More Healthcare Coverage

  • June 27, 2024

    OptumRx Agrees To Pay $20M To Resolve DOJ Opioid Claims

    OptumRx Inc. has reached a $20 million deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to end allegations the company improperly filled opioid prescriptions in combination with other drugs, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

  • June 27, 2024

    Ga. Judge Says NBC Falsely Reported Mass Hysterectomies

    A Georgia federal judge has ruled several news programs under the NBCUniversal umbrella incorrectly portrayed a doctor as having performed unwanted mass hysterectomies on immigrant women held at a private detention center.

  • June 27, 2024

    In-House Staff At 1199SEIU Secures Certification For 1st Union

    Workers have formed a staff union at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, with the National Labor Relations Board certifying the bargaining unit after a campaign that included unfair labor practice claims accusing the union employer of illegally firing an organizer.

  • June 27, 2024

    Ecolab Promotes In-House Atty To Become GC

    Chemical manufacturer Ecolab Inc. has promoted an in-house attorney who has been with the company for nearly a decade to lead its global legal functions.

  • June 27, 2024

    Whole Foods, Hain Want Full 5th Circ. Review Of Baby Food Suit

    Whole Foods Market Inc. and Hain Celestial Group Inc. are urging the full Fifth Circuit to review a decision remanding a suit against them alleging Hain's baby food caused the mental and physical decline of a toddler, saying the panel ignored both Fifth Circuit and Supreme Court precedent to remand the case after a final judgment in federal court.

  • June 27, 2024

    4th Circ. Won't Revive Navy Hospital Gangrene Suit

    The Fourth Circuit declined to revive a North Carolina woman's lawsuit over a U.S. Navy hospital allegedly misdiagnosing her kidney failure and causing her to contract gangrene and require multiple amputations, standing by a lower court's ruling that her suit was filed too late under a state-level statute.

  • June 26, 2024

    Ga. High Court Told To Skip Inventor's 'Clerical Mistake' Fight

    A unit of the analytics giant Clarivate is telling Georgia's highest court that a neurosurgeon's $102 million legal malpractice case over "a clerical mistake" in a patent filing from an aggrieved former FisherBroyles client is definitely "not a cert-worthy case."

  • June 26, 2024

    NJ Panel Tosses Malpractice Suit Over COVID-19 Death

    A New Jersey appellate panel on Wednesday dismissed medical malpractice claims against a nursing home and doctor who discharged a patient without waiting for the results of her COVID-19 test, which turned out to be positive, an omission that preceded the death of her husband from the virus.

  • June 26, 2024

    Ex-Seattle Cancer Center Worker Settles Suit Over 'Woke' DEI

    A former clinical social worker for Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center has agreed to drop her lawsuit accusing management of firing her for protesting diversity programming as laden with "woke" identity politics, according to a recent stipulation filed in Washington federal court.

  • June 26, 2024

    Zevra Brings On New CLO, People Executive

    Rare disease therapeutics company Zevra Therapeutics Inc. has named a former chief legal officer at Lyell Immunopharma its new CLO and a former chief people officer at Scipher Medicine to a similar job at Zevra, turning to experienced leaders to lead the Celebration, Florida-based company.

  • June 26, 2024

    Nurses Say Mich. Hospitals Owe OT For Meal Break Work

    Two locations of a Michigan healthcare system unlawfully require employees to work through their meal breaks without pay in violation of federal wage law, according to two separate proposed collective actions filed in federal court.

  • June 25, 2024

    Medical Marijuana Bill Sent To NC House After Senate Sign-Off

    The North Carolina Senate has approved a bill that would legalize medical marijuana statewide as part of larger legislation boosting hemp regulations and outlawing the use of three other drugs in the Tar Heel state.

