Policy & Compliance
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February 10, 2025
DC Judge Questions Abrupt Removal Of Public Health Info
A D.C. federal judge said he was wrestling with some "circular" arguments offered by the government on Monday as he weighed whether to order the restoration of public health web pages and datasets that had been taken down by the Trump administration.
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February 10, 2025
UnitedHealth Says Fed Suit Imperils Deal's Many Benefits
UnitedHealth Group and home health and hospice giant Amedisys Inc. responded to the U.S. Department of Justice's merger challenge Friday by telling a Maryland federal judge that the government is taking quotes out of context, focusing on "artificially narrow geographic markets" and misjudging market realities.
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February 10, 2025
Harvard Immunity For Body Part Thefts 'Gnaws' At Justice
A judge on Massachusetts' highest court said Monday it's "problematic" that a state law could shield Harvard Medical School from liability in a suit by family members of people whose remains were allegedly sold off in parts by a rogue mortician.
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February 10, 2025
UnitedHealthcare Fined $3.4M In NC Over Billing Shortfalls
UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc. and its insurance affiliate got fined $3.4 million by the Tar Heel State's insurance regulator for failing to follow its own policies for negotiating with out-of-network providers to keep extra costs off of its policyholders.
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February 10, 2025
Mass. Judge Temporarily Blocks NIH Funding Cuts
A Massachusetts federal judge issued a temporary hold Monday on a Trump administration plan to slash grant funding provided by the National Institutes of Health after 22 states sued to block the cuts.
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February 10, 2025
Trump Admin Violating Order To Unfreeze Funds, Judge Says
A Rhode Island federal judge ruled Monday the Trump administration is not complying with the court's temporary restraining order barring a freeze on funding for federal grants and programs, ordering the administration to immediately restore the frozen funds.
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February 07, 2025
70 Depo-Provera Suits Joined In Florida's Northern District
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Friday consolidated more than 70 consumer lawsuits claiming that Pfizer Inc. failed to adequately warn patients and doctors about the risk of brain tumors associated with the hormonal contraceptive drug Depo-Provera in the Northern District of Florida.
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February 07, 2025
CFPB's Medical Debt Rule Halted For 90 Days By Texas Judge
A Texas federal judge has issued a 90-day halt on an approaching effective day for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule banning medical debt from credit reports, a day after the agency's new leadership said it needed time to consider the rule trade groups have sued to end.
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February 07, 2025
Trump Drops High Court Opposition To Transgender Care Ban
The federal government on Friday changed course in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging a Tennessee ban on transgender care for minors, telling the court that the Trump administration's position is that the statute does not deny equal protection on the basis of sex.
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February 07, 2025
Under The Radar: Bankruptcy News You May Have Missed
A onetime financial adviser to UpHealth is opposing the debtor's Chapter 11 plan, Hearthside Food Solutions' official committee of unsecured creditors has balked at the company's executive bonus proposal in bankruptcy, and one-time investors in defunct real estate investment firm RealtyShares willingly dismissed a suit against the firm's former directors, litigation that had outlived the firm's Chapter 7 by more than a year.
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February 07, 2025
Chicago Hospital Network Inks $850K Retirement Suit Deal
A Chicago-area hospital system will pay $850,000 to settle an ex-worker's proposed class action alleging it violated federal benefits law by failing to leverage the size of its $1.8 billion employee retirement plan to lower recordkeeping fees, according to filings Friday in Illinois federal court.
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February 07, 2025
Wash. AG Sues To Block 'Hateful' Trump Transgender Edict
Washington, Minnesota and Oregon, along with three unnamed doctors, seek to block President Donald Trump's order targeting transgender youth and their medical providers, arguing in a complaint filed Friday in Seattle federal court that the Trump edict is unconstitutional, discriminates against transgender people and interferes with lifesaving healthcare.
