Opioid MDL Judge Fears 'Chaos' If PBMs Derail 100s Of Suits

By Jeff Overley

The federal judge steering multidistrict opioid litigation is lacing into major pharmacy benefit managers for asking the Sixth Circuit to abruptly reverse a key ruling, denouncing their "spurious insinuations" about his motives and warning of disarray if they successfully break up the MDL's consolidated suits.

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Ore. Judge Denies HHS' Attempt To Amend Gender Care Order

By Dan McKay

An Oregon federal judge on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's bid to narrow an earlier order that voided a policy declaration central to the government's crackdown on gender-affirming care for minors.

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NIH Grant Terminations Violate First Amendment, Court Told

By Gianna Ferrarin

The National Institutes of Health is violating the First Amendment by terminating research grants based on policies aimed at suppressing "disfavored" viewpoints on gender identity, climate change and a host of other topics, researchers told a California federal court in a proposed class action suit.

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Kennedy Taps 8 For Panel Guiding ACA Preventive Care

By Mark Payne

Eight new members have been appointed to a key federal health task force that determines which preventive healthcare services insurers must cover, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday. 

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Ex-Conn. Budget Official Flees US Before Corruption Sentence

By Aaron Keller

Former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis slipped out of the United States before learning his fate on federal corruption charges by driving to Florida, taking a boat to the Bahamas, and flying to London, apparently using a Greek passport he was not supposed to possess, attorneys revealed in court Thursday.

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Calif. Judge Holds Off On Sanctioning ICE Amid GEO Talks

By Tom Lotshaw

A California federal judge deferred imposing sanctions on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday after the agency said it's working to give monitors access to health records for detained immigrants at a facility where the judge has twice ordered conditions to be improved.

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EEOC Says Hospital Spurned Applicant Over Heart Condition

By Kelcey Caulder

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit Thursday against a Maryland-based healthcare nonprofit and one of its acute care facilities, claiming they violated disability bias law by pulling a job offer due to a candidate's heart condition.  

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Judge Won't Toss Cannabis Co. Rival Suit, Criticizes AI Misuse

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Wednesday denied a medical marijuana company's bid to get a rival's suit dismissed, called the company's motion to dismiss "sloppy lawyering at best and an AI hallucination at worst," and warned the company's in-house counsel against continued chatbot misuse.

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Tribe Says HHS Defied High Court On Contract Funding

By Joyce Hanson

A California tribe has sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Indian Health Service in Washington, D.C., federal court, accusing them of unlawfully slashing about $2.37 million in contract support costs to less than $100,000.

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IBM, J&J Get Incurable Data Breach Suit Tossed For Good

By Bonnie Eslinger

A New York federal judge dismissed a proposed class action alleging IBM and Johnson & Johnson's healthcare arm failed to safeguard sensitive health information of thousands of patients before a 2023 data breach, saying he provided plaintiffs a chance to fix their complaint, and they didn't cure its "deficiencies."

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Fla. Couple Says IVF Clinic Used Stranger's Sperm

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida couple sued a fertility clinic Thursday alleging that it created embryos for the couple with an unknown man's sperm, which they learned after a DNA test showed their daughter has no biological connection to her father.

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Justices Told Fed. Circ. Erred In Veterinary Software Feud

By Adam Lidgett

A healthcare consulting services company wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit's refusal to revive its copyright and contract claims in a fight over rights to healthcare software for a U.S. Army veterinary records system.

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Inovalon Investors Reach $44M Deal Over $7.3B Take-Private

By Jarek Rutz

Inovalon Holdings Inc. investors have agreed to a $44 million settlement to end their Delaware Chancery Court suit challenging the healthcare data company's $7.3 billion take-private sale to a Nordic Capital-led consortium, resolving claims that stockholders were misled about conflicts involving the deal's financial advisers.

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Doximity Hit With Investor's Suit Over Ad Strategy Claims

By Sydney Price

Medical professional networking platform operator Doximity Inc. was hit with a shareholder's proposed class action accusing it of concealing it was losing market share to its competitors and that its website did not rely on the "deep engagement" advertising strategy it had previously touted.

