Policy & Compliance

  • July 21, 2026

    Economist Concedes Opioid Stats' Limits In Albertsons Trial

    Despite testifying that Albertsons pharmacy records suggest some opioids dispensed in Washington state had "red flags" for potential diversion from legitimate use, an economist for the Evergreen State conceded Tuesday that he can't point to "even a single pill dispensed by Albertsons" that was actually improperly diverted. 

  • July 21, 2026

    $152M Health Marketing Ban, $62M Drug MDL Deal And More

    Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at the Federal Trade Commission's $152 million deal resolving allegations against a pair of health insurance marketers, a $62 million deal releasing Pfizer Inc. and other drugmakers from multidistrict litigation over generic-drug prices, and other key resolutions in healthcare litigation over the last week.

  • July 21, 2026

    Air Ambulance Co. Fights To Keep 'No Surprises' Suit Alive

    An air ambulance service looking to collect unpaid transport bills from Blue Cross Blue Shield's parent company argued Tuesday that its lawsuit should proceed because court enforcement is its only hope for combating the insurer's practice of ignoring the No Surprises Act's otherwise tight payment deadlines.

  • July 21, 2026

    Chamber Asks 2nd Circ. To Back Toss Of Pepsi Smoking Suit

    A New York federal judge rightly tossed allegations that Pepsi violated federal benefits law by making employees who smoke pay more for health insurance, the nation's largest business lobby argued in an amicus brief, urging the Second Circuit to affirm dismissal of the suit.

  • July 21, 2026

    What To Know: FDA Compounding Panel Weighs Peptides

    A panel advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will weigh in this week on a push to expand legal access to seven peptides that are touted by wellness influencers to treat injuries and other conditions.

  • July 21, 2026

    Class Cert. In Avandia MDL Undone For Lacking Stats

    The Third Circuit undid class certification for a group of health plans claiming GlaxoSmithKline deceptively marketed its diabetes drug Avandia, with a panel majority ruling Tuesday the plans needed stronger statistical analysis to show links between the marketing, the revelation of side effects and a drop in sales.

  • July 21, 2026

    States Dispute Drugmakers' Bid To Toss GLP-1 Antitrust Case

    The attorneys general of Texas and Louisiana pushed back on Tuesday against a bid from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to duck a specialty pharmacy's antitrust case accusing the companies of blocking competition for GLP-1 medications.

  • July 21, 2026

    Novo's False Ad Suit Against Eli Lilly Ramps Up GLP-1 Rivalry

    Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk Inc. slapped rival Eli Lilly & Co. with a false advertising suit in New Jersey federal court Tuesday, calling a marketing campaign for the rival's weight loss drugs "deceptive" for "withholding critical scientific evidence" about newer GLP-1 formulations.

  • July 21, 2026

    Imaging Co. Faces Consolidated Data Breach Cases In NC

    A North Carolina federal judge consolidated three proposed class actions against diagnostic imaging provider Lumexa Imaging Inc. over an alleged patient data breach earlier this year, tapping attorneys from Kopelowitz Ostrow PA and Milberg PLLC to serve as interim co-lead counsel.

  • July 21, 2026

    Hospitals Say Saul Ewing Atty's Board Role Taints FCA Suit

    A Saul Ewing LLP attorney should be disqualified from leading a whistleblower suit over a nurse's alleged diversion of prescription narcotics, as the former Heritage Valley Health System in western Pennsylvania said he was previously a member of its board of directors.

  • July 21, 2026

    CMS Withholds $1B In Medicaid From Calif., Minn., Citing Fraud

    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is withholding more than $1 billion in Medicaid dollars from California and Minnesota because the agency suspects healthcare fraud in those states, officials announced Tuesday.

  • July 21, 2026

    Research Or Crime? Feds Eye Scientists Crossing Borders

    At U.S. airports and border crossings, scientists returning from trips abroad are getting a closer look from law enforcement agents. More smuggling and paperwork violations that might once have been overlooked are turning into criminal cases.

  • July 21, 2026

    2nd Circ. Tylenol Expert Call Sows Admissibility Confusion

    A circuit court decision on expert admissibility in a dispute over an alleged link between Tylenol and autism is raising legal experts' concerns that the panel will sow confusion among judges trying to weed out unreliable medical opinions.

  • July 20, 2026

    Albertsons Data Suggests Opioids Were Diverted, Expert Says

    Albertsons pharmacies in Washington state received considerably more opioid medications from distributors between 2009 and 2015 than the company reported dispensing — a sign of potential diversion, according to an expert witness who testified Monday at a bench trial in Washington's lawsuit accusing the chain of exacerbating the state's opioid crisis.

  • July 20, 2026

    SD Judge Blocks Abortion Ad Ban Against Atty, Nonprofit

    A South Dakota federal judge barred the state from enforcing an abortion advertising ban against a reproductive health education nonprofit and an attorney, ruling that doing so would likely violate the First Amendment.

  • July 20, 2026

    Vanda's NDA Rejection Challenge Can't Be Heard At DC Court

    A D.C. federal judge has said he no longer has jurisdiction to hear Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s challenge alleging the FDA violated the Appointments Clause by allowing a non-officer to exercise "signatory authority" and reject its new drug application for tradipitant, since Vanda went to the D.C. Circuit raising the same argument already.

  • July 20, 2026

    Top Gov't Contracting Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Federal courts in the latter half of 2026 are expected to decide if the Trump administration overstepped by designating Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security and whether the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions pass constitutional muster, potentially affecting the government's ability to tackle fraud.

