Policy & Compliance

  • September 09, 2025

    MAHA Report Calls For Increased Scrutiny Of Drug Advertising

    The Trump administration on Tuesday pledged to ramp up federal oversight of drug advertising, update dietary guidelines and slash unnecessary regulations as part of its strategy to boost the health of America's children and curb the rise in childhood chronic disease.

  • September 09, 2025

    Nursing Exec Says $10.5M Fraud Penalty Excessive

    A nurse staffing executive convicted of wage-fixing told a Nevada federal court the U.S. Department of Justice's request for a $10.5 million forfeiture order for allegedly failing to disclose the antitrust investigation when selling his business is excessive.

  • September 09, 2025

    Morgan Lewis Attys Talk Key FDA AI Policies Of 2025

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's internal artificial intelligence tool, new medical device guidance and a warning about wearable technology. Law360 Healthcare Authority explores these and other issues highlighted by Morgan Lewis lawyers at an event focused on the intersection of AI and health policy.

  • September 09, 2025

    Lambda Legal Attorney Indicted Over Judge Shopping Probe

    An attorney with LGBTQ rights nonprofit Lambda Legal has been charged in Alabama federal court in connection with an alleged judge-shopping scandal in Alabama, with prosecutors claiming he lied to a panel of federal judges investigating the episode.

  • September 09, 2025

    DOJ, FTC Urged To Probe Drugmakers' Rebate Models

    The American Hospital Association asked the Trump administration to investigate whether major pharmaceutical companies violated antitrust laws as they push out new rebate models for a program that offers discounted drugs to healthcare providers serving low-income patients.

  • September 09, 2025

    Families Gain Ground In Wilderness Therapy Coverage Fight

    Families seeking insurance coverage for youth wilderness therapy are gaining ground. A handful of courts have recently backed claims that insurers may be violating a federal law banning them from imposing stricter limits on mental health treatments than on medical or surgical treatments.

  • September 08, 2025

    Walgreens Fired Pharmacy Heads After Union Vote, Suits Say

    Two ex-pharmacy managers have accused Walgreens of firing them for refusing to spy on their employees amid a campaign to unionize at a store in southwest Washington state, according to two new lawsuits launched in federal court in the Evergreen State.

  • September 08, 2025

    NY AG To Fight Texas Bid To Enforce Abortion Ban Ruling

    New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday moved to intervene in a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas that seeks to enforce a money judgment against a New York doctor for providing abortion-inducing drugs to a woman via telemedicine in the Lone Star state.

  • September 08, 2025

    Nurses Seek Final OK Of $724K Deal Over HCA Training Costs

    About 2,390 nurses urged a California federal judge Monday to give the final OK to a nearly $756,000 settlement they reached with HCA Healthcare and related entities over claims that the healthcare provider required them to repay it for its training program.

  • September 08, 2025

    Lowe's Workers Drop Suit Claiming Unlawful Insurance Fees

    Ex-Lowe's employees have dropped a proposed class action alleging the home improvement retailer violated federal law by overcharging tobacco-using employees for health insurance, according to a notice filed in North Carolina federal court.

  • September 08, 2025

    FibroGen To Pay SEC $1.25M Over Drug Mistatements

    Biopharmaceutical company FibroGen Inc. has agreed to pay a $1.25 million penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve claims that its former chief medical officer fudged results for its primary drug, Roxadustat, which treats anemia in kidney disease patients.

  • September 05, 2025

    Judge Doubts DOE Stance On Ending Mental Health Grants

    A Seattle federal judge hinted on Friday that 16 states have valid claims against the U.S. Department of Education for arbitrarily discontinuing mental health funding for public schools, expressing frustration with the federal government's argument that it could terminate grant funding the same way it could fire a landscaper under contract.  

  • September 05, 2025

    Merck Shakes Off Some Claims From Cholesterol Drugs Suit

    A New Jersey federal judge has partly granted a request from Merck & Co. to dismiss claims brought by Humana over an alleged anticompetitive scheme to control distribution of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, tossing several proposed theories of monopolization but allowing unjust enrichment claims and state law antitrust claims to survive.

