Policy & Compliance
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February 10, 2026
US Says Abbott Lied, Must Repay Funds Spent On Formula
Abbott Laboratories must face the federal government's lawsuit over the 2022 infant formula crisis caused by the discovery of potentially deadly bacteria in a facility that made baby formula, prosecutors told a Michigan federal court, saying the company "repeatedly lied" about the cleanliness of its plant.
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February 10, 2026
Ex-DOJ Fraud Prosecutors Launch DC White Collar Boutique
Two former U.S. Department of Justice fraud prosecutors are opening their own Washington, D.C., boutique firm to represent clients in complex fraud and white collar cases, they said Tuesday.
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February 10, 2026
PBMs Enter New Era Of Legal Scrutiny
The recent government funding bill includes extensive reforms for the embattled pharmacy benefit manager industry. It may presage a new wave of agency scrutiny, regulatory action and lawsuits, including from PBMs.
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February 10, 2026
Abortion Rules, Vaccine Recommendations And More In Court
Abortion restrictions in Arizona are facing a new legal challenge, and an interstate clash over abortion pills is heating up. Here, Law360 Healthcare Authority takes a look at the week's top healthcare news.
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February 10, 2026
Wash. Panel Says Healthcare Cost-Share Group Is An Insurer
A Utah-based healthcare cost-sharing nonprofit operates as and must register as an insurer under Washington state law, a state appeals panel ruled, upholding a $50,000 fine from the state's insurance commissioner that found the nonprofit ran afoul of Washington insurance law.
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February 10, 2026
Pa. Emerges As Battleground Over State False Claims Laws
Momentum is growing to pass a False Claims Act law in Pennsylvania, the most populous U.S. jurisdiction without one already on the books. It's also reigniting debate over the value of anti-fraud statutes around the country.
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February 10, 2026
Fresenius Can't Knock Out 401(k) Forfeiture Suit
A Massachusetts federal judge narrowed but declined to dismiss a suit claiming dialysis company Fresenius violated federal benefits law by using forfeited 401(k) funds to pay for match contributions instead of plan fees, ruling the workers behind the suit adequately explained that the move may have flouted their interests.
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February 09, 2026
Anti-Abortion Groups Say Mich. Law Impedes 1st Amendment
Two Michigan-based anti-abortion organizations are suing several officials, alleging recent amendments to Michigan's civil rights law will force them to hire employees and volunteers who do not share or may openly oppose their religious beliefs and stance on abortion.
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February 09, 2026
Medical Equipment Co. Nets Tentative Deal In Overbilling Suit
Medical supply giant AdaptHealth Corp. has tentatively settled an overbilling suit brought by a proposed class of patients who claim they were overcharged for home healthcare equipment, according to a North Carolina court order pausing upcoming deadlines in the case.
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February 06, 2026
Ga. Panel Backs Sperm Bank Win In 'Wrongful Birth' Case
A Georgia appeals court backed a win for sperm bank Xytex Corp. in consolidated litigation alleging the company sold sperm under false pretenses about the medical, psychological and social history of the donors.
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February 06, 2026
'Very Bizarre': Trump's Funding Freeze Appeal Vexes DC Circ.
D.C. Circuit judges struggled Friday with whether to unblock a federal funding freeze carrying multitrillion-dollar implications, as a Trump administration lawyer disclaimed interest in a vast spending halt but also dodged opportunities to rule it out unequivocally.
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February 06, 2026
Arizona Abortion Restrictions Found Unconstitutional
An Arizona state court permanently struck down a slew of restrictions on abortion care in the state, including an ultrasound mandate and a ban on the mailing of abortion pills, finding that the restrictions violate the right to abortion enshrined in the state's constitution.
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February 06, 2026
Hospital Pays $595K To End Ex-Workers' Retirement Suit
A Cambridge hospital system agreed to pay $595,000 to settle a proposed class action claiming it mismanaged its $280 million retirement plan and cost workers millions in savings by failing to reduce management fees and trim costly funds from the plan, according to a Massachusetts federal court filing.
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February 06, 2026
HHS Ends 340B Drug Rebate Pilot After Legal Challenge
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has ended a proposed rebate program that would have altered how hospitals receive payments for participating in the federal 340B drug discount program, which provides discounted prescription drugs for low-income Americans, after facing a lawsuit from a major hospital association.
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February 05, 2026
TikTok Urges NC Justices To Toss State's Addictive App Suit
The North Carolina attorney general can't haul California-based TikTok Inc. and its now-minority Chinese owner ByteDance Inc. into state court to hash out addictive app and deceptive marketing claims solely because the online platform can be accessed in the Tar Heel State, the companies have told North Carolina's highest court.
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February 05, 2026
Trump Admin Asks 4th Circ. To Unfreeze ACA Rule Changes
The Trump administration is urging the Fourth Circuit to let it plow ahead with two changes to Affordable Care Act regulations that a Maryland federal judge froze in August, arguing the rule changes are within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' power to enact.
