Policy & Compliance

  • March 06, 2026

    ExThera Exec Hid Patient Deaths To Keep $10M Deal, DOJ Says

    Medical device company ExThera concealed the deaths of two U.S. patients treated with its unapproved blood filtration device at a clinic in Antigua, according to federal prosecutors, with the company agreeing to forfeit nearly $5.7 million and one executive facing up to three years in prison.

  • March 06, 2026

    Health Groups Back Bid To Bar Noncitizen Benefit Restrictions

    A group of public health organizations and scholars Friday urged a Rhode Island federal court to make permanent its order blocking the Trump administration from enacting a policy change basing access to a host of federally funded services on immigration status.

  • March 06, 2026

    FDA Vaccine Chief Prasad To Exit Agency For 2nd Time

    Dr. Vinay Prasad, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine regulator, will leave the agency in the coming weeks, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said Friday.

  • March 06, 2026

    9th Circ. Mulls Whether Politics Tainted DOJ Trans Care Probe

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday grappled with where to draw the line between a legitimate law enforcement investigation and a politically motivated crusade, as the U.S. Department of Justice sought to revive a subpoena against a telehealth provider of gender-affirming medical care.

  • March 06, 2026

    Mass. Judge Told Vax Committee Must Be Fairly Balanced

    A key federal vaccine committee remains subject to statutory requirements that its membership be fairly balanced, a Massachusetts federal judge heard from both U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and medical organizations challenging his overhaul of the group.

  • March 06, 2026

    Dentist Says She Was Fired For Exposing Medicaid Fraud

    A dentist filed suit against several West Michigan dental practices and a dental management company, claiming she was fired after reporting that the clinics billed Medicaid for dental procedures that were never performed.

  • March 05, 2026

    Telehealth Co. Swaps In Gordon Rees In Novo's GLP-1 Fight

    A telehealth platform facing allegations from Novo Nordisk that it falsely advertised Ozempic alternatives has picked new counsel in the dispute, withdrawing attorneys from Foley & Lardner LLP and Miller Nash LLP and substituting in two lawyers from Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP.

  • March 05, 2026

    Pharma Co. Investors Secure Class Cert. Over FDA Obstacles

    A Pennsylvania federal judge has granted certification to a group of Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. investors who claim the company defrauded them by hiding obstacles it faced in obtaining approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its lead product, though she made a slight change to the class definition to avoid what she called a "heads I win, tails you lose strategy."

  • March 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Denies Bail Pending Nurse Wage-Fixing Appeal

    A Ninth Circuit panel summarily refused to allow a Las Vegas home nursing executive to avoid prison while appealing the U.S. Department of Justice's first-ever criminal wage-fixing conviction.

  • March 05, 2026

    9th Circ. Judge 'Frustrated' At DOJ Position On Anti-Trans EOs

    A Ninth Circuit judge said Thursday he's "very frustrated" with the Trump administration's argument that a district court judge acted prematurely by partly blocking executive orders to end funding for gender-affirming care, saying it's "pretty clear" the government was poised to do exactly that.

  • March 05, 2026

    BCBS Can't Nix NC Plan Member From Cancer Treatment Row

    A North Carolina federal judge ruled a Blue Cross Blue Shield unit must face proposed class action claims over its administration of a state employee health plan from a participant alleging it arbitrarily characterized a proton beam cancer radiation treatment as experimental to deny coverage.

  • March 05, 2026

    Perez Morris Taps Ex-Post & Schell Atty To Lead Philly Office

    Seven years after expanding into Philadelphia, Perez Morris has brought in a former Post & Schell PC principal and seasoned healthcare litigator to lead the office as its first partner-in-charge.

  • March 05, 2026

    ERISA Recap: 6 Developments To Remember From Feb.

    The Second Circuit refused to boot a former Luxottica worker's proposed class claims into solo arbitration, a Texas federal judge declined to snuff out a tobacco fee suit against 7-Eleven and a healthcare company inked a $43 million deal to wrap a case over how it handled 401(k) plan forfeitures. Here's a look back at six noteworthy moves in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases from last month.