  • September 05, 2025

    HCA Healthcare Can't Halt Discovery In 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

    A Tennessee federal judge denied HCA Healthcare's bid Friday to stop discovery while the court considers its motion to toss a worker's suit claiming it illegally used forfeited 401(k) funds to cover its own contribution costs, finding the alleged novelty of her claims can't block case information collection.

  • September 05, 2025

    Vein Tech Maker Wants Suit Over DOJ Kickback Probe Tossed

    Vein disease device maker Inari Medical Inc. and its former top brass have asked a New York federal judge to toss a proposed investor class action over claims the company's share price fell after it disclosed an investigation into its compliance with federal anti-kickback laws, arguing the suit fails to allege any specific kickbacks or false statements.

  • September 05, 2025

    FDA Explains Rejection Of MDMA Therapy For Treating PTSD

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected a historic new drug application to treat post-traumatic stress disorder with the psychedelic MDMA due to concerns with the drug's safety and effectiveness and with the design of the clinical trials behind the bid, according to an agency letter made public Thursday.

  • September 05, 2025

    Ga. Ban On Trans Prisoner Healthcare Paused, Class Certified

    A Georgia federal judge has reached what he described as a "straightforward" decision to temporarily pause the state's law banning the use of state resources for hormone replacement therapies for transgender state prisoners, and is considering granting the plaintiffs' request for permanent injunctive relief.

  • September 05, 2025

    6th Circ. Finds Boss' Pregnancy Remark Supports Bias Claim

    A split Sixth Circuit panel revived part of a lawsuit from a woman who alleges a Michigan hospital system laid her off because she was pregnant, finding that evidence that the worker's supervisor was concerned about the pregnancy's effects on department productivity supports pregnancy discrimination claims.

  • September 05, 2025

    Brown Univ. Prof Says Top Court Ruling Bolsters Habeas Bid

    A Lebanese nephrologist who teaches at Brown University under an H-1B visa argued last week that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling this summer in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, a case focusing on whether members of a U.S. government task force were constitutionally appointed, bolsters her argument that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who deported her lacked the authority to do so.

  • September 05, 2025

    Mass. Justices Mull Privacy Issues In Era Of Online Records

    Massachusetts' highest court heard arguments Friday in a pair of cases asking the justices to balance the public's right to access court documents against the privacy interests of potential medical malpractice victims and people charged with but later cleared of crimes.

  • September 05, 2025

    Workers Say Tenet Misspent Forfeitures In Mega 401(k) Plan

    A Tenet Healthcare ex-employee alleged in a proposed class action Friday in Texas federal court that the healthcare company misspent nearly $28.6 million in forfeitures from an employee 401(k) plan by using the assets to reduce employer-side contribution obligations to other workers' accounts.

  • September 04, 2025

    Feds Seek Stay On Court Order Releasing Foreign Aid Billions

    The Trump administration urged the D.C. Circuit on Thursday to stay a federal judge's order that it release billions in frozen foreign aid pending its appeal, saying the disbursement will likely be "impossible" to recover according to the international aid organization plaintiffs' "own description of their financial condition."

  • September 04, 2025

    Split 3rd Circ. Rejects Janssen, Bristol Myers Pricing Appeal

    A split Third Circuit panel Thursday shot down another challenge to the Medicare drug pricing negotiation, this time rejecting a consolidated appeal from Bristol Myers Squibb and Janssen and upholding a lower court's finding that the program is indeed voluntary and therefore constitutional.

  • September 04, 2025

    Feds Stand By $10M Medicare Fraud Conviction At 4th Circ.

    The Fourth Circuit should uphold the six-year sentence of a physician assistant who was found guilty of Medicare fraud after prosecutors said he rubber-stamped bogus prescriptions for genetic testing worth about $10 million, the government told the court.