  • June 25, 2024

    United Strikes Deal To Exit Bias Suit Over Mask Policy

    United Airlines told a California federal court it reached a deal with a baggage handler to end his lawsuit after the Ninth Circuit determined a jury should hear his claims that the company unlawfully refused to let him wear a face shield in lieu of a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • June 25, 2024

    GAO Won't Hear Protest Over Canceled DOD Sole-Source Deal

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest over the Defense Health Agency canceling a company's contract to instead seek competitive bids, saying the company ultimately sought the award of a sole-source deal, a position the watchdog won't support.

  • June 24, 2024

    Justices Undo Terror Victims' Win, Citing Twitter Decision

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday swept aside a D.C. Circuit ruling that threatened to expose major pharmaceutical companies to liability for terrorist attacks that injured or killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers and civilians in Iraq.

  • June 24, 2024

    Harvard Fertility Doctor Settles Secret-Impregnation Claim

    A fertility doctor and longtime Harvard Medical School professor has settled claims that he secretly used his own sperm to impregnate a patient in 1980, according to a Monday court filing.

  • June 21, 2024

    GAO Says CMS Didn't Address Contractor Conflict Of Interest

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office has backed a protest over a $30.65 million Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services analytics task order, saying CMS failed to properly account for a conflict of interest involving a proposed subcontractor for the awardee.

  • June 21, 2024

    Mount Sinai's Doctor Pacts Violate Labor Law, NLRB GC Says

    New York's Mount Sinai Health System has illegally required part-time physicians to sign employment agreements with provisions that infringe on workers' rights, National Labor Relations Board prosecutors alleged, and the agency is seeking financial damages for affected employees.

  • June 20, 2024

    11th Circ. Upholds $2.5M Pelvic Mesh Verdict, Rules Suit Timely

    The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday refused to throw out a woman's $2.5 million victory against Coloplast Corp. in a suit alleging she was implanted with defective pelvic mesh, saying the evidence does not support a conclusion that her claim was filed too late.

  • June 20, 2024

    No Access To Ethics Docs For Ex-NJ Official Yet, Judge Rules

    A New Jersey judge has rejected a bid by a former Garden State health official asking the court to compel the state and its ethics commission to produce documents related to claims he was fired in 2020 for raising concerns over the earmarking of COVID-19 tests for relatives of a state administration official, according to Wednesday orders.

  • June 20, 2024

    11th Circ. Backs Stryker's Defeat Of Fired Worker's Leave Suit

    The Eleventh Circuit refused Thursday to revive a suit claiming medical technology company Stryker illegally fired a worker on leave awaiting the birth of his child, ruling that because the leave didn't formally kick in until the child was born, his termination was fair game.

  • June 18, 2024

    Insurer Countersues In Penile Implant Coverage Dispute

    An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a urologist, his medical device company or his practice in a proposed class action over a penile enlargement implant and procedure, the company told a California federal court, saying the underlying suit doesn't seek bodily injury damages that would trigger coverage.

  • June 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Nixes City's Win In Wash. Firefighter Vax Order Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday revived a lawsuit by a group of firefighters who claim the city of Spokane, Washington, violated their constitutional rights when it fired them for refusing to get COVID-19 vaccines and instead relied on first responders from nearby agencies who also hadn't gotten the shot, ruling they'd asserted a viable First Amendment claim.

  • June 17, 2024

    USC Allegedly Used 'Junk Science' On Black Kidney Patients

    The University of Southern California secretly has been using a "junk science" scoring formula that hurts Black patients' eligibility to receive kidney transplants, according to a putative class action in California federal court.

  • June 17, 2024

    Ga. Panel OKs Instruction In $4.5M Spinal Device Injury Suit

    The Georgia Court of Appeals has affirmed a trial court's decision to tell jurors not to consider the availability of insurance benefits when considering the issues of liability and damages in a case in which a woman whose doctor incorrectly implanted a spinal cord stimulator was awarded $4.5 million.

