Policy & Compliance

  • June 16, 2026

    Courts Rule On Provider Self-Referrals, FCA Deal And More

    Law360 Healthcare Authority looks at a split decision by Pennsylvania's highest court concerning a state prohibition on provider self-referrals, a $2.3 million False Claims Act settlement, and other rulings impacting the healthcare industry this week.

  • June 16, 2026

    Wash. Judge Won't Revisit Order On Ed. Dept. School Grants

    A federal judge in Seattle will not reconsider her decision declining to enforce an earlier order barring the U.S. Department of Education from ceasing school mental health grants, saying Washington and other plaintiff states have not shown that the court erred.

  • June 16, 2026

    Anti-Abortion Group Renews Bid To Block NJ's Info Demand

    An anti‑abortion pregnancy center urged a federal judge to block New Jersey's attorney general from enforcing a subpoena seeking financial donor information, arguing in a renewed bid for a preliminary injunction that the demand is retaliatory and persists despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the group to challenge the investigation.

  • June 16, 2026

    J&J Talc Trial In LA Ends With Deadlocked Jury

    A mistrial was declared Monday by a Los Angeles state judge in a two-month trial over allegations Johnson & Johnson's talc products caused a woman's deadly mesothelioma after the jury deadlocked during deliberations, according to counsel for the plaintiff.

  • June 16, 2026

    Md. Judge Continues Health Case Law Streak With ACA Ruling

    U.S. District Judge Brendan Abell Hurson in Baltimore has been on the bench for less than three years. He's already building an impressive list of healthcare rulings.

  • June 16, 2026

    Oregon Ruling Tests Civil Commitment Court Process

    A federal ruling restricting civil commitment admissions of mentally ill criminal defendants in Oregon could upend a legal framework that has long struggled with how to prepare people for court.

  • June 16, 2026

    Transparency Crackdown Escalates Legal Risk For Hospitals

    The Trump administration is sending hundreds of letters to hospitals insisting on compliance with a price transparency rule. Healthcare attorneys say the effort could have real teeth.

  • June 15, 2026

    Med Groups Slam HHS 'Red Herring' Bid To Fast-Track Appeal

    Medical groups who won an order halting the Trump administration's modified childhood vaccination schedule on Monday urged the First Circuit to ignore the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' "red herring" arguments for an expedited appeal, saying the agency has for months stalled the process.

  • June 15, 2026

    DOJ Says NY Court Can't Block Texas Trans Records Probe

    The U.S. Department of Justice urged a New York federal court Monday to deny a request for an order barring the government from seeking transgender minor patients' medical records through a criminal subpoena issued by a Texas grand jury, arguing the court lacks jurisdiction.

  • June 15, 2026

    Attys Want Up To $33M In Long-Running UBH Benefits Fight

    Attorneys for employee benefit plan participants who sued to change how United Behavioral Health processed claims for mental health and substance use disorder treatment asked a California federal court for up to $33 million in fees and expenses for their work on the "groundbreaking" case.

  • June 15, 2026

    CareFirst Says Intent Standard Was Misread In Stelara Case

    CareFirst is arguing that a Virginia federal judge created a new standard for monopolization claims when he dismissed claims from the company's antitrust suit challenging Johnson & Johnson's protection of its immunosuppressive drug Stelara, arguing he misread a Fourth Circuit decision in ruling that monopolization requires a showing of specific intent.

  • June 15, 2026

    GEO Says Only ICE Controls NJ Detention Center Access

    Private prison operator The GEO Group Inc. has told a New Jersey federal court it was wrongly sued over state health inspectors allegedly being blocked from fully accessing an immigration detention facility, arguing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement exclusively controls access.

  • June 15, 2026

    Wyo. Judge Nixes 3 Abortion Care Limits As Unconstitutional

    A Wyoming judge has struck down three state laws restricting abortion care, finding that the state failed to demonstrate it had a compelling interest in effectuating a 48-hour waiting period for abortions and requiring certain abortion facilities to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers, among other restrictions.

  • June 15, 2026

    Ala. Judge Shopping Case Dismissed, But Docs Sealed For Year

    A Florida federal judge indicated in a brief order Friday that an indictment has been dismissed against an attorney in a judge shopping case, but said the motion related to the dismissal will be kept under seal for a year.

  • June 15, 2026

    Justices Decline To Hear Pa. Prison ADA Liability Challenge

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up Pennsylvania's petition to overturn a ruling finding it could possibly be held liable under the Americans with Disabilities Act in an incarcerated man's lawsuit alleging he was illegally denied access to proper medical care.

  • June 12, 2026

    Wellpoint Data Breach Suit Says Delay Elevated Fraud Risk

    A Washington resident accused insurer Wellpoint Washington Inc. and health services provider Independent Clinics of Washington of failing to adequately protect patient information from a June 2025 cyberattack, claiming in a proposed nationwide class action Thursday that Wellpoint also neglected to inform subscribers until nearly a year after the breach.

  • June 12, 2026

    Disability Rights Orgs. Seek To Halt NY, Ill. 'Aid-In-Dying' Laws

    Disability rights organizations hit the governors of New York and Illinois with a pair of federal lawsuits seeking to stop new laws in each state from taking effect that would allow patients with terminal illnesses to seek a doctor's assistance in ending their lives.

  • June 12, 2026

    Aetna Can't Nix Unfair Practices Claims In Medical Billing Row

    A Washington acupuncture clinic and doctor accused of submitting fraudulent bills for medical services may proceed with their counterclaims against Aetna for unfair trade practices under the state's Consumer Protection Act, a federal court ruled.

