Policy & Compliance
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October 21, 2025
Novo Nordisk Says Officials Not Qualified To Doubt Drug Bills
Attorneys for Novo Nordisk Inc. on Tuesday sought to undercut witness testimony that Medicaid claims in Washington state for the company's hemophilia drug NovoSeven were shockingly high, leading one state auditor to suspect fraud.
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October 21, 2025
Anesthesia Giant Cuts Deals To End Hospital Antitrust Cases
North America's largest anesthesia provider has reached settlements ending antitrust claims from hospitals in New York and Florida as well as counterclaims accusing the hospitals of illegally recruiting away clinicians, according to court filings.
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October 21, 2025
MAHA Insider Talks 'Fever Point' For Healthcare
A MAHA insider says the healthcare industry should be prepared amid a massive cultural shift on health issues.
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October 21, 2025
Healthcare Laws This Week: Drug Pricing, AI And Aid In Dying
Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at a proposal by congressional Democrats to scale back Medicare price negotiation exemptions for so-called orphan drugs, new chatbot safeguards enacted in California to prevent youth suicide and other legislative developments affecting the healthcare industry this week.
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October 21, 2025
4th Circ. Backs Hospital's Firing Of Christian Vaccine Refuser
The Fourth Circuit declined Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit from a hospital worker who claimed she was illegally fired for refusing to get immunized against COVID-19 because of her Christian faith, agreeing with the hospital that letting her remain unvaccinated would have put patients at risk.
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October 21, 2025
Calif. Court Backs Birth Battery Claim, Split On Gender Abuse
A California appeals court has reinstated a medical battery lawsuit brought by a woman who accused her obstetrician of forcing an unwanted procedure on her during childbirth, but the court rejected her claim that the act constituted gender-based violence, prompting a sharp judicial dissent.
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October 21, 2025
Supreme Court Medina Ruling Erodes Public Health Networks
Healthcare advocates in more than a dozen states are bracing for Planned Parenthood's ouster from public benefit programs after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June.
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October 21, 2025
Texas Doctor Vows Court Battle After Ivermectin Sanction
Four years after a confrontation outside a Fort Worth hospital, the Texas Medical Board reprimanded a doctor who arranged to have ivermectin delivered to a COVID-19 patient. Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a vocal critic of vaccine mandates and a frequent litigant, says she's ready for more legal battles.
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October 21, 2025
'Ghost' Mental Health Providers Haunt Medicare Advantage
A new federal report looks at a widespread problem within Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care plans of networks riddled with "ghost providers."
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October 20, 2025
Drugmakers Say Conn. Law Illegally Extends Beyond State
A group of generic drug manufacturers has asked a Connecticut federal court to block the enforcement of a new price-control law against sales that occur outside of Connecticut, claiming that the law violates the U.S. Constitution.
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October 20, 2025
Tylenol Maker Tells FDA Not To Add Autism Warning
Tylenol maker Kenvue on Friday told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reject a call to add warnings about the risk of using acetaminophen during pregnancy, saying that "expansive" scientific evidence shows there is no proven link between the over-the-counter drug and autism.
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October 20, 2025
Lab Cos. Seek $542M For COVID Testing Reimbursement
Three New York-based COVID-19 testing companies sued the federal government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims seeking more than $542 million in damages over the government's alleged refusal to reimburse them for providing testing services to uninsured individuals.
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October 20, 2025
21 AGs Back Planned Parenthood In Funding Freeze Fight
A coalition of attorneys general from 21 Democrat-led states chimed in on Monday in support of Planned Parenthood's case challenging the Trump administration's push to cut off Medicaid reimbursements to its centers and affiliates, saying more than a million people could lose healthcare access if the First Circuit doesn't halt the move.
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October 20, 2025
Justices Won't Review Repeat Indictment For Medicare Fraud
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand Monday the repeat indictment of a health clinic manager for what the Second Circuit called a massive, yearslong scheme to submit false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, effectively rejecting the manager's claims that his original trial was irreparably delayed.
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October 20, 2025
Top Court Won't Hear Chicago Hospital's Medicaid Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a decision by the full Seventh Circuit holding that a Chicago hospital can't sue the state of Illinois to force the managed care organizations it contracts with to make timely Medicaid payments, rejecting a petition that argued another case on the high court's docket "will likely decide the outcome" in this one.