  • September 04, 2025

    4th Circ. Affirms Gardasil's Vaccine Table Inclusion

    A unanimous Fourth Circuit panel affirmed Thursday that adding the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil to the Vaccine Act's injury table did not violate the U.S. Constitution, rejecting three plaintiffs' arguments that the Secretary of Health and Human Services lacks the authority to make additions to the table without an act of Congress.

Expert Analysis

  • How Importers Can Minimize FCA Risks Of Tariff Mitigation

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    False Claims Act risks are inherent in many tariff mitigation strategies, making it important for importers to implement best practices to identify and report potential violations of import regulations before they escalate, says Samuel Finkelstein at LMD Trade Law.

  • 10 Practical Takeaways From FDA's Biopharma AI Guidance

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    Recent guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides much-needed insight on the usage of artificial intelligence in producing information to support regulatory decision-making regarding drug safety, with implications ranging from life cycle maintenance to AI tool acquisition, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Lawmakers Shouldn't Overlook Rare Disease Therapies' Value

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    As the ORPHAN Cures Act is pending in Congress, policymakers assessing the value of certain drugs for price regulation should consider data beyond what is collected in clinical trials, say Alice Chen at the University of Southern California, and Molly Frean and Yao Lu at Analysis Group.

  • What Trump's Order Means For The Legal Status Of IVF

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    An executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month signals the administration's potential intention to increase protections for in vitro fertilization services, though more concrete actions would be needed to resolve the current uncertainty around IVF access or bring about a binding legal change, says Jeanne Vance at Weintraub Tobin.

  • Mitigating Tariff Risks For Healthcare In US And Canada

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    Healthcare stakeholders should take steps to evaluate the impact of cross-border tariffs, as the historically strong ties between Canada and the U.S. demonstrate the potential for real disruption and harm to the healthcare industry in both countries, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • What's At Stake In High Court Transgender Care Suit

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    The outcome of U.S. v. Skrmetti will have critical implications for the rights of transgender youth and their access to gender-affirming care, and will likely affect other areas of law and policy involving transgender individuals, including education, employment, healthcare and civil rights, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 6 Laws Transforming Calif.'s Health Regulatory Framework

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    Attorneys at Hooper Lundy discuss a number of new California laws that raise pressing issues for independent physicians and small practice groups, ranging from the use of artificial intelligence to wage standards for healthcare employees.

  • Anticipating Calif. Oversight Of PE Participation In Healthcare

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    A new bill recently introduced in the California Senate revives last year's attempt to increase oversight of healthcare transactions involving private equity groups and hedge funds, meaning that attorneys may soon need to assess the compliance status of existing management relationships and consider modifying contract terms, says Andrew Demetriou at Husch Blackwell.

  • Considering The Future Of AI Regulation On Health Sector

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    As Texas looks to become the next state to pass a comprehensive law regulating artificial intelligence, the healthcare industry should consider how AI regulation will continue to evolve in the U.S. and how industry members can keep up with compliance considerations, say attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis.

  • What To Expect From 'Make America Healthy Again' Actions

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    The Make America Healthy Again Commission recently established by President Donald Trump and chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will potentially bring energy and attention to important public health topics, and stakeholders should be aware of pathways for sharing their input and proactively informing proceedings, says Nicholas Manetto at Faegre Drinker.

  • How Citizen Petitions Have Affected Drug Competition

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    In light of recent citizen petitions and proposed legislation regulating such petitions, Omar Robles at Managing Health analyzes the statistics of the extent to which citizen petitions have been filed, and to what extent they have delayed competition in prescription pharmaceuticals.

  • Drug Kickback Ruling Will Make FCA Liability Harder To Prove

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    The First Circuit's ruling in U.S. v. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, requiring the government to prove but-for causation to establish False Claims Act liability based on violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, raises the bar for FCA enforcement and deepens a circuit split that the U.S. Supreme Court may need to resolve, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • Assessing PE Risk After Mass. False Claims Act Amendments

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    A law recently passed in Massachusetts amends the commonwealth's False Claims Act by dramatically expanding potential liability for private equity firms and investors, underscoring the importance of robust diligence and risk assessments for private equity firms conducting transactions in the commonwealth, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.