Policy & Compliance
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February 17, 2026
Chancery Disallows Arbitration In No Surprises Act Cases
In a "narrow" first impression ruling, a Delaware magistrate in Chancery has rejected claims that the federal No Surprises Act provides for a narrow private right to seek the enforcement of an arbitration award in litigation over medical bills involving the act.
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February 17, 2026
Judge Rips Drugmakers' Borderline 'Disingenuous' Appeal Bid
A Connecticut federal judge has rejected generic-drug makers' request for a quick appeal of his ruling denying them summary judgment on states' claims they engaged in an "overarching conspiracy" to fix prices, slamming the request for being borderline "disingenuous," mischaracterizing his reasoning and ignoring direct evidence of alleged wrongdoing.
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February 17, 2026
Oregon Racing to Block Predatory Hospice Schemes
As California's revamped laws trigger a massive crackdown on hospice fraud, Oregon lawmakers are moving to protect their residents against an influx of predatory operators. The state currently lacks robust hospice regulations, making it an attractive target for bad actors seeking a foothold as they are pushed out of neighboring markets, palliative care advocates say.
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February 17, 2026
FDA Targets 'Emotional' Ads In New Enforcement Campaign
Federal regulators' quick objection to a Novo Nordisk commercial touting its new weight loss pill as a chance to "live lighter" is designed to send a message to drugmakers and discourage them from making emotional appeals that promise patients a better life, experts say.
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February 17, 2026
Colo. Judge Allows Hospital To Pause Gender-Affirming Care
A Colorado state judge declined to reinstate gender-affirming care for transgender youth patients of Children's Hospital Colorado, ruling that ordering the hospital to resume providing the care could risk the hospital's ability to provide pediatric care to other patients.
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February 13, 2026
RFK Jr. Taps Ex-Jones Day Atty For FDA Senior Counselor
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has named a former Jones Day partner as one of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's senior counselors, according to an announcement.
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February 13, 2026
States' Generic Drugs Antitrust Case Headed Toward Trial
A Connecticut federal judge has mostly refused to side with pharmaceutical companies facing states' generic drug price-fixing litigation against them, ruling that there are genuine disputes of material fact as to drug distribution chains and the states' antitrust standing and teeing up the case for trial.
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February 13, 2026
Docs Urge Judge To Block CDC's Childhood Vaccine Changes
Doctors organizations Friday urged a Massachusetts federal judge to stop the government from implementing its new, shorter list of recommended vaccines for children and prevent the next meeting of a committee they say has been tainted by anti-vaccine influence.
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February 13, 2026
Iowa AG Urges 8th Circ. To Unblock Parts Of State PBM Law
The state of Iowa urged the Eighth Circuit on Friday to lift a preliminary block on parts of a law limiting pharmacy benefit managers' power to set drug prices in the Hawkeye State, arguing a lower court judge erred in holding that parts of the policy were federally preempted.
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February 13, 2026
Breast Surgery Patients Want ERISA Class Cert. Rethink
A United Healthcare plan member asked a New Jersey federal judge to rethink her decision denying class certification in a suit alleging the insurer systematically refused to cover postmastectomy breast reconstruction claims, arguing the court overlooked evidence showing that common issues could be resolved on a classwide basis.
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February 13, 2026
FDA Removes Boxed Warnings From HRT Products
Six menopause hormone therapies will no longer have warnings on their label about heart disease, breast cancer and dementia, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it removed them so that women can make decisions "free from exaggeration or fear."
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February 12, 2026
Trump Admin. Blocked From Cutting $600M In Health Funding
An Illinois federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from terminating more than $600 million in public health funding to four Democratic-led states, saying the states will likely succeed in showing they are unconstitutionally being targeted due to political or policy objectives.
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February 12, 2026
Feds Charge 2 Foreign Nationals Over $10M Healthcare Fraud
Federal officials in Chicago announced healthcare fraud charges Thursday against two natives of Pakistan who allegedly made $10 million by using fake medical companies to submit Medicare and other health benefit claims for items and services they never provided.
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February 12, 2026
DC Circ. Judge Rips Into Insurer In CMS Rating Case
A Louisiana insurer found a tough critic in one D.C. Circuit judge Thursday as it argued that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services used an unfair method to assess its "star ratings" for insurance plans, with the jurist saying the company seemed like it "just wanted whatever interpretation will give you a higher score."
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February 12, 2026
Ex-Pharma Exec Fights AGs' Quick Win Bid In Antitrust Case
A former pharmaceutical marketing executive urged a Connecticut federal court to reject summary judgment sought against him by state attorneys general pursuing wider price-fixing litigation against most of the generic drug industry, arguing key cooperating witnesses' questionable credibility makes a trial necessary.
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February 12, 2026
Goodwin Expands Healthcare Team With Ex-Reed Smith Atty
A healthcare attorney specializing in guiding clients through regulatory and transactional matters has moved her practice to Goodwin Procter LLP's Philadelphia office after more than 11 years with Reed Smith LLP.
