Policy & Compliance
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December 09, 2025
Insurer Says Whistleblower Stole Docs In Medicare FCA Case
An insurer accused of running a kickback scheme to steer customers to its Medicare Advantage plan is seeking to question the whistleblower that sparked the False Claims Act suit, telling a Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday that he snapped unauthorized photos of company files.
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December 09, 2025
Gender Care Ban Sets Catholic Hospitals On Uncharted Path
An overwhelming majority of U.S. bishops recently backed new directives for Catholic health systems to prohibit gender transition treatments. Some experts say the move could make it more difficult for Catholic hospitals to navigate state laws protecting gender-affirming care.
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December 08, 2025
Confluence Health Refunds $1.8M Following Wash. AG's Probe
Central Washington healthcare operator Confluence Health has refunded more than $1.8 million to low-income patients who paid for hospital care despite being eligible for financial assistance under the state's Charity Care Act, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown announced Monday.
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December 08, 2025
1st Circ. Keeps Planned Parenthood Funding Ban In Place
The First Circuit on Monday issued an administrative stay that temporarily keeps in place a ban on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, pausing a lower court's ruling.
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December 08, 2025
Smith & Nephew Settles 401(k) Fee Dispute
A Massachusetts federal judge stayed a proposed federal benefits class action Monday against Smith & Nephew that accused the medical device company of imposing excessive fees on an employee 401(k) plan, after the parties told the court they had agreed to settle their dispute.
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December 08, 2025
11th Circ. Won't Pause Medicaid Rule Amid Fla. Hospital Audit
An Eleventh Circuit panel revived Florida's lawsuit against a federal rule that reduces Medicaid funding based on agreements between hospitals, but upheld a lower court's decision to deny the state's request for an injunction after finding it wouldn't likely succeed on the merits of its complaint.
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December 08, 2025
Hi-Tech Pharma, CEO Want New Trial In Feds' Fraud Case
A health supplement company's CEO, who was largely acquitted of federal fraud and conspiracy charges last month, asked a Georgia federal judge Friday to toss the lone conviction he faced, arguing that allowing the charge to stand "would constitute a miscarriage of justice."
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December 08, 2025
Justices Say Louisiana Law Can't Bar HIV Discrimination Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court told a Louisiana appeals court Monday that it incorrectly found that a state law protecting healthcare providers from civil liability during public health emergencies bars an HIV patient from alleging federal discrimination claims after being denied aquatherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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December 08, 2025
Justices Pass On Challenge To NJ Hospital Charity Rule
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it won't review a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that a state requirement to treat patients regardless of the patient's ability to pay does not amount to an unconstitutional per se or regulatory taking.
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December 08, 2025
High Court Wants Feds' Input On Health Workers' Vax Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court asked Monday for the federal government's input on a group of religious workers' challenge to a pandemic-era New York state policy requiring healthcare providers to make their employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
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December 05, 2025
Juror Who Alleged Misconduct Dismissed From Opioid Trial
A juror in Florida hospitals' $1.5 billion trial against the three major pharmacy chains over opioid dispensing was dismissed Friday after a judge found that her allegations of serious misconduct against another juror were largely unwarranted.
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December 05, 2025
9th Circ. Won't Unfreeze Trump Cuts To Student Mental Health
The Ninth Circuit rejected the Trump administration's effort to undo a lower court's pause on federal funding reductions to K-12 mental health services, siding with a coalition of 16 states seeking to preserve programs established in the wake of high-profile school shootings.
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December 05, 2025
3rd Circ. Backs NJ In-State Rule For Medical Aid In Dying
A Delaware woman with terminal cancer cannot end her life with medical assistance in New Jersey, the Third Circuit ruled Friday in a precedential opinion, finding that the Garden State residency requirement for medical aid in dying is restricted solely to New Jerseyans.
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December 05, 2025
ERISA Recap: 4 Rulings Worth Paying Attention To From Nov.
The Ninth Circuit striking down a class action win for transgender employee health plan participants who said their gender-affirming care denials were discriminatory is just one noteworthy Employee Retirement Income Security Act ruling from November. Here's a recap of that ruling and three others.
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December 05, 2025
Justices Take On State Court Review Doctrine Case
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider whether an appellate court correctly invoked the doctrine blocking federal courts from reviewing state court judgments in a case concerning an involuntary hospital commitment.
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December 05, 2025
Georgia Turns To 11th Circ. In Trans Prisoner Care Fight
The Eleventh Circuit will get a chance to weigh in on a district judge's recent decision requiring the Georgia Department of Corrections to provide hormone therapy to transgender inmates, according to a Friday filing in federal court.
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December 05, 2025
CDC Panel Ends Recommendation Of Hepatitis B Shot At Birth
A panel of federal vaccine advisers on Friday voted to lift a long-standing recommendation that all newborns be given vaccinations for hepatitis B.
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December 04, 2025
11th Circ. Blocks Fla. City's Abortion Clinic Buffer Zone Law
The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday ordered a preliminary injunction blocking a Clearwater, Florida, ordinance requiring a 5-foot buffer zone outside an abortion clinic, finding the city likely violated protesters' rights by burdening their ability to leaflet drivers.
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December 04, 2025
CDC Vaccine Committee Punts Hepatitis B Vote Again
Federal vaccine advisers on Thursday put off a vote on changing guidelines for a long-used hepatitis B vaccine for infants, delaying again a decision expected to have wide-ranging ramifications for national childhood vaccine policy in the U.S.
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December 04, 2025
Credit Bureaus Can't Duck Suit Over Excluded Medical Debt
A California federal judge has found that Equifax, Experian and TransUnion must face key parts of a rejiggered proposed antitrust class action from medical practices and collection agencies targeting the credit reporting agencies' decision to exclude medical debt under $500 from consumer credit reports.
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December 04, 2025
Mass. Justices Unlikely To Revive Verizon Tower Suit
Justices on Massachusetts' highest court appeared unlikely to second-guess a local health board's decision to drop an enforcement action against Verizon over perceived health effects from a cell tower after the telecom filed suit.
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December 04, 2025
Pharma Cos. Denied Early Win In States' Price-Fixing Suit
Twenty-six pharmaceutical companies failed to secure a quick win on overarching conspiracy claims in an antitrust case by the attorneys general of Connecticut and most other states, with a federal judge finding the "substantial bulk of evidence" points toward a broad industry scheme to fix 98 dermatology drug prices.
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December 04, 2025
$1M AAA Club Settlement Gets Final Nod In COBRA Suit
A Michigan federal judge granted final approval Thursday to a $1 million settlement an American Automobile Association club brokered with a class of workers to resolve their suit claiming they weren't notified on time that they could extend their health insurance after their benefits ended.
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December 04, 2025
Vivimed To Pay $1.9M To End Losartan Economic Loss Claims
Vivimed has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle economic loss claims from a class of consumers and insurers related to its losartan product in sprawling multidistrict litigation over contaminated blood pressure medication, according to a Wednesday filing.
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December 04, 2025
Lawmakers Debate Higher Pay, Health Benefits For Boxers
An effort to revamp American boxing got underway on Capitol Hill on Thursday as lawmakers deliberated over legislation to provide better pay and workplace protections for fighters, with Democrats expressing concern over the potential for corruption to flourish in the sport.
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.