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February 06, 2025
Doctors Org. Wants Health Agency Website Info Restored
An advocacy organization representing physicians asked a Washington, D.C., federal judge Thursday to require federal agencies to restore public-health related web pages and data that were taken down after the Office of Personnel Management directed the agencies to root out references to "gender ideology" on their websites.
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February 06, 2025
6th Circ. Uncertain If Health Plan Administrator Is A Fiduciary
A yacht-maker urged the Sixth Circuit on Thursday to revive its lawsuit accusing Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan of overpaying employee health plan claims so it could profit off of savings recovered later, but faced tough questions about whether plan administrator BCBSM was a fiduciary under federal benefits law.
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February 06, 2025
ERISA Preempts Banker's $5.5M Deferred Comp, Judge Rules
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempts a former Leerink Partners employee's claims that she was cheated out of about $5.5 million in deferred compensation after the bank hired her under allegedly false pretenses from Goldman Sachs, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled Thursday.
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February 06, 2025
UnitedHealth Drops Bid To Toss Home Health Deal Challenge
UnitedHealth Group and home health and hospice giant Amedisys Inc. dropped their bid to toss a case challenging their $3.3 billion merger after enforcers detailed the home health and hospice markets they allege will be hurt by the deal.
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February 05, 2025
Trump Signs Order Restricting Transgender Women In Sports
President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from competing in women's sports during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at the White House, continuing his trend of targeting transgender rights.
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February 05, 2025
Trade Groups Urge PBM Crackdown By Trump, Congress
A coalition of industry trade groups sent letters Wednesday urging President Donald Trump and leaders in Congress to advance legislation reining in pharmacy benefit managers — which intermediate between drugmakers, insurers and pharmacies — in the next piece of federal government funding legislation.
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February 05, 2025
Penn Hospital Says $200M Judgment Imperils Local Care
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania implored the Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday to upend a purportedly historic $200 million medical malpractice judgment, arguing that the jury's award in the birth injury case was greater than the economic output of some nations and could seriously impact the hospital's operations.
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February 05, 2025
6th Circ. Urged To Revive Allergy Co.'s Antitrust Claims
An allergy company tried Wednesday to persuade a noncommittal Sixth Circuit panel to revive an antitrust suit it brought against health insurance companies it says worked together to push it out of the market.
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February 05, 2025
Sheppard Mullin Adds Healthcare Reg Partner From Troutman
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on Wednesday announced the arrival of a healthcare partner joining from Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, continuing a streak of recent additions to its healthcare practice.
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February 04, 2025
9th Circ. Revives FCA Suit Over Military Meds Deliveries
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday revived a whistleblower lawsuit accusing Express Scripts Inc. of defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense out of billions of dollars in unnecessary medications for military personnel, saying the lawsuit wasn't barred by any public disclosures of the alleged fraud.
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February 04, 2025
Meet The Attys Taking On Merck In The Gardasil Trial
An attorney at a personal injury firm with ties to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's pick for the nation's top healthcare position, is on the plaintiff team leading the first jury trial against Merck & Co. over claims the company wrongfully marketed its HPV vaccine Gardasil.
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February 04, 2025
Calif. AG Gets $25M To Fund Legal Fights Against Trump
The California Legislature greenlighted a $25 million cash infusion Monday for the state attorney general's office in a strategic effort to bolster the state's legal defenses against President Donald Trump's policy agenda, including anticipated challenges to immigration and environmental regulations.
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February 04, 2025
Trump Trans Care Order Usurps Congress' Power, Suit Says
The Trump administration overstepped when it issued an executive order cutting off gender-affirming care for people under 19, a group of transgender adolescents, young adults and their families told a Maryland federal court Tuesday, arguing the president is trying to usurp Congressional authority by forcing federally funded hospitals to discriminate.

Trump Trans Care Order Raises New Legal Risks For Providers
President Donald Trump's executive order restricting gender-affirming care for minors is likely to ignite lasting legal conflicts over the limits of presidential power and whether the policy is discriminatory. In the meantime, hospitals are wrestling with what care they can offer families right now and what comes next for those already undergoing treatment.

