Policy & Compliance

  • July 03, 2024

    NC Appeals Court OKs Hospital's 'Facility Fees' For ER Patient

    The North Carolina Court of Appeals has found that Novant Health was allowed to charge an emergency room patient "facility fees" because a contract she signed for healthcare included language requiring payment for anything not covered by insurance.

  • July 03, 2024

    Steward Health Downfall Prompts Calls For Tighter Regs

    The magnitude of the financial troubles plaguing bankrupt hospital operator Steward Health Care has turned the Chapter 11 case into a flash point that should prompt a regulatory overhaul, according to a new report released by advocacy group Private Equity Stakeholder Project.

  • July 02, 2024

    Chamber, Pharma Slam Colorado Drug Price Controls

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a prominent pharmaceutical industry group have urged a Colorado federal court to bar a state review board from setting price controls on prescription drugs, arguing that the practice is "irreconcilable" with federal patent law.

  • July 02, 2024

    Ga. Justices Say COVID Order Tolls Med Mal Repose Statute

    The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday said that a judicial emergency order handed down during the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to toll the state's five-year medical malpractice statute of repose.

  • July 02, 2024

    Abortion, Trans Healthcare Top Lower Court Litigation

    Major healthcare decisions at the U.S. Supreme Court dominated the headlines in recent weeks. But there has also been significant movement in state and other appellate courts on the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid coverage, and transgender care, and among other weighty matters. Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at the significant disputes and decisions that shaped the industry over the last week.

  • July 02, 2024

    4 Takeaways From FDA's Clinical Trial Diversity Guidance

    Long-awaited U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidance sheds new light on clinical trial action plans meant to improve health outcomes for more populations. Here are four takeaways from the FDA's latest clinical trial diversity guidelines.

  • July 02, 2024

    Arizona AG Abortion Opinion May Influence Courts, Doctors

    A new advisory opinion reassuring Arizona doctors they can use their good-faith judgment to provide an emergency abortion, despite a 15-week state ban, isn’t binding on the courts. But it may still exert influence on judges and prosecutors in a state with a fast-changing abortion landscape.

  • July 02, 2024

    Veteran Medicare Advocate Judy Stein Welcomes 'New Cadre'

    In 1986, Connecticut attorney Judy Stein took out a loan to launch the Center for Medicare Advocacy in a one-room office above a bakery. Today, she's reflecting on a career fighting for people in need of healthcare support, including the landmark Jimmo settlement, as she welcomes new leadership to the group.

  • July 02, 2024

    3rd Circ. Asked To Remand OT Suit After Justices' Ruling

    Three home care companies in overtime disputes with the U.S. Department of Labor urged the Third Circuit to reverse and remand a ruling that they waited too long to challenge a 2013 ruling on in-home caregivers' ability to earn minimum wage under a new U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • July 01, 2024

    Ill., Northshore Say Anti-Vax Case Not About Religious Liberty

    A nurse working for a Northshore Health unit in Illinois should be permanently blocked from pursuing employment deprivation claims over her initial denial of a COVD-19 religious vaccine exemption, the health facility said, arguing she is using a state conscience law as a "sword" against COVID-19 protections. 

  • July 01, 2024

    House Republicans Call For ACA Enrollment Probe

    Three House Republican committee chairs are asking government watchdogs to investigate Affordable Care Act enrollments after a third-party report alleged a significant number of Americans are fraudulently accessing low-income healthcare subsidies. 

  • July 01, 2024

    NC Doctor Takes Abortion Drug Limits Fight To 4th Circ.

    A North Carolina doctor who challenged the state's restrictions on abortion drug mifepristone asked the Fourth Circuit to review a district court's decision to allow certain limits to stand.

  • July 01, 2024

    Jury Sides With Amazon In Suit Over Post-Surgery Leave

    Amazon didn't have to give a former employee additional time off after gum disease surgery because she wasn't entitled to medical leave and didn't have a disability under federal law, a Florida federal jury found as it sided with the company.

