More Healthcare Coverage
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February 21, 2024
Morgue Manager's Wife Cops To Role In Body Part Sales
The wife of a Harvard University morgue manager will cop to interstate transport of stolen goods for her role in the alleged scheme to steal and sell human remains to a nationwide network, prosecutors said Wednesday.
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February 21, 2024
'Loser Pays' Arbitration Pact Spurs Age Bias Case's Revival
An Ohio state appeals court revived a fired orthodontist's age bias suit claiming she was sacked after complaining that a younger colleague harassed her, ruling that a trial court was too quick to kick the case to arbitration in light of the contract's potentially problematic "loser pays" clause.
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February 21, 2024
Conn. Court Pauses Refund Plan For Ex-Nursing Students
Over the objections of the Connecticut attorney general, a judge has temporarily halted a state agency's plan to refund some tuition money that students paid to the now-shuttered nursing school Stone Academy, siding with a proposed class of affected students who want to avoid waiving their legal rights in order to receive the payments.
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February 21, 2024
Juror Misconduct Warrants New Trial In Birth Injury Suit
A Tennessee appeals panel has revived a woman's claims that her obstetrician caused birth injuries to her newborn by failing to administer an EpiPen when she had an allergic reaction to a medication, saying a juror likely polluted the verdict by bringing in outside information to deliberations.
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February 20, 2024
Ill. Cardiologist Keeps Trial Win In Med Mal Death Suit
An Illinois state appeals court on Tuesday declined to upend a trial victory for a cardiologist and his employer in a suit alleging he misdiagnosed the severity of a heart condition in a patient who later died, saying the trial court was not wrong to allow certain defense testimony or limit the plaintiff's evidence.
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February 20, 2024
Permanent Need Dooms Request For H-2B Home Health Aides
A U.S. Department of Labor appeals board has upheld the rejection of a business's request to hire four home health aides under the H-2B temporary foreign worker program, determining a certifying officer did not act arbitrarily and capriciously in finding the company failed to show its need for workers was temporary.
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February 20, 2024
Justices Decline Malpractice Dispute Over $6M Settlement
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear the appeal of a Massachusetts legal malpractice suit in which Lubin & Meyer PC was accused, and cleared by a lower court, of pressuring a family into accepting a $6 million settlement that the family claims could have been higher.
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February 16, 2024
Judge Seeks Briefing On New Expert Proposed In Tylenol MDL
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote signaled Friday that she's willing to consider a new expert witness proposed in the multidistrict litigation alleging prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes ADHD, directing the parties to propose a briefing schedule on whether the expert's opinion is admissible.
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February 16, 2024
Family Of 23-Year-Old Who Died From Ulcer Gets $30M
A Florida state jury awarded $30 million to the family of a 23-year-old woman who died from an untreated ulcer at a Tampa hospital after finding the two doctors entrusted with her care liable for negligence.
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February 16, 2024
Va. Couple Sues CooperSurgical Over Destroyed Embryos
CooperSurgical Inc. has been hit with a product liability action in California federal court by a Virginia couple alleging they went through the arduous process of in vitro fertilization only for the company's defective culture media to destroy their irreplaceable embryos.
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February 16, 2024
Fired Hospital Worker Can't Keep Fighting PTO Denial
A maintenance worker who lost an administrative case alleging his ex-employer owed him money for unused paid time off when he was fired cannot try again to get a judgment in state court against the hospital where he worked or Michigan labor regulators, an appellate panel has found.
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February 16, 2024
Littler Hit With DQ Bid For Wielding Mistakenly Produced Doc
Littler Mendelson PC has gained an "unfair advantage" and should be booted from defending a Florida pharmacy services company for using an inadvertently produced, privileged document in a deposition last week, a woman suing the company for whistleblower retaliation said.