Expert Analysis

  • FDA And Companies Must Move Quickly On Drug Recalls

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    When a drug doesn't work as promised — whether it causes harm, like eyedrops recalled last month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or is merely useless, like a widely used decongestant ingredient recently acknowledged by the agency to be ineffective — the public must be notified in a timely manner, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.

  • Ohio Voters Legalize Cannabis — What Comes Next?

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    This month, voters approved a citizen-initiated statute that legalizes marijuana for recreational use in Ohio, but the legalization timeline could undergo significant changes at the behest of the state's lawmakers, say Daniel Shortt and David Waxman at McGlinchey Stafford.

  • A Telecom Attorney's Defense Of The Chevron Doctrine

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    The Chevron doctrine, which requires judicial deference to federal regulators, is under attack in two U.S. Supreme Court cases — and while most telecom attorneys likely agree that the Federal Communications Commission is guilty of overrelying on it, the problem is not the doctrine itself, says Carl Northrop at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • FTC Orange Book Move Signals New Pharma Patent Scrutiny

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent dispute against improper listing of drug patents in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book indicates heightened surveillance of the pharmaceutical industry, particularly where competition-related consequences of patent or regulatory processes are concerned, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • Consider Immigration Issues When Hiring Int'l Medical Grads

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    As health systems across the U.S. struggle to meet patient demand, recruiting international medical graduates can help alleviate some strain, although sorting through the requisite visa processes may require some extra legwork depending on the qualifications of both the graduate and the employer, say Nora Katz and Vinh Duong at Holland & Knight.

  • A Look At DOJ's New Nationwide Investment Fraud Approach

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    Investment fraud charges are increasingly being brought in unlikely venues across the country, and the rationale behind the U.S. Department of Justice's approach could well be the heightened legal standards in connection with prosecuting investment fraud, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • FDA's Off-Label Comms Guidance Is A Reluctant Step Forward

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest draft guidance expands its safe harbor for health care providers that communicate information about their products' off-label uses, but does not fully resolve the First Amendment disconnect between federal courts and the agency's regulatory goals, say Jeffrey Shapiro and Lisa Dwyer at King & Spalding.

  • How Biden's AI Order Stacks Up Against Calif. And G7 Activity

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    Evaluating the federal AI executive order alongside the California AI executive order and the G7's Hiroshima AI Code of Conduct can offer a more robust picture of key risks and concerns companies should proactively work to mitigate as they build or integrate artificial intelligence tools into their products and services, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • ITC Ban On Apple Watch Could Still Be Reversed

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    The U.S. International Trade Commission's recent final decision that the Apple Watch infringed two patents owned by Masimo Corp. was a rare instance of a popular consumer product being hit with an absolute importation ban, but it's possible that President Joe Biden could assert his power to reverse the ITC decision, says Benjamin Horton at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Class Action Defense: Don't Give Up On Bristol-Myers Squibb

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    Federal appellate court decisions in the six years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bristol-Myers Squibb show that it's anyone's ballgame in class action jurisdictional arguments, so defendants are encouraged to consider carefully whether, where and when arguing lack of specific personal jurisdiction may be advantageous, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • State Regs Sow Discord Between Cannabis, Hemp Industries

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    Connecticut, Maryland and Washington are the latest states choosing to require intoxicating hemp products to comply with the states' recreational marijuana laws, resulting in a widening rift between cannabis and hemp as Congress works on crafting new hemp legislation within the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill, say attorneys at Wilson Elser.

  • Questions Linger After FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Proposal

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recently proposed rule regarding its plan to regulate lab-developed tests is light on details, leaving many fundamental questions about the agency's authority and ability to execute its plans, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Lessons For Biosimilar And Biologic Antitrust Litigation

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    Aaron Marks at Cohen Milstein considers emerging ways in which biosimilar markets differ from traditional small-molecule drug markets, and recommends how pharmaceutical antitrust litigators can account for these market dynamics in biosimilar-delay cases.

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