  • June 28, 2024

    Chevron's End Is Just The Start For Energized Agency Foes

    By knocking down a powerful precedent that has towered over administrative law for 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court's right wing Friday gave a crowning achievement to anti-agency attorneys. But for those attorneys, the achievement is merely a means to an end, and experts expect a litigation blitzkrieg to materialize quickly in the aftermath.

  • June 28, 2024

    Texas Justices Back Ban On Gender Affirming Care For Minors

    The Texas Supreme Court upheld a state ban on medical treatments that affirm the gender identity of transgender youths, saying Friday that the legislature "made a permissible, rational policy choice," though a dissenting justice said the court allowed the state "to legislate away fundamental parental rights."

  • June 28, 2024

    In Chevron Case, Justices Trade One Unknown For Another

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overrule a decades-old judicial deference doctrine may cause the "eternal fog of uncertainty" surrounding federal agency actions to dissipate and level the playing field in challenges of government policies, but lawyers warn it raises new questions over what rules courts must follow and how judges will implement them.

  • June 28, 2024

    Ontrak Exec Conviction Shows Trading Plans Aren't Shields

    Executives who use so-called Rule 10b5-1 trading plans to buy and sell shares of their company's stock don't have an automatic shield against insider trading charges, attorneys said following the first criminal conviction of an executive based exclusively on his use of the plans, which are facing increased scrutiny from financial regulators.

  • June 28, 2024

    Health Regulators Likely To Tread Carefully Post-Chevron

    The demise of Chevron deference at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday will likely encourage or fortify challenges to agency rulemaking on matters of health policy in the U.S., from Medicare reimbursement decisions to FDA rules on laboratory-developed tests.

  • June 28, 2024

    Shifting Legal Positions Behind High Court Abortion Punt

    Rapid developments in Idaho abortion law paved the way for a fractured U.S. Supreme Court decision that leaves doctors in the state in murky legal waters around providing abortions to patients in medical crisis.

  • June 28, 2024

    Iowa Supreme Court Approves 6-Week Abortion Ban

    The Iowa Supreme Court narrowly ruled Friday that the state can enforce a law restricting abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, finding the state has a "legitimate interest in protecting unborn life," according to the majority opinion.

  • June 28, 2024

    Supreme Court Strikes Down Chevron Deference

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a decades-old precedent that instructed judges about when they could defer to federal agencies' interpretations of law in rulemaking, depriving courts of a commonly used analytic tool and leaving lots of questions about what comes next.

  • June 27, 2024

    Texas DAs Escape Defendant Class Cert. In Abortion Case

    A Texas federal judge on Wednesday rejected a bid to force state prosecutors to become a certified class of defendants in a suit aimed to curb retaliation against advocates who help women get an abortion outside the state, saying there was no risk of varying adjudications.

  • June 27, 2024

    Rape Kit Co. Wants Wash. Ban Lifted During Free Speech Suit

    A company that sells self-administered sexual assault DNA collection kits is urging a Washington federal judge to stop the enforcement of a new state law that it claims stifles its First Amendment rights by barring the marketing of its kits as an alternative to resources offered by law enforcement and the government.

  • June 27, 2024

    ACLU Says Mich. Can't Ban Medicaid Coverage Of Abortions

    The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday lodged a suit challenging a Michigan law barring Medicaid coverage of abortions, claiming that the ban is a violation of the state constitution's newly enacted right to reproductive freedom.

  • June 27, 2024

    EU High Court Upends Servier Decrease Of Pay-For-Delay Fine

    French pharmaceutical giant Servier is back on the hook for all but €2.4 million ($2.57 million) of a more than €300 million European Union antitrust fine after the European Court of Justice upended a lower court decision that had reduced the penalty by over €100 million.