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February 11, 2026
AbbVie Sues Medicaid, HHS Over Botox Fair Price Controls
AbbVie Inc. on Wednesday asked a D.C. federal court to block the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from controlling the price of Botox under the Inflation Reduction Act, arguing the cosmetic drug and migraine treatment should be excluded from the controls because it's a "plasma-derived" product.
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February 11, 2026
Ex-Lt. Col. Sues Hegseth Over Son's Benefits Denial
A former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Defense Health Agency on Wednesday, alleging his son was wrongfully denied health care coverage for continued inpatient mental health treatment, leaving in limbo more than $270,000 in costs.
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February 11, 2026
Anesthesia Group Looks To End FTC Rollup Suit
U.S. Anesthesia Partners has urged a Texas federal court to end the Federal Trade Commission's case accusing the group of buying competing practices through a so-called rollup strategy, asserting that enforcers have no evidence of any harm to competition.
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February 11, 2026
Judge Won't Review Tossed ERISA Claim In Benefits Dispute
An Ohio federal court refused Wednesday to reconsider a recent decision dismissing a woman's Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims against her husband's employer and several UnitedHealth Group Inc. companies that administered the couple's employee health benefits.
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February 11, 2026
HHS Says RFK Jr. Trans Care Policy View Not Legally Binding
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s declaration supporting the Trump administration's move to cut funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care is a nonbinding policy view, his agency told an Oregon federal court, and doesn't trigger provider exclusions from federal health programs.
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February 11, 2026
Organ Donor Network Must Face Veteran's Waitlist Bias Suit
A Black veteran who alleges his kidney transplant timeline was delayed because the United Network for Organ Sharing artificially inflated his kidney function scores can proceed with his Title VI lawsuit, a Georgia federal judge ruled, denying the network's bid to have the suit tossed.
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February 11, 2026
Trans Health And Pediatric Groups Challenge FTC Subpoenas
A major transgender medical group and a pediatric healthcare organization are seeking to end what they call "unlawful" consumer protection investigations from the Federal Trade Commission that want information pertaining to the medical groups' claims made in their marketing and advertising for gender-affirming care for minors.
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February 11, 2026
Mass. AG Charges Medical Transport Co. With Billing Fraud
A nonemergency medical transportation provider and its former owner are facing criminal charges for allegedly billing Massachusetts' Medicaid program for tens of thousands of fake rides and laundering the proceeds to accounts in Uganda, according to a Wednesday announcement.
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February 11, 2026
Kaiser Will Pay $30M To End DOL Mental Health Investigations
Kaiser Permanente has agreed to fork over at least $30 million and change its practices to end multiple U.S. Department of Labor investigations into the adequacy of the healthcare organization's mental health and substance use disorder treatment networks in California, the DOL said.
Expert Analysis
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HHS Plan To Cut Immigrant Benefits Spurs Provider Questions
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.
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Noncompete Forecast Shows Tough Weather For Employers
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.
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Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots
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.
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How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust
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.
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Texas Med Spas Must Prepare For 2 New State Laws
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.
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DOJ-HHS Collab Crystallizes Focus On Health Enforcement
The recently announced partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to combat False Claims Act violations, following a multiyear trend of high-dollar DOJ recoveries, signals a long-term enforcement horizon with major implications for healthcare entities and whistleblowers, say attorneys at RJO.
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How The Healthline Privacy Settlement Redefines Ad Tech Use
The Healthline settlement is the first time California has drawn a clear line in the sand around how website tracking must function in practice, so if your site uses tracking technologies, especially around sensitive content like health or finance, regulators are inspecting your website's back end, not just its banner, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.
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How Sweeping Budget Bill Shakes Up Health Industry
With the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act marking one of the most significant overhauls of federal health policy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, providers, managed care organizations and life sciences companies must now shift focus from policy review to implementation planning, say advisers at Holland & Knight.
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New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.
In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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A Look At Key 5th Circ. White Collar Rulings So Far This Year
In the first half of 2025, the Fifth Circuit has decided numerous cases of particular import to white collar practitioners, which collectively underscore the critical importance of meticulous recordbuilding, procedural compliance and strategic litigation choices at every stage of a case, says Joe Magliolo at Jackson Walker.
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What US Medicine Onshoring Means For Indian Life Sciences
Despite the Trump administration's latest moves to onshore essential medicine manufacturing, India will likely remain an indispensable component of the U.S. drug supply chain, but Indian manufacturers should prepare for stricter compliance checks, says Jashaswi Ghosh at Holon Law Partners.
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FCA Working Group Reboot Signals EHR Compliance Risk
The revival of the False Claims Act working group is an aggressive expansion of enforcement efforts by the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services targeted toward technology-enabled fraud involving electronic health records and other data, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
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FDA's Hasty Policymaking Approach Faces APA Challenges
Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has abandoned its usual notice-and-comment process for implementing new regulatory initiatives, two recent district court decisions make clear that these programs are still susceptible to Administrative Procedure Act challenges, says Rachel Turow at Skadden.