiding discriminatory document practices, says attorney Richard Herman.

  • A New Regulatory Environment For PE In Calif. Healthcare

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    The California Office of Health Care Affordability's proposed revisions to its cost and market impact review regulations, amid broader state scrutiny of private equity-backed healthcare arrangements, represent a qualitative shift in California's regulatory posture toward institutional healthcare investment, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • FDA Moves Leave Peptides In A Legal Gray Zone

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    While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken a concrete step forward on reclassifying certain peptides, the practical consequence of their interim status cannot be overstated — these substances are no longer designated as posing a significant safety risk, but they have not been affirmatively authorized for compounding, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several notable banking law developments to New York, including a proposal to align state stablecoin rules with the federal Genius Act, fresh fair lending and cybersecurity guidance from state regulators, and a significant Second Circuit holding on preemption, say attorneys at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • A New Defense For Medicaid Fraud Cases In Texas

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    The Texas Supreme Court decision in LabCorp v. Texas last month, finding that the state's False Claims Act requires proof that an omission is material, is among the first to establish that the government's lack of reaction to the defendant's disclosures rendered alleged omissions immaterial, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • Pregnancy Bias Suits Highlight EEOC's Expanding Reach

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    Recent U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suits show that enactment of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has drawn scrutiny to a wider range of employment decisions and an increasing focus on individual decisions as indicators of whether an employer's policies comply with evolving federal requirements, say attorneys at Krevolin Horst.

  • Legal Risks Of Using AI To Screen Psychedelic Trial Patients

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    Though using artificial intelligence to preemptively identify drug trial participants likely to experience placebo effects could produce clearer research results, sponsors will need to be ready for the new legal questions these methods raise about informed consent, accountability for algorithmically derived criteria, and potential bias in data training sets, says Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell.

  • How 6th Circ. Tightened NLRB Injunction Standard

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent ruling in Kerwin v. Trinity Health Grand Haven Hospital, dissolving a Section 10(j) injunction obtained by the National Labor Relations Board against an employer that refused to bargain, will make it harder for the NLRB to obtain injunctions while prosecuting unfair labor practice proceedings, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

  • Md. Ruling Reflects Classic Administrative Law Principle

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    A Maryland federal court's recent decision in Columbus v. Kennedy significantly limits how far the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can go in reshaping the Affordable Care Act through regulation, highlighting a principle that will likely be applied in similar Administrative Procedure Act challenges, says Michael King at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • Healthcare Orgs Should Prep For Greater Grant Oversight

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new Audit Enforcement and Risk Oversight initiative, and a proposed overhaul of the governmentwide framework for grants management, signal an aggressive and data-driven approach to federal grant enforcement, and could significantly expand the pathways leading to enforcement actions and private litigation, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • 3rd Circ. Decision Sheds Light On BIPA Bank Exemption

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in McGoveran v. Amazon illuminates how courts are extending the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act's financial institution carveout beyond banks and insurers to technology vendors and other businesses handling biometric data, a defendant-friendly shift that still casts uncertainty around BIPA's enforcement, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • Data Reveals Pivot In Feds' Financial Fraud Priorities

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    Recent Justice Department data shows fraud prosecutions fell to their lowest rate in a decade in 2025, illustrating a move away from traditional financial cases and toward a targeted mix of healthcare, government program, consumer and sanctions matters, say Paul Hinton and Adrienna Huffman at The Brattle Group.

  • New Timeline For Benefits Cases May Increase FCA Litigation

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    Recent reforms designed to speed enforcers’ intervention decisions in False Claims Act suits involving state-administered benefits will likely encourage more qui tam relators to litigate cases without the government’s imprimatur, and increase defendants’ discovery burdens, defense costs and business disruptions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.