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Nationwide Says Hyperbaric Chamber Death Not Covered

By Susan Smiley

Nationwide Insurance told a Michigan federal judge that it has no obligation to defend or cover the Oxford Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Center and its staff after a 5-year-old boy died there during hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and it urged the court to grant summary judgment relieving it of any duty to defend the policyholders or cover financial liability in the underlying lawsuit.

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Appeals Court Skeptical Biz Court Is Wrong Place For Perot Suit

By Spencer Brewer

Texas appellate judges seemed skeptical Thursday of a Dallas businessman's claim that the Texas Business Court doesn't have jurisdiction over his multimillion-dollar suit against Ross Perot Jr., saying the money at stake seems to make the case a fit for the Business Court.

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Deals Rumor Mill

OpenAI Aims For $1.2T Valuation, More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI is mulling a private funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at $1.2 trillion; Blackstone is looking to raise $8 billion for its latest Green Infrastructure Credit Fund; and Japanese chipmaker Kioxia Holdings is looking to raise $10 billion by listing American depositary receipts.

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Judge OKs Omnicare Plan That Will Settle $1B In Fraud Claims

By Emily Lever

A Texas bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved CVS unit Omnicare LLC's Chapter 11 plan, which will spin off the unit from the pharmacy megachain and settle $1 billion in federal fraud claims, after the debtor resolved all objections.

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Hogan Lovells Hires Original Member Of McDermott+

By Jack Rodgers

Hogan Lovells Cadwalader has hired a new principal adviser in its Washington, D.C.-based health practice who was among the original group of lobbyists who helped launch McDermott+, a recently shuttered subsidiary of McDermott Will & Schulte LLP, her new firm announced. 

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How GCs Can Assess The Risks Of Emerging AI Laws

Amid a swirl of momentous legislative activity aimed at regulating artificial intelligence, general counsel must return to first principles when determining whether new laws will apply and whether the company’s use could cause regulators to subject it to additional regulation, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

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A Road Map To Modernizing Clinical Lab Regulations

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' recent request for comments on potential changes to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments provides an early indication of where CLIA is headed, and the operational, compliance, reimbursement and enforcement issues those changes will create, says Jose Vela at Clark Hill.

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Senate Confirms Kirkland Partner To Texas Federal Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 49-45 on Thursday to confirm Kasdin Miller Mitchell, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas.

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Analysis

Sue To Stop AI Armageddon? Not So Fast, Attys Say

By Y. Peter Kang

As executives at leading artificial intelligence companies increasingly assert that their own technology could one day pose an existential threat to humanity, a natural question follows: If the risk is real, can anyone sue to stop it before disaster strikes?

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Clancy Atty Denies Malpractice Claim By Man Serving Life

By Julie Manganis

A prominent Massachusetts criminal defense attorney best known for representing Lindsay Clancy has been accused in a separate case of "abandoning" a client who is serving life sentences for second-degree murder and home invasion, allegations the lawyer denies.

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AI Flubs, More Secure PACER Get Judiciary Forum Spotlight

By Jeff Overley

Misuse of artificial intelligence tools and a "state-of-the-art" revamp of electronic dockets in federal cases were among the hottest topics Thursday at a major meeting of judiciary leaders, who also heard a lawmaker warn of eroding trust in the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Analysis

For Single-Party FTC, Easier Suits May Come With A Cost

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission has ditched its historical multimember, multiparty ethos for a one-party regime in which fewer dissents might make it easier for Chairman Andrew Ferguson to pursue his agenda, but it also forecloses the potential "moderating influence" that comes with winning broad buy-in from commissioners of two parties.

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Immigration Attorney Wants SEC Sanctioned In EB-5 Case

By Tom Lotshaw

An immigration attorney and her firm asked a New York federal judge to sanction the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to reasonably investigate an allegedly bogus unregistered securities claim it brought against them in an EB-5 immigrant investor case.

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Weaponization Fund Plaintiffs Say Discovery Ruling Was Right

By Jared Foretek

Plaintiffs suing over the Trump administration's once-proposed "anti-weaponization fund" are telling a Virginia federal judge to reject the U.S. Department of Justice's objections to a magistrate judge's discovery order, accusing the administration of stonewalling their requests and urging prompt discovery production.

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