1st Circ. Seems Torn On DOJ Bid For Trans Care Records

By Chris Villani

The First Circuit on Wednesday appeared divided over whether the Trump administration may access a wide array of documents related to gender-affirming care at Boston Children's Hospital, with judges asking pointed questions of lawyers on both sides.

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PhRMA Sues To Block Medicare Foreign Drug Price Rule

By Jared Foretek

The pharmaceutical industry's top lobbying group asked a D.C. federal judge Wednesday to block a new Medicare rule tying Part B drug payments to prices abroad, claiming that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is imposing a "most-favored-nation" price control that Congress has repeatedly declined to enact.

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Mich. Judge Questions Push To Revive Abortion Restrictions

By Dan McKay

A Michigan judge Wednesday called a state law requiring medical providers to give parenting information and a picture of a fetus to patients seeking an abortion a "hindrance" that is out of step with a voter-approved right to reproductive freedom.

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Ga. Appeals Court Grapples With Nurses' COVID-Era Pay Fight

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia appeals court wrestled Wednesday with whether nurses who traveled to Florida for jobs at state-run COVID-19 testing sites were owed pay just for showing up in the Sunshine State — or if being assigned a shift triggered a staffing company's pay obligations. 

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Prosthetic Breast Merchant Admits To $1.3M Insurance Fraud

By Brian Steele

A former business owner in Connecticut pled guilty to running a $1.3 million insurance scam that targeted Medicaid and private companies by submitting fraudulent claims for custom breast prostheses that customers never ordered or received, federal court records show.

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Blue Cross Must Justify Carve-Up Unit By Unit In Calif.

By Bryan Koenig

Counsel for hospital plaintiffs touted a "landmark" win in California state court litigation that will require the Blue Cross Blue Shield network to justify unit by unit how it has carved up markets.

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Utah Cannabis Shop Says NLRB Case Can't Be Tossed Yet

By Sam Reisman

A Utah medical marijuana dispensary challenging National Labor Relations Board proceedings against it over the firing of four union supporters is pushing back against both the NLRB and the intervening United Food & Commercial Workers local's bids to toss the case.

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NC Hospital Accuses Blue Cross Of Refusing Covered Claims

By Hayley Fowler

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is refusing to pay or underpaying for covered services on behalf of its members, a hospital in the Tar Heel State has alleged in a new complaint accusing the insurer of violating the parties' network participation agreement.

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CVS 401(k) Recordkeeping Fee Suit Dropped In New York

By Kellie Mejdrich

A former CVS worker dropped his proposed class action alleging the pharmacy giant cost workers millions in retirement savings and violated federal benefits law by failing to rein in excessive administrative fees in its $27 billion 401(k) plan, according to a filing in New York federal court.

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Ark. Panel Says Insurers Must Defend Walmart Opioid Suits

By Hope Patti

Insurers for Walmart must defend the retail giant against underlying suits claiming its sale of prescription painkillers contributed to the opioid epidemic, an Arkansas state appeals court affirmed Wednesday, finding that the suits allege accidental conduct and are seeking damages because of bodily injury.

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3rd Circ. Upends Sandoz's $61.6M Award Against UTC

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Third Circuit panel on Wednesday erased Sandoz Inc.'s $61.6 million award in a breach of contract case against United Therapeutics Corp., in a decision that sidesteps the major pharmaceutical company's request to reinstate a $137.2 million damages calculation that had been halved by the trial judge.

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JPML Consolidates Nevro, Abbott Spinal Cord Device Suits

By Joyce Hanson

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has created separate MDLs over purportedly defective spinal cord stimulators manufactured by Nevro LLC and Abbott Laboratories, rejecting the manufacturers' arguments that the cases' plaintiffs do not share enough common factual questions to warrant consolidation.

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Eldercare Co.'s Wage Class Fight Bound For Wash. High Court

By Ben Adlin

Washington's highest court agreed Tuesday to take up whether an appellate panel rightly revived two workers' proposed wage-and-hour class action against an eldercare provider despite the plaintiffs' membership in a separate class action against the company that was previously settled.

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BCBS Unit Owes Awards Under No Surprises Act, Court Told

By Gianna Ferrarin

A Blue Cross Blue Shield unit failed to pay thousands of dollars in awards that an air ambulance company won through the No Surprises Act's arbitration process for out-of-network services rendered to the insurer's beneficiaries, the company alleges in a suit in West Virginia federal court.

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Kirkland-Led Sheridan Secures $1.345B For 2 Latest Funds

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised Sheridan Capital Partners on Wednesday revealed that it raised $1.345 billion across two new funds, which will be used to invest across various healthcare sectors.

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Arnall Golden Adds Ex-CMS Leader To Healthcare Team In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Arnall Golden Gregory LLP has hired a former leader at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services who spent nearly a decade in the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a Wednesday announcement.

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Why And How To Build A Neurodiversity-Informed Practice

By better understanding neurodiversity and implementing simple accommodations for clients with autism, ADHD or learning differences, attorneys can build stronger relationships with those who may otherwise struggle to obtain and benefit from legal services, while developing good habits that will benefit everyone they represent, says Ting Cheung at Sanford Heisler.

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Split Congress Could Spur Competing Probes, Cleary Finds

By Courtney Bublé

If the new year brings an era of divided Congress, then "dueling investigations" into the same topics should be expected, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP said in a report it released Thursday.

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Baker Donelson Elects Department Chair As President, COO

By Tracey Read

Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC has elected a litigator who chairs the financial services department as its next president and chief operating officer, the Memphis, Tennessee-headquartered firm announced Thursday.

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Morgan Lewis Forms Council To Steer EMEA Strategy

By Kevin Penton

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP is creating a 12-member council for Europe, the Middle East and Africa that it anticipates will work to advance regional priorities, enhance collaboration opportunities and improve services to global clients, the firm announced Thursday.

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DLA Piper Taps 2 O'Melveny Lawyers For Leadership Roles

By Jack Rodgers

DLA Piper has hired two O'Melveny & Myers LLP lawyers as the new leaders in two D.C.-based intellectual property groups, one of whom was the leader of his prior firm's International Trade Commission litigation group.

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Foley & Lardner Adds Ex-DOJ Antitrust Official In DC Office

By James Boyle

A former assistant chief in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division moved back recently into the private sector and joined Foley & Lardner LLP's Washington, D.C., office.

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Sheppard Mullin Hit With Class Action Over Data Breach

By Jake Maher

A former Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP paralegal launched a proposed class action against the firm in California federal court on Wednesday over a cyberattack it had in August, in which she says at least 1,000 people's names and Social Security numbers were stolen.

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Buzbee Faces $970K Fee Bid In Dismissed Conspiracy Cases

By Lynn LaRowe

A Mississippi lawyer is asking a Texas state court to award her more than $970,000 in fees after defeating claims that she and her law firm conspired with rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to retaliate against prominent Houston plaintiffs attorney Tony Buzbee and two of his former clients.

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Analysis

New Fraud Division Flexes Might In Latest Enforcement Policy

By Phillip Bantz

The National Fraud Enforcement Division's new corporate enforcement policy emphasizes the quick pursuit of certain types of fraud through data analysis and staff resources, expands the target list beyond traditional healthcare providers and highlights the division's growing dominance within the U.S. Department of Justice, experts say.

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IP Rights Group Urges Against Litigation Funding Disclosure

By Elliot Weld

An inventor rights advocacy group has told a federal courts rules committee that requiring the disclosure of who is funding civil litigation would put independent inventors at a disadvantage when trying to enforce patents against a larger company.

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