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February 15, 2024
Petition Watch: Classes, Litigation Changes & Fraud Theories
The U.S. Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions for review each term, but only a few make the news. Here, Law360 looks at four petitions filed in the past three weeks that you might've missed, including questions over how courts should analyze class certification bids and regulations restricting specific speech for content-neutral reasons, whether plaintiffs must reestablish standing after amending lawsuits, and what constitutes fraud.
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February 14, 2024
Colo. Hospital Sued For Denying Gender Dysphoria Surgery
A patient is suing the Children's Hospital Colorado for discrimination and allegedly violating state law after a new policy barred surgical treatment for gender dysphoria, leading to the immediate cancellation of all surgeries for transgender patients, according to a suit filed Wednesday.
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February 14, 2024
Fox News' Sorrento Report Takes Center Stage At 9th Circ.
Counsel for Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. investors urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to revive a securities suit alleging executives made misleading statements to Fox News about its COVID-19 research, prompting one judge to ask whether "you have to take things you hear on Fox News with a grain of salt."
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February 14, 2024
Mich. Health Co. Settles Payroll Outage Dispute For $325K
A Michigan health system agreed to pay $325,000 to settle over 2,000 workers' claims for unpaid wages following the Kronos timekeeping system hack in 2021 and asked a Michigan federal court to approve the deal.
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February 14, 2024
Perkins Coie Keeps Malpractice Win Over Trustee's Standing
Perkins Coie LLP this week secured a Texas state appellate decision that upheld the dismissal of a malpractice lawsuit brought by a bankruptcy trustee for one of the firm's former clients, with the appellate panel concurring with a trial judge that the trustee lacked standing to pursue the claims.
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February 14, 2024
Mental Health Agency Denied Early Win In NC Wage Suit
A North Carolina federal judge said it's too early to decide a worker's retaliation claim against a mental health agency that offers services to children and teens and shelved the company's breach of contract counterclaim.
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February 13, 2024
Philly Judge Must Reconsider Venue For Tooth Implant Suit
A precedential ruling from the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that a Philadelphia judge improperly ruled that a dental malpractice case alleging a tooth implant damaged a patient's lingual nerve did not belong in the city, saying the judge wrongly put the burden on the plaintiff to show her suit belonged in the city's court system.
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February 13, 2024
CMS Must Rethink $4M Training Contract Award, GAO Rules
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will have to reconsider a contract it awarded to a public relations firm after the U.S. Government Accountability Office sustained all four aspects of a competitor's protest over how their bids were evaluated.
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February 13, 2024
Wash. Justices Doubtful HR Manager Can't Be Served
Washington state Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism Tuesday that a nursing home could evade a personal injury lawsuit because its human resources manager was served with the suit, questioning why she didn't fit on the broad list of the types of employees allowed to accept service.
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February 13, 2024
HCA Healthcare Exec VP's Promotion Brings Expanded Duties
Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. has promoted a senior vice president and chief legal officer to executive vice president-chief legal and administrative officer, the company announced Tuesday.
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February 12, 2024
Trust Tells NC Biz Court To Oust Atrium From Inheritance
The last will and testament of a member of one of North Carolina's most prominent textile families has come under scrutiny in the state Business Court, where the family's descendants have argued that Atrium Health shouldn't receive any distributions from a trust belonging to the matriarch's late grandson.
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February 12, 2024
Geico Says Medical Fraudsters Nabbed $1.1M In Auto Benefits
Several unlicensed individuals submitted hundreds of fraudulent charges for services provided to Geico-insured car accident victims, the insurer has alleged in New York federal court, claiming it lost more than $1.1 million in the no-fault insurance fraud scheme.
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February 12, 2024
Health Atty Rejoins Troutman Pepper After Solo Practice Stint
An attorney who specializes in representing life sciences companies in commercial and operational matters has left her solo practice to join Troutman Pepper in Philadelphia, the firm said Monday.