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February 05, 2026
Website Wiretapping Claims Trimmed From Cigna Suit
A Pennsylvania federal judge has trimmed most of a proposed class action over Cigna's alleged third-party sharing of customers' private health information on its website and patient portals, finding that while the customers had standing, they had consented to a privacy policy that disclosed the data collection and sharing.
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February 04, 2026
'Careless Or Disingenuous': Judge Rips CareFirst Rethink Bid
A Virginia federal judge Wednesday refused to reconsider an order reversing course and throwing out key claims in CareFirst's suit against Johnson & Johnson over the immunosuppressive drug Stelara, calling CareFirst's arguments for doing so "either careless or disingenuous."
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February 04, 2026
Hartford HealthCare Must Provide Docs On $86M Takeovers
Hartford HealthCare Corp. must hand over internal documents detailing its $86.1 million acquisitions of two hospitals from bankrupt Prospect Medical to a group of plaintiffs who accuse the health system of trying to create a monopoly for inpatient hospital services, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled.
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February 04, 2026
Teva Fights Class Cert. Bid In Effexor Antitrust Case
Teva Pharmaceuticals urged a New Jersey federal judge Wednesday to reject a class certification bid by a group of direct buyers of the antidepressant drug Effexor XR and its generic versions, arguing that the proposed class failed to carry its burden showing that joinder is impracticable.
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February 04, 2026
Catholic Health System Escapes Tobacco Fee Suit In Missouri
Ascension Health Alliance escaped a former employee's proposed class action alleging a fee on tobacco-using workers' health plans violated federal benefits law, after a Missouri federal judge held the private Catholic healthcare system wasn't required to retroactively reimburse surcharges for workers who completed a tobacco cessation program.
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February 04, 2026
Drugmaker Claims Stake In La. Mail-Order Abortion Meds Row
An abortion medication manufacturer asserted its right Wednesday to defend mifepristone, moving to intervene in a federal lawsuit over mail-order abortion medication brought by Louisiana alleging that regulators violated federal law by removing an in-person dispensing requirement for the drug.
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February 03, 2026
NC County Faces Suit For Obstructing State Housing Benefit
A North Carolina county misapplied state law and violated the state's constitution in retroactively deeming adult care home residents ineligible for state benefits based on a county commissioner's former ownership of those homes, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in North Carolina federal court.
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February 03, 2026
4 Things To Know As DOL Pitches Transparency For PBMs
The U.S. Department of Labor's proposal to require pharmacy benefit managers to give employer-provided health plans detailed information on fees and compensation is a welcome development, benefits attorneys on both sides of the bar say. Here, Law360 looks at four things to know about the proposed regulations.
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February 03, 2026
Masimo Investors' $34M Deal In Revenue Suit Gets Initial OK
Masimo Corp. and its investors have received initial approval of a $33.8 million deal to settle claims that the medical and audio device company based its sales and revenue projections on unrealistic expectations for demand.
Hospitals Face 'Perfect Storm' Of Fed. Cuts, Revenue Strains
Facing federal budget cuts, soaring labor costs and a rising tide of uninsured patients, U.S. hospitals are approaching a financial cliff that could trigger a wave of closures nationwide.
Record FCA Haul Sends 'Loud' Message On Federal Priorities
Aggressive enforcement by President Donald Trump's administration and the qui tam bar's success prosecuting fraud even without government intervention helped fuel the explosion in recoveries under the False Claims Act last year, experts say.
Blip Or Trend? FDA Guidance Fell Off Steeply In 2025
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued far less industry guidance last year after President Donald Trump returned to office. The change has pharmaceutical attorneys bracing for more unpredictability.
Expert Analysis
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What's At Stake In Possible Circuit Split On Medicaid Rule
A recent Eleventh Circuit decision, reviving Florida's lawsuit against a federal rule that reduces Medicaid funding based on agreements between hospitals, sets up a potential circuit split with the Fifth Circuit, with important ramifications for states looking to private administrators to run provider tax programs, say Liz Goodman, Karuna Seshasai and Rebecca Pitt at FTI Consulting.
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Courts' Rare Quash Of DOJ Subpoenas Has Lessons For Cos.
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.
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Remote Patient Monitoring Is At Regulatory Inflection Point
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.
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Utah's AI Prescription Renewal Pilot Could Inform Policy
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.
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Ramped Up Psychedelic Production Carries Opportunity, Risk
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.
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New Biotech Nat'l Security Controls May Have Blunted Impact
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.
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Takeaways From The DOJ Fraud Section's 2025 Year In Review
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.
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Traditional FCA Enforcement Surges Amid Shifting Priorities
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.
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3 Key Ohio Financial Services Developments From 2025
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.
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Rescheduling Cannabis Marks New Tax Era For Operators
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.
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Justices' Med Mal Ruling May Spur Huge Shift For Litigators
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.
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5 Drug Pricing Policy Developments To Watch In 2026
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.
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Regulatory Uncertainty Ahead For Organ Transplant System
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.