
Healthcare Deals This Week: Oura, AstraZeneca, BMS
It was a week of major deals in the healthcare sector space, with startups like Oura and Kardigan securing significant funding, Bristol Myers Squibb and Novo Nordisk announcing billion-dollar acquisitions and AstraZeneca striking a deal with the Trump administration.

CMS 'Upcoding' Audit Plan In Doubt After Texas Ruling
The nation's top Medicare official pledged to use a deluge of new audits to beat back "upcoding" overpayments for Medicare Advantage plans. A Texas federal judge blew a hole in the strategy recently by voiding a 2023 rule on data sample extrapolation.

H-1B Visa Fee Threatens To Deepen Doctor Shortages
A new $100,000 fee for healthcare worker visas is sowing confusion in the medical community and raising concerns that the price tag could block thousands of doctors from practicing in underserved and rural communities.
Deals & Corporate Governance More
The Third Circuit on Tuesday turned down medical testing company CareDx's request to have a full panel mull whether to reinstate a $45 million jury award in a false advertisement case over genetic testing tech... (more story)
A Colorado company accused the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of improperly greenlighting purchases of electrocardiogram leads from a large overseas business when American-made items are available from it... (more story)
The Georgia Court of Appeals has backed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Publix Supermarkets claiming a metro Atlanta county unconstitutionally hired outside counsel to pursue opioid litigation against the grocer... (more story)
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. will purchase Astria Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for allergic and immunologic diseases, in a cash and stock deal worth about $700 million, ... (more story)
A Maryland federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to stay its recently settled case with UnitedHealth over the company's merger with Amedisys because of the government shutdown and lapse i... (more story)
Rare disease biotech aTyr Pharma Inc. and its CEO have been hit with a proposed shareholder class action accusing them of misleading the public about the efficacy of aTyr's lung disease treatment for several m... (more story)
Digital Health & Technology More
Providers and investors attracted to a growing medical spa industry might be surprised to discover that aesthetic treatments like Botox and fillers that don't require a doctor still come with a robust set of h... (more story)
The federal government shutdown that commenced on Oct. 1 coincided with the expiration of certain telehealth flexibilities that had preserved expansive access to telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries ... (more story)
Fitness-tracking ring maker Ōura on Tuesday revealed it had reached a roughly $11 billion valuation after securing over $900 million in a funding round, which it says will help it develop new technologies, spe... (more story)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a circuit court holding that a stem cell treatment derived from a patient's own tissue is subject to Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act regulations.
A Texas federal court dismissed counterclaims from Infosys Ltd. accusing Cognizant TriZetto Software Group Inc. of monopolizing a market for healthcare software and related services after finding the allegatio... (more story)
Exscientia PLC on Friday won dismissal of a proposed class action related to the termination of its CEO after claims emerged that he participated in inappropriate workplace relationships, with the court findin... (more story)
Policy & Compliance More
Crowell & Moring on Wednesday announced that it is expanding its healthcare team with the addition of a first-chair trial attorney who co-founded the healthcare practice at Robins Kaplan LLP, where he was most... (more story)
Two subsidiaries of an operator of nursing facilities automatically deducted unpaid meal breaks that certified nursing assistants were unable to take, leading to unpaid overtime wages, a former employee said i... (more story)
Two air ambulance providers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow them to use the courts to collect on out-of-network billing dispute resolution awards granted under the No Surprises Act, saying that without j... (more story)
The Sixth Circuit refused to revive an allergy testing and treatment company's antitrust case accusing an insurer and a medical group of conspiring to squeeze it out of the market, after finding that doctors a... (more story)
The loss of seasoned prosecutors at federal agencies, coupled with the Trump administration’s intense focus on immigration, is undermining the government’s ability to police complex healthcare fraud schemes. S... (more story)
Michael Stuart, a former chief federal prosecutor for West Virginia, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services, where he has promised to ... (more story)