  • June 12, 2026

    $1.9M Deal In Health System Retirement Suit Gets 1st OK

    A Michigan federal judge granted initial approval to a $1.9 million deal between a health system and a proposed class of employee retirement plan participants who alleged underperforming investment options violated federal benefits law, greenlighting a deal that was first submitted to the court for approval in late April.

  • June 11, 2026

    Ed. Dept. Tries New Tack To Scrap K-12 Mental Health Grants

    The U.S. Department of Education pressed ahead with its plan to end up to a billion dollars in school mental health grants, arguing Wednesday that a Seattle federal judge's December 2025 injunction barring the discontinuation of the grants shouldn't block the government from canceling the contracts outright.

  • June 11, 2026

    AbbVie Loses Colorado 340B Drug Pricing Law Challenge

    A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday dismissed all of AbbVie Inc.'s claims against the state over its federal 340B drug pricing law, finding that the Colorado law isn't federally preempted and courts across the country have settled the issue.

  • June 11, 2026

    Stop & Shop Parent Pays $40M On Inflated Drug Price Claims

    Stop & Shop's parent company will pay $40 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by failing to report discounted prescription drug prices as "usual and customary" in claims submitted to federal Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE programs, which resulted in overcharges, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

  • June 11, 2026

    HHS OIG Reports 'Concerning' Medicare Advantage Denials

    A pair of reports released by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday found that UnitedHealth Group, Humana and CVS Health logged some of the highest prior authorization denial rates among their Medicare Advantage peers for post-acute care.

  • June 11, 2026

    Braidwood Files New Challenge To ACA Birth Control Mandate

    For-profit healthcare company Braidwood Management and several individuals sued the government in Texas federal court to challenge no-cost contraception coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act, arguing that the court should enjoin enforcement of the policy because it burdened their faith in violation of federal religious freedom law.

  • June 10, 2026

    Morgan & Morgan Atty Again Blocked From Harvard Suit

    A Massachusetts judge rebuffed a Morgan & Morgan PA attorney's second attempt to appear in a lawsuit over the theft of body parts from a Harvard Medical School morgue, saying he would not reconsider his earlier decision to bar the attorney over an incident in a separate court involving fake AI-generated case citations.

Expert Analysis

  • HHS Plan To Cut Immigrant Benefits Spurs Provider Questions

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    A recent notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identifying new federal public benefit programs for which nonqualified aliens are not eligible may have a major impact on entities that participate in these programs — but many questions remain unanswered, say attorneys at Foley.

  • Noncompete Forecast Shows Tough Weather For Employers

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    Several new state noncompete laws signal rough conditions for employers, particularly in the healthcare sector, so employers must account for employees' geographic circumstances as they cannot rely solely on choice-of-law clauses, say lawyers at McDermott.

  • Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots

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    New York, Nevada and Utah have all recently enacted laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence to deliver mental health services, offering early insights into how other states may regulate this area, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently effective data security requirements carry profound implications for how healthcare providers collect, store, share and use data — and approach vendor oversight — that go far beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Texas Med Spas Must Prepare For 2 New State Laws

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    Two new laws in Texas — regulating elective intravenous therapy and reforming healthcare noncompetes — mark a pivotal shift in the regulatory framework for medical spas in the state, which must proactively adapt their operations and contractual practices, says Brad Cook at Munsch Hardt.

  • DOJ-HHS Collab Crystallizes Focus On Health Enforcement

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    The recently announced partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to combat False Claims Act violations, following a multiyear trend of high-dollar DOJ recoveries, signals a long-term enforcement horizon with major implications for healthcare entities and whistleblowers, say attorneys at RJO.

  • How The Healthline Privacy Settlement Redefines Ad Tech Use

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    The Healthline settlement is the first time California has drawn a clear line in the sand around how website tracking must function in practice, so if your site uses tracking technologies, especially around sensitive content like health or finance, regulators are inspecting your website's back end, not just its banner, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • How Sweeping Budget Bill Shakes Up Health Industry

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    With the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act marking one of the most significant overhauls of federal health policy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, providers, managed care organizations and life sciences companies must now shift focus from policy review to implementation planning, say advisers at Holland & Knight.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • A Look At Key 5th Circ. White Collar Rulings So Far This Year

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    In the first half of 2025, the Fifth Circuit has decided numerous cases of particular import to white collar practitioners, which collectively underscore the critical importance of meticulous recordbuilding, procedural compliance and strategic litigation choices at every stage of a case, says Joe Magliolo at Jackson Walker.

  • What US Medicine Onshoring Means For Indian Life Sciences

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    Despite the Trump administration's latest moves to onshore essential medicine manufacturing, India will likely remain an indispensable component of the U.S. drug supply chain, but Indian manufacturers should prepare for stricter compliance checks, says Jashaswi Ghosh at Holon Law Partners.

  • FCA Working Group Reboot Signals EHR Compliance Risk

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    The revival of the False Claims Act working group is an aggressive expansion of enforcement efforts by the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services targeted toward technology-enabled fraud involving electronic health records and other data, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • FDA's Hasty Policymaking Approach Faces APA Challenges

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    Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has abandoned its usual notice-and-comment process for implementing new regulatory initiatives, two recent district court decisions make clear that these programs are still susceptible to Administrative Procedure Act challenges, says Rachel Turow at Skadden.