Policy & Compliance

  • July 31, 2026

    NC Judge Deems Alleged $55M Medicare Clawbacks Unfair

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn't give a hospital operator fair notice of its interpretation of the term "provider" in Medicare regulations that HHS relied on to claw back millions of dollars in reimbursements, a North Carolina federal judge ruled.

  • July 31, 2026

    DC Circ. Backs Ex-Steward CEO's Contempt Charge

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld a U.S. Senate committee's criminal and civil contempt finding against former Steward Health Care System LLC Chief Executive Ralph de la Torre after he refused to appear before lawmakers despite a subpoena, calling his appellate arguments "wholly meritless."

  • July 31, 2026

    No Standing For NY 'Aid-In-Dying' Law Challenge, Judge Rules

    A New York federal judge tossed a challenge by disability rights organizations and individuals to a state law enacted this year allowing patients with terminal illnesses to seek a doctor's assistance in ending their lives, finding the group lacked standing.

  • July 31, 2026

    Voluntary Benefits Suits Emerge As New ERISA Battleground

    A recent crop of proposed class actions targeting employers' insurance-related voluntary benefits offerings — for things like critical illness or hospital indemnity — marks a litigation trend that appears to be gaining, experts say.

  • July 30, 2026

    Health Plans Ask 2nd Circ. To Revive Celgene Cancer Drug Row

    Health plans and pharmacies backed by Cigna are asking the Second Circuit to revive a proposed class action alleging Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and its Celgene subsidiary fraudulently obtained patents, filed sham lawsuits and paid off generic-drug makers to maintain a monopoly on the blockbuster blood cancer drug Pomalyst.

  • July 30, 2026

    Albertsons Can't Nix 14 Years Of Opioid Claims At Wash. Trial

    Albertsons and Safeway can't dodge 14 years' worth of claims in Washington state's lawsuit accusing the grocery stores' pharmacies of irresponsibly dispensing prescription opioids and fueling the state's overdose crisis, according to a Seattle judge's ruling Wednesday striking the companies' statute-of-limitations defense.

  • July 30, 2026

    O'Reilly Auto Parts Can't Dodge Tobacco Surcharge Suit

    O'Reilly Automotive Inc. must face a former employee's lawsuit alleging he was unlawfully charged hundreds of dollars more per year for health insurance because he used tobacco, with a Missouri federal judge ruling Thursday that his claims were detailed enough to stay in court.

  • July 30, 2026

    Judge Keeps New Medicaid 'Frailty' Proof Rule In Place

    A Massachusetts federal judge late Wednesday declined to block the government from requiring medically frail Medicaid recipients to prove they are significantly impaired to avoid a new requirement that they engage in 80 hours of work or volunteering per month or attend school part-time.

  • July 29, 2026

    Albertsons Pharmacy Work Was 'House Of Cards,' Judge Told

    Albertsons pharmacists in Washington state repeatedly warned supervisors that busy workloads and limited staffing were making it difficult to review prescriptions before filling them, a state judge in Seattle heard Monday, during a bench trial in Washington's case accusing Albertsons and its Safeway subsidiary of fueling the state's opioid crisis.

  • July 29, 2026

    Novo Faces Narrowed Investor Suit Over Obesity Drug Claims

    A New Jersey federal judge narrowed a proposed securities class action against Novo Nordisk, preserving claims that it misled investors about the CagriSema obesity drug's tolerability and a flexible protocol used in a clinical trial.

  • July 29, 2026

    Colo. Hospital Patients In Gender Care Suit Seek Class Cert.

    Transgender adolescents urged a Colorado state judge Wednesday to allow them to proceed as a certified class in their lawsuit seeking to have Children's Hospital Colorado resume providing gender-affirming care for them and other transgender youth patients, arguing the class is "objectively definable."