Expert Analysis
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ALI's Medical-Monitoring Proposal May Encourage Claims
If the American Law Institute's Third Restatement of Torts is updated to embrace a minority view regarding claims for medical monitoring in the absence of present bodily harm, it would raise a number of troubling issues and accelerate the already rising rate of such claims, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Preparing For FDA's Surprise Foreign Drug Inspection Regime
Foreign drug manufacturers face an increased likelihood of unannounced inspections under a recently expanded U.S. Food and Drug Administration pilot program, so they should take several steps to prepare — or face the risk of an import alert blocking their product from the U.S. market, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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SuperValu's Lesson: Always Be Building An FCA Defense
The recent U.S. v. SuperValu decision confirming that scienter is an essential element of False Claims Act liability should motivate government contractors to prepare for allegations of material misrepresentation by building a record of their honorable efforts toward regulatory compliance, say David Resnicoff and Andrew Patton at Riley Safer.
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Next Steps For Ill. Tort Defendants After Cotton V. Coccaro
While an Illinois appeals court's ruling in Cotton v. Coccaro recently upheld the constitutionality of the state's law imposing prejudgment interest in personal injury and wrongful death actions, defendants can still raise constitutional challenges to the law pending Illinois Supreme Court review, says Melissa Murphy-Petros at Wilson Elser.
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NBA Players Must Avoid Legal Fouls In CBD Deals
The NBA’s recently ratified collective bargaining agreement allows athletes to promote CBD brands and products, but athletes and the companies they promote must be cautious of a complex patchwork of applicable state laws and federal regulators’ approach to advertising claims, says Airina Rodrigues at Brownstein Hyatt.
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What Purdue Ch. 11 Means For Future Of Third-Party Releases
The Second Circuit’s highly anticipated ruling approving Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan establishes stringent factors that lower courts must consider before approving nonconsensual third-party releases, but the circuit split on the matter means the issue is far from resolved, say Gregory Hesse and Kollin Bender at Hunton.
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Preparing For Md. Adult-Use Cannabis: Operations And More
As a new regulatory body takes the reins before Maryland’s adult-use cannabis market launches on July 1, industry stakeholders should understand key provisions related to management agreements, secured creditors and receiverships, dispensary operations, and hemp, say Seth Gitner and Jonathan Havens at Saul Ewing.
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Takeaways From Tribes' High Court Adoption Case Victory
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Haaland v. Brackeen, upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act, leaves the door open for individuals to bring equal protection claims, but generally bodes well for future tribal issues that reach the court, says Sarah Murray at Brownstein Hyatt.
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High Court Underscores DOJ's Role In Policing FCA Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Polansky v. Executive Health Resources reaffirms that the government has final say in False Claims Act cases, allowing for meaningful guardrails that deter private litigators from seeking to regulate industries that Congress has delegated to expert administrative agencies, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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What The Data Says About FDA Responses To FOIA Requests
A statistical evaluation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's response times to Freedom of Information Act requests in the last decade shows that the FDA handles the majority of requests within a reasonable time frame, but its slowest response times are somewhat concerning, says Bradley Thompson at Epstein Becker.
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Despite Its Plan Objections, UST Also Won In Purdue Ch. 11
The Second Circuit’s recent decision approving Purdue Pharma’s reorganization plan is a win even for the dissenting Office of the U.S. Trustee because the decision sets extremely stringent guidelines for future use of nonconsensual third-party releases, say Edward Neiger and Jennifer Christian at Ask.
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What Courts Say About Workers' Comp And Medical Marijuana
Whether employers and insurance carriers are required or allowed to reimburse employees for out-of-pocket costs for treating work-related injuries with medical marijuana has spawned a debate, and the state courts that have addressed this matter are split on a number of issues, say Alexandra Hassell and Anthony Califano at Seyfarth.
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Health Staffing Shortages May Draw More Antitrust Scrutiny
Though courts have been historically hesitant to police hospital staffing under antitrust laws, recent staffing shortages in the health care industry have created a stronger need to preserve competition in the market and will likely result in crackdown efforts from courts, say Dylan Newton and Michael Horn at Archer & Greiner.