  • July 17, 2026

    Md. Judge Stays Reforms Set To Shrink ACA Coverage Pool

    A Maryland federal judge stayed a set of Affordable Care Act marketplace reforms that were set to take effect Monday, finding several cities and groups representing doctors and small businesses were likely to succeed in their Administrative Procedure Act challenge against them.

  • July 17, 2026

    Medical Groups Urge 1st Circ. To Back Vaccine Panel Freeze

    The American Academy of Pediatrics and other public health organizations on Friday defended before the First Circuit a Massachusetts judge's decision to block Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine policy committee appointments, countering claims that the judge overreached.

  • July 16, 2026

    FDA, Drugmakers Urge 5th Circ. To Allow Abortion Pill By Mail

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the makers of the abortion medication mifepristone have urged the Fifth Circuit not to reinstate an in-person dispensing requirement, arguing that doing so would disrupt the government's ongoing review of the drug, "threaten chaos" and defy the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • July 16, 2026

    3rd Circ. Partly Revives Hospitals' ERISA Suit Against Cigna

    The Third Circuit on Thursday revived some ERISA contract claims in a New Jersey hospital network's suit alleging Cigna underpaid out-of-network reimbursements by $114 million, but backed the dismissal of the network's fiduciary duty claims.

  • July 16, 2026

    Walgreens Sues Mass. Medicaid Program Over Drug Rates

    Walgreens says administrators of the Massachusetts Medicaid program cannot rely on drug prices negotiated with pharmacy benefit managers to determine reimbursement rates, in a challenge to the state's effort to claw back $242,000 in alleged overpayments.

  • July 16, 2026

    Arnall Golden Brings On Arnold & Porter Litigator In DC

    Arnall Golden Gregory LLP has added an Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office and named him chair of the firm's Foreign Agents Registration Act compliance practice.

  • July 16, 2026

    Aramark Asks 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Courts' Rare Quash Of DOJ Subpoenas Has Lessons For Cos.

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    In a rare move, three federal courts recently quashed or partially quashed expansive U.S. Department of Justice administrative subpoenas issued to providers of gender-affirming care, demonstrating that courts will scrutinize purpose, cabin statutory authority and acknowledge the profound privacy burdens of overbroad government demands for sensitive records, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Remote Patient Monitoring Is At Regulatory Inflection Point

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    With remote patient monitoring at the center of new federal pilot programs and a recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General examining Medicare billing for those services, it is clear that balancing innovation and risk will be a central challenge ahead for digital health stakeholders, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Utah's AI Prescription Renewal Pilot Could Inform Policy

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    Utah recently became the first state to approve an artificial intelligence system for autonomously renewing certain prescription medicines, providing a test case for how regulators may be able to draw boundaries between administrative automation and medical judgment, say Jashaswi Ghosh at Holon Law Partners and Bryant Godfrey at Foley Hoag.

  • Ramped Up Psychedelic Production Carries Opportunity, Risk

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    Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell discusses the key legal implications of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's recent dramatic increases in the production quotas for a range of psychedelic substances, offering guidance on compliance, risk management and strategic opportunities for practitioners navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

  • New Biotech Nat'l Security Controls May Have Blunted Impact

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    While the newly enacted federal prohibition against contracting with certain biotechnology providers associated with countries of concern may have consequences on U.S. companies' ability to develop drugs, the restrictions may prove to be less problematic for the industry than the significant publicity around their passage would suggest, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.

  • Takeaways From The DOJ Fraud Section's 2025 Year In Review

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    Former acting Principal Deputy Chief Sean Tonolli of the U.S. Department of Justice's Fraud Section, now at Cahill Gordon, analyzes key findings from the section’s annual report — including the changes implemented to adapt to the new administration’s priorities — and lays out what to watch for this year.

  • Traditional FCA Enforcement Surges Amid Shifting Priorities

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s January report on False Claims Act enforcement in fiscal year 2025 reveals that while the administration signaled its intent to expand FCA enforcement into new areas such as tariffs, for now the greatest exposure remains in traditional areas like healthcare — in which the risk is growing, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • 3 Key Ohio Financial Services Developments From 2025

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    Ohio's banking and financial services sector saw particularly notable developments in 2025, including a significant Ohio Supreme Court decision on creditor disclosure duties to guarantors in Huntington National Bank v. Schneider, and some major proposed changes to the state's Homebuyer Plus program, says Alex Durst at Durst Kerridge.

  • Rescheduling Cannabis Marks New Tax Era For Operators

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    As the attorney general takes steps to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, operators and advisers should prepare by considering the significant changes this will bring from tax, state, industry and market perspectives, says Michael Harlow at CohnReznick.

  • Justices' Med Mal Ruling May Spur Huge Shift For Litigators

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in the medical malpractice suit Berk v. Choy, holding that a Florida procedural requirement does not apply to medical malpractice claims filed in federal court, is likely to encourage eligible parties to file claims in federal court, speed the adjudicatory process and create both opportunities and challenges for litigators, says Thomas Kroeger at Colson Hicks.

  • 5 Drug Pricing Policy Developments To Watch In 2026

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    2026 may prove to be a critical year for drug pricing in the U.S., with potential major shifts including several legislative initiatives moving forward after being in the works for years, and more experimentation on the horizon concerning GLP-1s and Section 340B pricing, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Regulatory Uncertainty Ahead For Organ Transplant System

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    Pending court cases against a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services final rule that introduced a competition-centric model for assessing organ procurement organizations' performance will significantly influence the path forward for such organizations and transplant hospitals, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Key False Claims Act Trends From The Last Year

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    The False Claims Act remains a powerful enforcement tool after some record verdicts and settlements in 2025, and while traditional fraud areas remain a priority, new initiatives are raising questions about its expanding application, says Veronica Nannis at Joseph Greenwald.