  • July 29, 2026

    Health Economist's Report Cleared For Generic-Drug MDL

    The Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over generic-drug price-fixing claims has ruled that Humana's health economist's expert report can be admitted into evidence, rejecting several pharmaceutical companies' argument that his findings were based on a flawed methodology.

  • July 29, 2026

    NC Attorney General's Clash With HCA Cleared For Trial

    The North Carolina Business Court has cleared a path to trial in the state attorney general's suit accusing HCA Healthcare of letting the quality of care at Mission Hospital in Asheville languish.

  • July 28, 2026

    Ed Dept. Can't Cancel K–12 Mental Health Grants Worth $1B

    A Washington federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from terminating nearly $1 billion in K–12 mental health grants serving 15 states, finding that the plaintiff states are likely to prove the U.S. Education Department bypassed federal procedures when attempting to cut off the funds.

  • July 28, 2026

    J&J $5.5B Talc MDL Deal, $25.4M Cooley Judgment And More

    Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at Johnson & Johnson's $5.5 billion commitment in a proposed settlement to resolve thousands of suits alleging its talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer, a New Jersey state court's order that Cooley LLP pay $25.4 million in litigation over its representation of a biotech founder, and other key resolutions in healthcare litigation over the last week.

  • July 28, 2026

    No COVID Immunity For Mich. Hospitals In Malpractice Revival

    Just because a motion is unopposed doesn't mean it should be granted, Michigan appellate judges said in a published opinion Tuesday, reversing a trial court's decision that the Pandemic Health Care Immunity Act shielded Beaumont Hospital Farmington Hills from a medical malpractice suit.

  • July 28, 2026

    Judge Mulls Pausing Medicaid Work Rule For 'Frail' Recipients

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he anticipates deciding by the end of the week whether the Trump administration will have to pause part of a new rule states must follow in determining whether medically frail Medicaid recipients are exempt from new work or school requirements.

  • July 28, 2026

    Nursing Facility Pays $15M In Calif. AG's Understaffing Suit

    Sweetwater Care and its affiliates agreed to resolve the California attorney general's consumer protection suit alleging they understaffed their skilled nursing facilities in more than 14,000 instances, exposing patients to neglect, abuse and injury with delayed care, while the defendants accepted nearly $200 million from Medicare and Medi-Cal.

  • July 28, 2026

    340B Appellate Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Drugmakers are pressing appellate judges in the back half of 2026 to strike down state laws blocking them from restricting 340B contract pharmacy arrangements. Law360 Healthcare Authority has the cases to watch.

  • July 28, 2026

    Med Center To Pay $200K To End EEOC Disability Bias Probe

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday that a California medical center has agreed to pay $200,000 to wrap up an investigation into a nurse's claim that it violated disability bias law by firing her instead of letting her transfer to another role.

  • July 27, 2026

    Albertsons Opioid Trial Told Of Needles, ODs In Library

    A witness in Washington's case accusing Albertsons Cos. Inc. of fueling the state's opioid crisis testified at a bench trial Monday that problem drug use was evident in a city library system she's led for nearly a decade, pointing to syringes scattered across the facility and multiple instances of overdoses.

  • July 27, 2026

    Wash. Panel Revives Island Health Wage, Break Class Action

    A Washington Court of Appeals panel has reinstated a worker's proposed class action accusing public hospital district Island Health of denying employees meal breaks and illegally rounding time worked when calculating wages, finding Monday that a trial court wrongly concluded the claims must be arbitrated under a union agreement.

  • July 27, 2026

    Cigna Must Face Pa. Suit Over Portal Health Data Tracking

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday allowed a group of Cigna health plan participants to pursue most of their claims alleging the company unlawfully disclosed their protected health information for marketing purposes by using an Adobe tracking pixel.

  • July 27, 2026

    Hygiene Co. Can't Fight FTC's Need To Back Up COVID Claims

    Xylitol-based hygiene products company Xlear can't challenge the Federal Trade Commission's general insistence that companies "substantiate" health claims like COVID-19 protections, because the FTC isn't currently suing over those claims, a Utah federal judge ruled Monday.

