CMS To Keep $1.3B From Calif., Halt New Hospice Enrollment

By Gianna Ferrarin

The federal government on Wednesday announced it will defer more than $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds from California and halt new Medicare enrollments for hospices and home health agencies, saying it was part of an effort to crack down on fraudulent activity.

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HealthSplash CEO Found Guilty In $450M Medicare Fraud Trial

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal jury found a former healthcare company executive guilty on Wednesday of swindling Medicare out of $450 million with software that created false prescriptions for orthotic braces.

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DOJ Fraud Division Set To Shake Up White-Collar Enforcement

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump's administration created the U.S. Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division with a narrow focus on combating government program fraud, but a move to retain federal prosecutors focused on other types of fraud could signal a wider scope with potential ripple effects across white-collar enforcement.

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Walgreens Investors' Opioid Suit Is Time-Barred, Judge Says

By Emilie Ruscoe

Pharmacy giant Walgreens no longer faces a proposed class action alleging it hurt investors when it disclosed opioid-related litigation losses after a Chicago federal judge found the claims were time-barred.

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Provider Says NY Is On The Hook For $3.3M Medicaid Shortfall

By Gianna Ferrarin

The New York State Department of Health's refusal to enforce payment obligations by Medicaid managed care organizations has cost a Queens-based safety net provider at least $3.3 million in underpayments for behavioral health services, according to a suit filed in New York federal court.

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Conn. Doctor Asked To Pay $880K In IVF Fraud Dispute

By Hope Patti

Two people who accused a reproductive endocrinologist of using his own sperm to impregnate their mothers have proposed that the doctor settle their suit against him for a total of $880,000, according to separate offers filed in Connecticut state court.

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Bayer, Buyers Get Final OK Of $4.85M Benzene Settlement

By Mike Curley

A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday gave final approval to a $4.85 million settlement to end claims against Bayer Healthcare LLC and others alleging that antifungal products were contaminated with benzene.

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Washington Hits Providence Health With Pregnancy Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

Washington slapped Providence Health & Services with a lawsuit Wednesday claiming the health system routinely rejected accommodation requests from pregnant employees, denying them spaces to pump breast milk, seating and schedule flexibility to attend doctor appointments.

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Becton Hernia Mesh Antitrust Case Survives Dismissal

By Matthew Perlman

A Pennsylvania federal court has refused to toss an antitrust case from Tela Bio Inc. accusing Becton Dickinson & Co. of abusing its dominant position in the hernia mesh market to block competing products.

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Brief

3 NJ Employers Accused Of Pregnancy Discrimination

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey hospital system, a laboratory company and a cleaning business must answer to allegations that they engaged in pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, state enforcers said this week.

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Crowell & Moring Opens Minneapolis Office With 8 Lawyers

By Tracey Read

Crowell & Moring LLP announced Wednesday that it is deepening its commitment to Minnesota by opening a new office in Minneapolis with a team of eight attorneys and said it's expecting more growth in the near future.

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Opinion

5th Circ.'s Abortion Pill Order Is Shaky On Multiple Grounds

The Fifth Circuit's recent order in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone, seems to turn federalism upside-down, and is also questionable for several other reasons, says Gregory Curtner at Curtner Law.

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5 Takeaways From Justices' Subpoena Fight Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in First Choice v. Davenport fortifies a line of First Amendment associational privacy cases stretching back nearly 70 years, and ensures that organizations subject to government demands for donor information have a meaningful federal forum in which to defend their constitutional rights, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

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Murdaugh Murder Conviction Overturned By SC High Court

By Parker Quinlan

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a double murder conviction and ordered a new trial for disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh, finding the jury in his first trial was biased by a clerk of court who allegedly sought a guilty verdict in a ploy to juice sales of her book about the trial.

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Texas Atty Must Pay $5M For Groping Opposing Counsel

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas state appellate court on Wednesday refused to disturb a $5 million jury verdict against a San Antonio lawyer for grabbing the buttocks of opposing counsel at the courthouse where they were arguing a family law proceeding in 2019.

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DOJ Goes After DC Bar, Courts For Discipline Of Ex-DOJ Atty

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sued the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, D.C. Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia, claiming that they were "punishing" a former Trump administration DOJ official and trying to "control the executive branch."

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Arbitrators See Global Stakes In Trump BigLaw EO Fight

By Caroline Simson

Ahead of a D.C. Circuit hearing on Thursday in the Trump administration's effort to revive executive orders imposed against four BigLaw firms, an official at the College of Commercial Arbitrators told Law360 this week there are several things arbitrators are going to be watching for.

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Apple Targets Hagens Berman 'Gamesmanship' In ICloud Suit

By Bryan Koenig

Apple has lashed out at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to withdraw a named plaintiff from an iCloud antitrust case in California federal court without discovery into any directions she received to preserve now-deleted emails, raising concerns that the withdrawal is meant to "paper over lost evidence."

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Michigan Federal Judge Gets Probation For Drunken Driving

By Susan Smiley

Michigan federal Judge Thomas L. Ludington was sentenced by a state judge on Wednesday to six months' probation and fined $1,175 after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge last month in Emmet County.

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6th Circ. Says Kentucky Judicial Hopefuls May Tout Ideology

By Emily Sawicki

Kentucky judicial hopefuls are cleared to discuss their political leanings on the campaign trail, according to a precedential ruling by the Sixth Circuit, which permanently enjoined the state's Judicial Conduct Commission from pursuing an enforcement action against two candidates who described themselves as "conservatives" and "Republicans" amid the 2022 election season.

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Judge Says LegalForce Must Pay $93K After Losing TM Suit

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge on Wednesday ordered LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC to pay nearly $93,000 in fees and costs to the company that operates LawFirms.com, finding the case to be exceptional because LegalForce alleged facts it knew were false and took steps to obscure other facts that showed its case was meritless.

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CORRECTED: Senate Advances 13 US Attorneys In En Bloc Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 46-45, along party lines, to advance the nomination of 13 U.S. attorneys on Monday as part of a larger nominations package. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the status of the nominees in the Senate.

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