  • March 05, 2026

    Fla. Lab Pays $980K To Settle Kickback Allegations

    A laboratory in Florida agreed to pay $980,000 to resolve allegations that it provided kickbacks to marketers for referring Medicare beneficiaries to use its services, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • March 04, 2026

    CVS Beats Antitrust Suit Over 340B Drug Program, For Good

    CVS Health Corp. permanently defeated a proposed antitrust class action alleging it forced hospitals in a discount drug program to use its third-party administrator for savings, when a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Tuesday that hospitals aren't required to contract with CVS and can pick Walgreens or other participating pharmacies to contract with.

  • March 04, 2026

    DC Judge Strikes Down 340B Drug Discount Registration Rule

    The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration cannot reinstate a pre-pandemic policy requiring covered hospitals' offsite facilities to register with the agency in order to access discounted drugs under the 340B program, a D.C. federal judge ruled.

  • March 04, 2026

    Fla. Hospital, EMT Beat Suit Over Unauthorized Trauma Photo

    A Miami-area hospital and one of its emergency medical technicians didn't intentionally inflict emotional distress or violate the privacy of the father of a gravely injured motorcycle crash patient when an EMT posted a photo of the motorcyclist's injured leg to Instagram, a Florida appeals panel ruled Wednesday. 

  • March 04, 2026

    6th Circ. Backs Tenn. Med School In FMLA Retaliation Suit

    A former medical resident cannot revive his lawsuit claiming a Tennessee medical school suspended him for taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Sixth Circuit ruled this week, finding he failed to show the school's explanation for the discipline was a pretext for retaliation.

  • March 04, 2026

    NY Bill Would Expand Liability For Chatbot Operators

    A bill in the New York State Senate that would impose liability on the owners and operators of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots that give advice reserved for licensed professionals like lawyers and doctors could reshape how some legal tech entities engage with consumers in the Empire State.

  • March 04, 2026

    House Panel Tussles Over Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Claims

    The public political battle between Minnesota and the federal government over alleged Medicaid fraud in the state continued Wednesday on Capitol Hill, with Republicans and Democrats casting stones at each other after President Donald Trump's administration pulled nearly $260 million in healthcare funding from the state.

  • March 04, 2026

    7th. Circ. Upholds Healthcare Co.'s Win In FMLA Suit

    The Seventh Circuit affirmed a healthcare company's win in a former human resources specialist's Family and Medical Leave Act suit, holding that the health system lawfully terminated her for failing to return to work once her approved leave expired.

  • March 03, 2026

    BioAge Investors Lose Last Bid At Obesity Drug-Linked Suit

    Biopharmaceutical company BioAge Labs Inc. has escaped a suit accusing it of damaging investors by unexpectedly halting a clinical trial for a weight loss drug, with a California federal judge finding that the court already dismissed the claim that BioAge's risk disclosures were lacking.

  • March 03, 2026

    Inova Defeats Nurses' COVID Vax Bias Suits At 4th Circ.

    The Fourth Circuit refused Tuesday to revive suits from nurse anesthetists who said they faced religious and disability discrimination when they were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, ruling that nonprofit healthcare provider Inova wasn't their employer.

  • March 03, 2026

    Death From Stem Cell Treatment For ALS Draws $24M Verdict

    A Washington state jury awarded $24 million to the family of a patient who died just two days after what his family members described as a "worthless" spinal cord procedure to treat his ALS at a Seattle stem cell clinic.

  • March 03, 2026

    Ex-FDA Leaders Rebut Contraception Rollbacks At 3rd Circ.

    Former FDA commissioners argued that Trump-era religious exemptions for birth control coverage jeopardize public health and distort medical science, in an animus brief filed Monday with the Third Circuit.

