Hospital Can't Privately Contact Ex-Docs, Wash. Justices Rule

By Ben Adlin

Washington's Supreme Court split 6-3 Thursday in ruling that Virginia Mason Medical Center improperly engaged in private communications with a malpractice plaintiff's treating doctors by failing to go through formal discovery or establish the patient's knowledge or consent.

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Calif. Judge Vacates Trump's $100K H-1B Fee Policies

By Britain Eakin

A California federal judge has vacated the implementing policies underlying President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee, saying the federal agencies charged with implementing the fee ran afoul of rulemaking procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act.

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Judge Bars HHS Medicaid Cuts For Wash. Noncitizens On SSI

By Elaine Briseño

A federal judge has temporarily halted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' attempts to cancel Medicaid benefits to noncitizens in Washington state receiving supplemental security income, finding the loss of benefits could lead to permanent disability or death.

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DOJ Outlines New Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities

By Phillip Bantz

Federal prosecutors "must place great weight" on a new list of factors when considering potential charges in corporate fraud cases, including whether the matters involve government programs, threats to national security or immigration offenses, according to a memo released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Janssen Biotech Beats Kickback Suit Over Advice To Docs

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge has dismissed a False Claims Act case against Janssen Biotech Inc., saying a "large evidentiary hole" sunk a whistleblower's claims that the drug company provided kickbacks to doctors in the form of free consulting services.

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Calif. Gov. Pushes For More In Signing Bill Limiting CIPA Suits

By Allison Grande

California's governor approved legislation Wednesday to block private litigants from bringing lawsuits under one provision of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, while urging the Legislature to keep working on efforts to expand this ban to include additional website tracking claims under the decades-old wiretap statute.  

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Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

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Buchalter Data Breach Exposed Calif. Hospital Patient Data

By Adrian Cruz

California-based Buchalter PC suffered a data breach in August that exposed a limited amount of personal information belonging to patients at Los Angeles-area hospital Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, according to a letter Arrowhead sent Monday to affected individuals.

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Calif. Co. Will Pay $20M To Settle COVID Payment Claims

By Tom Lotshaw

Los Angeles-based medical lab Signal Diagnostics LLC agreed to pay $20.5 million to settle allegations that it unlawfully retained overpayments for COVID tests for people who had health insurance, according to federal prosecutors.

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NH Families Seek To Block Medicaid Ban On Youth Trans Care

By Gianna Ferrarin

Transgender adolescents and their parents urged a New Hampshire federal court Thursday to block the Trump administration's plan to cut off Medicaid funding for minors' gender-affirming care, arguing it's unconstitutional, motivated by discriminatory animus and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

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Patients' Texas Anesthesia Rollup Suit Trimmed

By Bryan Koenig

A Texas federal judge offered patients a mixed bag Wednesday in a proposed class action accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of anticompetitively buying up anesthesia practices in the state and fixing prices, dismissing claims based on ambulatory surgery center services while preserving allegations based on hospitals.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Galderma In Injection Training IP Case

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed an order clearing Galderma SA of a medical training startup's accusations that it misappropriated trade secrets related to an injection training system and derailed what could have been a lucrative deal with Allergan PLC.

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Wounded Cop Can't Sue Philly Hospital Over Shooting

By Y. Peter Kang

The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Thursday declined to reinstate a lawsuit seeking to hold Jefferson University Hospital liable for severe arm injuries a police officer suffered while confronting a hospital employee who fatally shot his co-worker, finding the hospital owed no duty of care to the officer.

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AbbVie Gets Humira Antitrust Suit Trimmed, But Not Tossed

By Rae Ann Varona

An Illinois federal judge tossed all but one claim in a sheet metal worker health plan's putative class action against AbbVie for allegedly causing artificially inflated prices for the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, saying the plan sufficiently alleged AbbVie unlawfully stifled competition in the adalimumab market.

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Ex-Actavis Exec Escapes Some Drug Price-Fixing Claims

By Carla Baranauckas

A Connecticut federal judge has dismissed a swath of claims against a former executive of Actavis and Taro in the generic drug price‑fixing litigation brought by state enforcers, holding that evidence was insufficient to prove he joined several alleged single‑drug conspiracies.

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Liquidia's Yutrepia Found To Infringe Lung Treatment Patent

By Elliot Weld

A Delaware federal judge has ruled that Liquidia was infringing two claims of a patent covering methods of treating pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease by seeking approval to market the drug Yutrepia.

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Home Health Co. Seeks Pause Of Colo. Agency's Backout

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado home personal care services company exclusively serving those insured by Medicaid urged a state judge Thursday to pause a Colorado regulatory agency's decision to terminate its provider agreement, contending any transition of clients to other providers should come after an administrative court hearing later this month.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Rethink Vacating Contractor's $12.7M Award

By Ganesh Setty

The Federal Circuit said Thursday it won't disturb a unanimous three-judge panel's decision vacating a roughly $12.7 million award a software developer won against the federal government over unauthorized software copies, denying a panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.

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Aya Health Tells 9th Circ. It Needn't Seek Suits Against Itself

By Dorothy Atkins

Aya Healthcare urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to undo an order pausing its wage-and-hour arbitration bid, arguing that requiring the travel nursing agency to first notify 400,000 workers of the collective action before deciding whether arbitration is appropriate violates the Federal Arbitration Act and essentially forces Aya to solicit lawsuits against itself.

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Fla. Doc Says He Opposed Cruise Co.'s Billing, Got Fired

By David Minsky

A doctor has brought a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings Ltd. in Florida federal court, alleging he lost his job after speaking out against what he believed were fraudulent practices to overcharge passengers for medical services that weren't necessary. 

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Deals Rumor Mill

Walgreens Closes In On $9B Boots Sale, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Walgreens is nearing a $9 billion sale of its British pharmacy chain Boots, private equity shop TPG closed a $10 billion climate-focused fund, and Saudi Arabia-owned oil and gas company Aramco has retained an investment bank to lead it on a restructuring plan.

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Texas Medicaid Fraud Decision Leaves 2 Open Questions

The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Texas and NPT Associates, holding that the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act's omissions provision requires proof of materiality, creates ambiguity about the materiality requirement and about how Texas courts will treat federal precedent going forward, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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UCLA Law Is Latest DOJ Target Over Race Bias In Admissions

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused the UCLA School of Law of discriminating against white and Asian students in its admissions process in a letter sent to the school's counsel Thursday, following multiple other similar letters that the DOJ sent to other higher-education institutions.

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Blackburn Holds Up White House's Tenn. Judge Pick

By Courtney Bublé

The White House is standing by its nominee for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee amid a holdup from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

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Richards Layton Atty Confirmed To Join Del. Chancery Bench

By Rose Krebs

Delaware's Senate on Thursday confirmed a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to a 12-year term as a vice chancellor on the Chancery Court.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of September

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at MSG Sports, Nestle and the Associated Press. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from September.

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Judge Reinstates Rogoff As Seattle US Atty After Trump Firing

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge issued an order from the bench on Thursday reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, finding that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he fired him in July.

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Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

By Adam Lidgett

The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers settled their case challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, while the U.S. Department of Justice probes Fox's planned $22 billion deal for Roku and regulators review massive deals in the energy and railroad sectors.

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