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Health
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July 09, 2024
FTC Says Drug Middlemen Inflate Costs, Squeeze Pharmacies
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that its study of pharmacy benefit managers has shown that six large companies now control 95% of all prescriptions filled in the U.S., allowing them to profit at the expense of patients and independent pharmacies.
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July 09, 2024
Ga. Doc Can't Get Emergency Protection In Med Mal Death Suit
In a split opinion, the Georgia Court of Appeals revived a medical malpractice case against a doctor who allegedly misdiagnosed a patient's brain condition, finding he's not shielded by a statute that sets a gross negligence standard for liability in emergency medical situations.
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July 09, 2024
Hospital Operator Leads 2 IPOs Ready To Raise $465M Total
Hospital operator Ardent Health and insurance distributor TWFG Inc. unveiled price ranges this week on initial public offerings that are expected to raise about $465 million combined under guidance by four law firms, adding life to the summer IPO market.
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July 09, 2024
Experts Don't Always Need To Cite Studies, Mich. Justices Say
The Michigan Supreme Court has found a medical malpractice plaintiff's expert witness was wrongly stricken for failing to support his opinion with peer-reviewed medical literature, ruling experts shouldn't be disqualified solely on that basis, particularly in a case where the rare complication at issue has not been studied.
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July 09, 2024
Alston & Bird Brings In Sidley Trio To Launch New Offices
Alston & Bird LLP announced on Tuesday that it has opened two new offices in Chicago and Century City with the addition of three lateral partners from Sidley Austin LLP, a move the firm said will strengthen its corporate, healthcare and real estate practices.
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July 09, 2024
Kirkland Guides Avesi Partners To $1.35B Fund II Close
Stamford, Connecticut-based Avesi Partners, a private equity firm specializing in healthcare and business services, said Tuesday it had closed Avesi Partners Fund II LP at $1.35 billion, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP serving as legal counsel to the oversubscribed fund.
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July 09, 2024
Medical Office Manager Gets 5 Years For Tax, Mail Fraud
The former office manager of an Illinois medical practice was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution — most of it to his former employer — after admitting to filing a false tax return and stealing from the practice.
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July 09, 2024
UNC Health Worker's Age Bias Mediation Ends In Stalemate
The University of North Carolina Health Care System and a former supply chain manager have reached an impasse trying to resolve his age discrimination claims outside of court, according to a mediator's recent report.
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July 09, 2024
Ark. Group Gets 100K Signatures For Medical Pot Expansion
An Arkansas cannabis advocacy group has collected more than 100,000 signatures in favor of expanding the state's medical marijuana program, more than enough to get an initiative on the state's ballot this November, the state announced Friday.
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July 08, 2024
Emergent, J&J Reach $50M Deal In COVID Vax Supply Fight
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay Emergent BioSolutions $50 million to resolve claims stemming from a now-terminated COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing deal, according to a disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
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July 08, 2024
Judge's Error Reverses Med Mal Atty Sanctions, Panel Rules
A Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled Monday that a Philadelphia trial court erred by imposing sanctions on counsel in a long-running medical malpractice suit against a hospital, saying sanctions can't be based on a broad courtwide policy attempting to speed up medical malpractice cases.
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July 08, 2024
UnitedHealth Brass Face Investor Suit Over Merger Probe
Executives and directors of UnitedHealth Group were hit on Monday with a shareholder derivative suit alleging they concealed that the U.S. Department of Justice reopened an antitrust investigation into the health insurance giant following its acquisition of a healthcare data company and that its brass knowingly sold more than $100 million of shares before the information was publicly revealed.
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July 08, 2024
Clinic Is Liable For Botched Operations, NC Justices Told
A patient claiming she underwent unnecessary and flawed spinal surgery at the hands of a defrocked doctor urged the North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday to let stand a ruling that the practice where he worked and its physicians can be held liable for her treatment.
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July 08, 2024
Texas Anesthesia Co. Can't Pause Or Appeal Suit, FTC Says
The Federal Trade Commission urged a Texas federal court not to pause its suit accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of a monopolistic "roll-up" of Lone Star State anesthesia practices, arguing the company can't appeal an order refusing to toss the case against it.
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July 08, 2024
8th Circ. Won't Review Immigration Hardship Determination
A split Eighth Circuit panel held Monday that it can't review whether a Mexican man's U.S. citizen children will experience extreme hardship if he's removed, saying the underlying decision denying him removal relief is discretionary and therefore shielded from judicial review.
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July 08, 2024
Kirkland, Fenwick Steer Lilly's $3.2B Morphic Acquisition
Eli Lilly and Co. unveiled Monday a $3.2 billion all-cash deal to acquire biopharmaceutical company Morphic Holding Inc., which is developing oral therapies to treat Crohn's disease and other bowel chronic diseases, in a 10-figure transaction guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Fenwick & West LLP.
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July 08, 2024
Ex-Ga. Insurance Chief Wants Lighter Term In Kickback Case
Former Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has objected to the government's recommendation that he serve 44 months in prison and pay a $700,000 fine for his role in a multimillion-dollar medical testing kickback scheme, arguing that he is deserving of a lesser sentence.
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July 08, 2024
Patient Says Health System Shares Data With Meta, Google
Henry Ford Health in Michigan was hit with a proposed class action Friday alleging that it shares patients' private health information with third parties such as Meta and Google by allowing the companies to have tracking software embedded in its website, including its patient portal, where sensitive health information is uploaded.