Expert Analysis

  • 2025 Legal Milestones That Will Shape Psychedelics Sector

    Author Photo

    As 2025 draws to a close, psychedelic drug development stands at an inflection point, experiencing unprecedented momentum through recent sweeping regulatory changes and landmark clinical milestones, amid rapidly evolving regulatory expectations, say Odette Hauke at Odette Alina LLC and Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell.

  • 2025 State AI Laws Expand Liability, Raise Insurance Risks

    Author Photo

    As 2025 nears its end, claims professionals should be aware of trends in state legislation addressing artificial intelligence use, as insurance claims based on some of these liability-expanding statutes are a certainty, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Learning From 2025 FCA Trends Targeting PE In Healthcare

    Author Photo

    False Claims Act enforcement trends and legislative developments from this year signal intensifying state and federal scrutiny of private equity's growing footprint in healthcare, and the urgency of compliance, says Lisa Re at Arnold & Porter.

  • How 11th Circ.'s Qui Tam Review Could Affect FCA Litigation

    Author Photo

    On Dec. 12, the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, setting the stage for a decision that could drastically reduce enforcement under the False Claims Act, and presenting an opportunity to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the act's whistleblower provisions, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

  • How MAHA Is Taking Shape At The State Level

    Author Photo

    The national spotlight on the federal government's Make America Healthy Again movement is bolstering state-level actions regarding potential health impacts of certain food ingredients, increasing the difficulty and importance of maintaining effective compliance programs, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • A Look At Middlemen Fees In 340B Drug Discount Program

    Author Photo

    A U.S. Senate committee's recent hearing on the Section 340B drug discount program, along with statistical analysis of payment amounts, contribute to a growing consensus that middlemen fees are too high, say William Sarraille at the University of Maryland, and Shanyue Zeng and Rory Martin at IQVIA.

  • Nursing Home Abuse Cases Face 3 Barriers That Need Reform

    Author Photo

    Recent headlines reveal persistent gaps in oversight and protection for vulnerable residents in long-term care, but prosecution of these cases is often stymied by numerous challenges that will require a comprehensive overhaul of regulatory, legal and financial structures to address, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

  • Mulling Differing Circuit Rulings On Gender-Affirming Care

    Author Photo

    Despite the Eleventh Circuit's recent holding in Lange v. Houston County that a health plan's exclusion for gender-affirming surgery did not violate Title VII, employers should be mindful of other court decisions suggesting that different legal challenges may still apply to blanket exclusions for such care, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

  • State AGs May Extend Their Reach To Nat'l Security Concerns

    Author Photo

    Companies with foreign supply-chain risk exposure need a comprehensive risk-management strategy to address a growing trend in which state attorneys general use broadly written state laws to target conduct that may not violate federal regulations, but arguably constitutes a national security threat, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Unique Aspects Of Texas' Approach To AI Regulation

    Author Photo

    The Texas Responsible AI Governance Act — which will soon be the sole comprehensive artificial intelligence law in the U.S. — pulls threads from EU and Colorado laws but introduces more targeted rules with fewer obligations on commercial entities, say attorneys at MVA Law.

  • Surveying The Healthcare Policy Landscape Post-Shutdown

    Author Photo

    With last week's agreement to reopen the federal government, at least through the end of January, key healthcare legislation that has been in limbo since a December 2024 spending bill fell apart may recapture the attention of Congress, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • FDA Biosimilar Guidance Should Ease Biologics Development

    Author Photo

    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, indicating that the agency may no longer routinely require comparative efficacy studies when other evidence provides sufficient assurance of biosimilarity, underscores the FDA's trust in analytical technology as a driver of biologics access, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

  • Prison Body Cams Raise Health Privacy Compliance Issues

    Author Photo

    The increasing use of prison staff body cameras to enhance transparency and safety presents correctional healthcare partners with new risk management questions where they must carefully reconcile the benefits of surveillance with the imperative to protect patient privacy, say attorneys at Gordon Rees.