Expert Analysis

  • Law Firm Professional Development Steps To Thrive In AI Era

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools rapidly evolve, professional development leaders are instrumental in preparing law firms for the paradigm shifts ahead, and should consider three strategies to help empower legal talent with the skills required to succeed in an increasingly complex technological landscape, say Steve Gluckman and Anusia Gillespie at SkillBurst Interactive.

  • HHS Neuromonitoring Advisory May Have Broad Relevance

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    The Health Department Office of Inspector General's recent advisory opinion rejecting a neuromonitoring service's proposal for a shell arrangement isn't surprising, but it could be a harbinger of more warnings against problematic joint venture arrangements to come, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.

  • Potential Marijuana Status Change Would Shift Industry Risks

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    Cannabis companies and their insurers should pay close attention to how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' move toward marijuana reclassification plays out, and the potential for a shakeup in the landscape for cannabis regulation at the state and federal levels, says Ian Stewart at Wilson Elser.

  • Merger Proposals Reflect Agency Leaders' Antitrust Principles

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    Attorneys at Covington trace the recently proposed Hart-Scott-Rodino and merger guidelines changes to certain foundational concerns of the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division leadership, including issues related to concentration associated with horizontal and vertical mergers.

  • The Basics Of Being A Knowledge Management Attorney

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Michael Lehet at Ogletree Deakins discusses the role of knowledge management attorneys at law firms, the common tasks they perform and practical tips for lawyers who may be considering becoming one.

  • A Look At The Tribal Health Reimbursements Circuit Split

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    A circuit split regarding whether Native American tribes are entitled to contract support costs on health care services paid by third-party revenues sets the stage for potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court, and could result in the Indian Health Service paying hundreds of millions more in much-needed funding to tribal health programs, say Geoffrey Strommer and Steve Osborne at Hobbs Straus.

  • What Big Tobacco's Cannabis Investments Mean For Market

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    The tobacco industry appears to be shoring up investments in the cannabis market, most recently with Philip Morris’ purchase of an Israeli cannabis tech company, pointing to a bright future for vaped and noncombustible products, and signaling that marijuana rescheduling may be on the horizon, say Slates Veazey and Whitt Steineker at Bradley Arant.

  • To Hire And Keep Top Talent, Think Beyond Compensation

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    Firms seeking to appeal to sophisticated clients and top-level partners should promote mentorship, ensure that attorneys from diverse backgrounds feel valued, and clarify policies about at-home work, says Patrick Moya at Quaero Group.

  • How Merger Review Overhaul Could Affect Health Industry

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    For those in the health care industry considering growth and expansion strategies, the antitrust agencies' recent proposals for new Hart-Scott-Rodino rules and more complex merger guidelines will increase deal timelines, the merging parties' burden, and overall uncertainty and potential antitrust risk as to the outcome, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • What Circuit Split May Mean For FCA Kickback Liability

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    The recent circuit split on the meaning of the resulting-from provision in False Claims Act kickback cases could have significant ramifications for FCA liability, as it could affect the standard of causation that plaintiffs must meet to establish liability, say former federal prosecutors Li Yu, Ellen London and Gregg Shapiro.

  • More States Should Join Effort To Close Legal Services Gap

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    Colorado is the most recent state to allow other types of legal providers, not just attorneys, to offer specific services in certain circumstances — and more states should rethink the century-old assumptions that shape our current regulatory rules, say Natalie Anne Knowlton and Janet Drobinske at the University of Denver.

  • How Health Cos. Can Brace For Tracking Tech Scrutiny

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    A joint letter sent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and Federal Trade Commission last month highlights the agencies' concerns about tracking technologies, and may foreshadow a spike in enforcement actions, say attorneys at Moses Singer.

  • Identifying Trends And Tips In Litigation Financing Disclosure

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    Growing interest and controversy in litigation financing raise several salient concerns, but exploring recent compelled disclosure trends from courts around the country can help practitioners further their clients' interests, say Sean Callagy and Samuel Sokolsky at Arnold & Porter.