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July 08, 2024
Academic Handbook Can't Be Contract, Mich. School Says
The University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry has urged a Michigan federal judge to toss a lawsuit from a student who was kicked out for violating a no-contact order, saying the handbook the student's breach of contract claim relies on does not amount to an enforceable agreement.
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July 08, 2024
Ohio Woman Says Clinic Fired Her Because Of Disabled Son
A Cleveland-based kidney dialysis clinic allegedly fired a technician for telling it she might have to return to a less demanding work schedule to help treat her son's medical condition, according to a complaint filed Monday.
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July 08, 2024
DC Circ. Supports NLRB Order Against Puerto Rico Hospital
The National Labor Relations Board rightly found that a hospital in Puerto Rico violated federal labor law by unilaterally slashing workers' hours, the D.C. Circuit ruled, saying the hospital can't excuse its actions with claims about financial effects from the pandemic.
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July 08, 2024
Rite Aid Says Elixir Buyer In Contempt Over Liability Dispute
Bankrupt pharmacy chain Rite Aid has asked a New Jersey bankruptcy judge to find the purchaser of its prescription benefits subsidiary in contempt, saying the buyer is defying his orders by refusing to assume $200 million of the subsidiary's liabilities.
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July 08, 2024
Amazon Must Face Podcast Defamation Suit, ICE Doc Says
A former physician at a Georgia immigration facility who says he was falsely accused of performing forced hysterectomies on detainees has urged a federal judge not to let Amazon and podcast publisher Wondery distance themselves from a podcast episode that dubbed him "The Uterus Collector."
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July 08, 2024
Anesthesia Death Trial Ends In $15.4M Award For Estate
A Connecticut anesthesiology group must pay $15.4 million to the estate of a 57-year-old woman who suffered cardiorespiratory collapse and severe brain damage during a routine 20-minute outpatient gastroenterology imaging procedure and died a month later in an intensive care unit, a state superior court jury has decided.
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July 08, 2024
UnitedHealth's Cross-Plan Offsetting Affirmed By 8th Circ.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed Monday a Minnesota federal judge's decision to toss a suit from patients insured by UnitedHealth Group alleging a billing practice known as cross-plan offsetting violated federal benefits law, finding the lower court properly concluded the patients hadn't sufficiently established injury.
Expert Analysis
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Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.
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A Changing Regulatory Landscape For Weight Loss Drugs
As drugs originally approved to treat diabetes become increasingly popular for weight loss purposes, federal and state regulators and payors are increasing their focus on how these drugs are prescribed, and industry participants should pay close attention to rapidly evolving compliance requirements, say attorneys at Goodwin.
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Opioid Suits Offer Case Study In Abatement Expert Testimony
Settlements in the opioid multidistrict litigation provide useful insight into leveraging expert discovery on abatement in public nuisance cases, and would not have been successful without testimony on the costs necessary to lessen the harms of the opioid crisis, says David Burnett at DiCello Levitt.
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Patent Lessons From 4 Federal Circuit Reversals In April
Four Federal Circuit decisions in April that reversed or vacated underlying rulings provide a number of takeaways, including that obviousness analysis requires a flexible approach, that an invalidity issue of an expired patent can be moot, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Opinion
USPTO's Proposed Disclaimer Rule Would Harm Inventors
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s recently proposed rule on terminal disclaimers will make the patent system less available to inventors and will unfairly favor defendants in litigation, say Stephen Schreiner at Carmichael IP and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.
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Series
Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.
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How HHS Discrimination Rule Affects Gender-Affirming Care
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule, which reinterprets the Affordable Care Act's anti-discrimination provision, greatly clarifies protections for gender-affirming care and will require compliance considerations from sponsors and administrators of most group health plans, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Opinion
'Natural Person' Or Not, AI-Made IP Deserves Protection
The entire legal edifice rests on a determination that an artificial system is not a so-called natural person, and although this may appear to be straightforward on its face, rapid advances in technology may soon force us to revisit our understanding of a natural person, says Manav Das at McDonnell Boehnen.
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Lessons On Challenging Class Plaintiffs' Expert Testimony
In class actions seeking damages, plaintiffs are increasingly using expert opinions to establish predominance, but several recent rulings from California federal courts shed light on how defendants can respond, say Jennifer Romano and Raija Horstman at Crowell & Moring.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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FTC Noncompete Rule's Impact On Healthcare Nonprofits
Healthcare entities that are nonprofit or tax-exempt and thus outside of the pending Federal Trade Commission noncompete rule's reach should evaluate a number of potential risk factors and impacts, starting by assessing their own status, say Ben Shook and Tania Archer at Moore & Van Allen.
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Cell Therapy Cos. Must Beware Limits Of Patent Safe Harbors
Though developers of gene and cell therapy products commonly assume that a legal safe harbor protects them from patent infringement suits, recent case law shows that not all preapproval uses of patented technology are necessarily protected, say Natasha Daughtrey and Joshua Weinger at Goodwin.
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Series
Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
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How Clinical Trials Affect Patentability In US And Europe
A comparison of recent U.S. and European patent decisions — concerning the effect of disclosures in clinical trials on the patentability of products — offers guidance on good practice for companies dealing with public use issues and prior art documents in these commercially important jurisdictions, say lawyers at Finnegan.
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Opinion
State-Regulated Cannabis Can Thrive Without Section 280E
Marijauna's reclassification as a Schedule III-controlled substance comes at a critical juncture, as removing marijuana from being subjected to Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code is the only path forward for the state-regulated cannabis industry to survive and thrive, say Andrew Kline at Perkins Coie and Sammy Markland at FTI Consulting.