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October 20, 2025
High Court Won't Hear Hospital Vax Mandate Case
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it won't review a decision backing a hospital's termination of a group of workers who refused to get COVID-19 vaccinations.
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October 20, 2025
Justices Won't Review Merck's Immunity From Vaccine Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a decision immunizing Merck & Co. from claims that it blocked competition by making false submissions to federal regulators for its mumps vaccine.
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October 17, 2025
Nursing Exec Denied New Trial On Wage-Fixing Claims
A Nevada federal judge has denied a new trial to a nursing executive convicted of wage-fixing conspiracy and wire fraud after he claimed the U.S. Department of Justice misled the jury about sweetheart terms of a cooperation deal with another company.
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October 17, 2025
Texas Appeals Court Revives Yelp Abortion Notice Suit
The statewide Texas appeals court revived Texas' claims that Yelp misled customers about crisis pregnancy centers' limited services, finding that a lower court got it wrong by tossing the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction.
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October 17, 2025
CVS Can't Dodge Tobacco Surcharge Suit, Employee Says
CVS shouldn't be allowed to escape a proposed class action claiming it illegally charged higher fees to health plan participants and their spouses due to their use of tobacco, an employee argued Friday, urging a California federal court to reject the company's assertion that he didn't have standing.
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October 17, 2025
NJ Parents Keep Fighting State Over Storage Of Babies' DNA
Across the U.S., health departments draw small blood samples from newborns' heels to test for metabolic and genetic disorders. After a new mother discovered that New Jersey police had used DNA extracted from such samples in criminal investigations, she signed on as plaintiff in a suit that says parents have a right to refuse these blood draws.
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October 17, 2025
Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown
The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.
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October 16, 2025
Calif. Hospitals Sue Over New Healthcare Cost Increase Caps
The California Hospital Association hit the state's Office of Health Care Affordability and others with a lawsuit Wednesday, claiming they violated state law with new rules that aim to limit increases in consumer health care costs by curbing hospital spending.
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October 16, 2025
Generics Makers Urge 3rd Circ. To Nix Price-Fixing Classes
Actavis and Mylan have urged the Third Circuit to reverse the certification of two classes of buyers for a pair of medications in the sprawling multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing in the generic drug industry.
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October 16, 2025
31,000 Kaiser Workers Go On Strike In Calif., Ore. And Hawaii
About 31,000 Kaiser Permanente workers represented by a nurses union are on strike in California, Hawaii and Oregon, planning to remain on the picket line through Sunday to fight for higher wages.
Expert Analysis
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Assessing PE Risk After Mass. False Claims Act Amendments
A law recently passed in Massachusetts amends the commonwealth's False Claims Act by dramatically expanding potential liability for private equity firms and investors, underscoring the importance of robust diligence and risk assessments for private equity firms conducting transactions in the commonwealth, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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What Trump Actions Mean For Federal Research Funding
New guidance from the National Institutes of Health represents a massive policy shift regarding federal funding for researchers at institutions of higher education, contributing to a perfect storm of significant resource shortfalls in upcoming years, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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A Look At Healthcare Transaction Oversight In Oregon
Understanding Oregon's enforcement authority and its impact on proposed transactions last year provides a road map to the state's plans to strengthen its processes this year, though enforcement could be challenged by ongoing litigation, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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High Court Must Acknowledge US History Of Anti-Trans Laws
Despite Justice Amy Coney Barrett's claim to the contrary during oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, U.S. governments at every level have systematically discriminated against transgender people, and the U.S. Supreme Court must consider this historical context in upcoming cases about transgender issues, says Paisley Currah at the City University of New York.
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The Fate Of Biden-Era Clinical Study Guidance Under Trump
Draft guidance about the study of sex and gender differences in medical product development issued by the outgoing Biden administration currently faces significant uncertainty and litigation potential due to the Trump administration's executive orders and other actions, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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10 Issues To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting
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.
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Dispelling 10 Myths About Health Provider-Based Compliance
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.
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A Look At HHS' New Opinion On Patient Assistance Programs
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.
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2 Anti-Kickback Developments Hold Lessons For Biopharma
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.
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Tips For Pharma-Biotech Overlap Reporting In New HSR Form
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.
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A Look At Drug Price Negotiation Program's Ongoing Impact
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.
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Preparing For A Possible End To The Subminimum Wage
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.