Questions To Watch For In RFK Jr.'s Confirmation Hearing
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to appear on Capitol Hill as he tries to secure the top position at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Here are some of the questions healthcare lawyers and others want to see addressed about his "Make America Healthy Again" pledge.

The Legal And Practical Questions Around Trump's WHO Exit
President Donald Trump’s first-day order setting in motion the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization could leave the nation less prepared for global health threats and trigger legal clashes over the president’s authority to act unilaterally.
Expert Analysis
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A Look At Drug Price Negotiation Program's Ongoing Impact
More than two years after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the rapid implementation of the drug price negotiation program, attorneys at Ropes & Gray discuss how the IRA has influenced licensing strategies, and how maximum fair prices under the law have economically affected certain drugs.
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Preparing For A Possible End To The Subminimum Wage
The U.S. Department of Labor's proposed rule to end the subminimum wage for employees with disabilities may significantly affect the community-based rehabilitation and training programs that employ these workers, so certified programs should be especially vigilant about compliance during this period of evaluation and scrutiny, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.
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Drug Pricing Policy Trends To Expect In 2025 And Beyond
Though 2025 may bring more of the same in the realm of drug pricing policy, business as usual entails a sustained, high level of legal and policy developments across at least six major areas, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Top 10 Healthcare And Life Sciences Issues To Watch In 2025
Under the new Trump administration, this coming year may benefit some healthcare and life sciences stakeholders, while creating new challenges for others amid an increasingly complex regulatory environment, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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4 Keys To Litigating In An Active Regulatory Environment
For companies facing litigation influenced by government regulatory action — a recent trend that a politically charged atmosphere will exacerbate — there are a few principles that can help to align litigation strategy with broader public positioning in the regulatory and oversight context, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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How Views On Healthcare Price Transparency Are Changing
Regulators' attitudes toward price transparency regulation have shifted over the past several years in ways that may seem contradictory, and research into detailed rate information published by hospitals and health plans has yielded mixed results, says Matthew List at Charles River Associates.
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EEOC Wearable Tech Guidance Highlights Monitoring Scrutiny
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's recent fact sheet on wearable technologies cautions against potential issues with federal anti-discrimination laws and demonstrates growing concern from regulators and legislators about intrusive technologies in the workplace, say attorneys at Littler.
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Navigating The Potential End Of GLP-1 Drug Shortages
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's determination of whether GLP-1 products are in shortage may affect how compounders provide these products and spur a range of litigation including patent disputes and unfair competition suits, say attorneys at Goodwin.
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Politicized OIGs Could Target Federal Employees, Contractors
After President Donald Trump fired nearly 20 inspectors general last week, it’s worth exploring how the administration could use Offices of Inspectors General to target federal employees and contractors, why it would be difficult to fight this effort, and one possible bulwark against the politicization of these watchdogs, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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Takeaways From DOJ Fraud Section's 2024 Year In Review
Attorneys at Paul Weiss highlight notable developments in the U.S. Department of Justice Fraud Section’s recently released annual report, and discuss what the second Trump administration could mean for enforcement in the year to come.
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IVF Suits Highlight Need For Better Legal Frameworks
The high number of in vitro fertilization embryo losses underscores the need for more cohesive legal and regulatory guidance related to human errors, property versus personhood, and liability, says Jeff Korek at Gersowitz Libo.
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Takeaways From FDA's Updated Confirmatory Trial Guidance
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest draft guidance about accelerated drug approval indicates the FDA's intent to address the significant lag time between accelerated approval and full approval of drugs and may help motivate the industry to complete confirmatory trials, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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A Look At FDA's Plans To Establish New OTC Drug Category
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recently finalized rule, creating a new over-the-counter pathway for drugs when patients satisfy certain conditions, may be useful for off-patent drugs with established safety records, though switching to OTC comes with additional costs and considerations, say attorneys at Skadden.