  • July 27, 2026

    Health Data Co. Inks $4.8M Settlement To End Investor Suit

    The health diagnostics company formerly known as Sema4 has reached a $4.8 million settlement with investors accusing the company of misleading them about a nonexistent, artificial intelligence-driven data platform it claimed to operate.

Expert Analysis

  • Peptide Policy Is Shifting Toward Sanctioned Compounding

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    The policy landscape for peptides is undergoing a significant shift under the Trump administration, moving toward a complex system of verified compounding and complementary enforcement that will likely bring peptides firmly back into the sphere of legitimate consumer products, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • Trump Order Signals Tougher Benefits Fraud Probes

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    A recent order from President Donald Trump establishing a federal taskforce for addressing fraud in federally funded benefit programs emphasizes interagency information sharing, potentially affecting a broad range of areas including government contracts, administrative law considerations and False Claims Act cases, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • The Evolution Of States' Workplace Violence Prevention Laws

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    Utah's new law requiring hospitals to implement comprehensive workplace violence reporting systems continues a broader trend of state efforts to expand workplace protections in the absence of sufficient federal regulations, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • FDA Guidance May Move Goalposts For Form 483 Responses

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides formal insight on how drug manufacturers are expected to respond to Form 483s, raising some concerns about the agency's timelines and expectations, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • 2 Strands Of Patent Law In High Court's 'Skinny Label' Case

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    Amarin v. Hikma, which is set for oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court this month, highlights the distinction between two different strands of intellectual property law — analogizing a patent to either a property deed or a home, says Jonas McDavit at Spencer West.

  • A Check-Up On HHS' Push To Implement AI Infrastructure

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has made some headway in its efforts to implement artificial intelligence across its agencies, but will have to overcome a number of near-term tests in order to be successful, says Theodore Thompson at Stinson.

  • Mich. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    Michigan's financial services sector saw several significant developments in 2026's first quarter, including the state Department of Insurance and Financial Services' issuance of a bulletin on the use of artificial intelligence and the Michigan House's introduction of a bill based on the Model Money Transmission Modernization Act, say attorneys at Dykema.

  • The Road Ahead For Drug Development In The US

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    Against the backdrop of drug manufacturers potentially looking to move development efforts overseas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest guidance on new approach methodologies signals the FDA is likely to be receptive to industry innovation that makes U.S.-based drug development faster or less expensive, creating opportunities and compliance risks for tech companies, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • FDA's Crackdown On Drug Ads Conflicts With Precedent

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    Recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning letters to drug manufacturers targeting direct-to-consumer advertising raise significant constitutional concerns, and directly clash with prior FDA stances, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Informal Announcements Are Reshaping FDA Regulations

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent shift toward using press releases, podcasts and other informal channels to announce major policy changes reflects a valid desire to modernize and accelerate regulatory efforts, but it could lead to diminished transparency, increased industry burden and reduced policy durability, says Rachel Turow at Skadden.

  • A Shift In Fed. Circ.'s Approach To Patent Summary Judgment

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Range of Motion v. Armaid may come to be seen as a seminal opinion for potentially exposing and entrenching the Federal Circuit's movement away from its previous framework for identifying obvious noninfringement cases, says Nicholas Nowak at Nowak IP Group.

  • DOJ Actions Suggest Expansion Of Healthcare Enforcement

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    Recent actions by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggest that federal healthcare enforcement efforts are moving away from traditional program-based fraud and toward cases centered on product integrity, regulatory transparency and telehealth marketing, effectively widening the government's enforcement playbook, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • New Orphan Drug Law Provides A Key Fix For Pharma Cos.

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    The Consolidated Appropriations Act enacted last month restores the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's long-standing interpretation of "same disease or condition," related to orphan drug exclusivity, resolving years of regulatory uncertainty and litigation that have discouraged rare disease research, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.