Digital Health & Technology

  • February 13, 2025

    UnitedHealth Can't Escape All Claims In AI Denial Suit

    A Minnesota federal judge Thursday allowed Medicare Advantage patients and the estates of deceased enrollees to pursue breach of contract claims against UnitedHealth over its alleged use of AI to override physician recommendations, finding they are not preempted by the Medicare Act, but tossed others by holding they are preempted.

  • February 11, 2025

    Wash. Health Privacy Law Debuts In Amazon Tracking Suit

    A Washington resident has launched the first claims under the state's groundbreaking health privacy law, as part of a proposed class action accusing Amazon of unlawfully harvesting location data from tens of millions of mobile phone users through third-party apps that are running the company's software development kit. 

  • February 11, 2025

    Ore. Rep. Nelson Talks New AI Bill And 'Sacred' Nurse Title

    As healthcare organizations grapple with the arrival of artificial intelligence in the workplace, Oregon state Rep. Travis Nelson, a registered nurse, recently introduced a bill that would prohibit a nonhuman entity from being called "nurse" or other similar titles. In a recent Q&A, he spoke to Law360 Healthcare Authority about House Bill 2748 and the use of AI in the industry.

  • February 11, 2025

    Fla. Judge OKs $7M Deal In Health Data Breach Class Action

    A Florida federal judge Tuesday granted final approval of a $7 million class action settlement as part of multidistrict litigation over the theft of personal information from millions of U.S. citizens in a health data breach linked to a Russian ransomware group.

  • February 04, 2025

    Politics Swirl Around HIPAA As DOJ Drops Doc Leaker Case

    The government's decision in the early days of the Trump administration to drop charges that a Texas surgeon leaked information about minors receiving gender-affirming care to a conservative journalist is raising concerns about the "politicization" of federal health privacy enforcement.

  • February 03, 2025

    Kochava Still Can't Get FTC Location Privacy Suit Thrown Out

    An Idaho federal judge on Monday again refused to throw out the Federal Trade Commission's suit accusing mobile app analytics provider Kochava Inc. of selling consumers' geolocation data without proper consent, ruling that nothing meaningful has changed since Kochava's previous dismissal bid.

  • February 03, 2025

    Apple Seeks Bench Trial Win In Masimo's Trade Secret Suit

    Apple Inc. urged a California federal judge Monday to issue a bench trial ruling that it didn't steal Masimo Corp.'s pulse oximetry technology for its smartwatches, arguing no actual trade secrets were at issue and that it used its own independently developed innovations to create the blockbuster product.

  • January 31, 2025

    Supreme Court Eyes Its 'Next Frontier' In FCC Delegation Case

    A case about broadband subsidies will give the U.S. Supreme Court the chance to revive a long-dormant separation of powers principle that attorneys say could upend regulations in numerous industries and trigger a power shift that would make last term's shake-up of federal agency authority pale in comparison. And a majority of the court already appears to support its resurrection.

  • January 31, 2025

    JAMS Adds AI-Focused Litigation Vet To Arbitration Team

    The alternative dispute resolution service JAMS has expanded its arbitration and mediation team with the addition of an attorney with over three decades of experience spanning complex commercial litigation, independent arbitration and leadership positions at the American Bar Association.

  • January 30, 2025

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Sanctions Miss, Philip Morris Refund

    In the second half of January, the North Carolina Business Court tussled with sanctions against a biogas company, heard claims an insurer tried to deliberately embarrass Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP and ordered an $11 million tax refund for Philip Morris.

  • January 28, 2025

    4th Circ. Raises Questions Over Health Data Access Order

    A Fourth Circuit panel focused Tuesday on whether an exception to federal law barring electronic health record companies from blocking the exchange of patient data applies to a request from Real Time Medical Systems to access nursing home data from PointClickCare.

  • January 28, 2025

    New York Eyes Tightened Health Data Privacy Law

    New York is set to join a handful of states putting broad new legal safeguards around the collection and sale of sensitive health information, adding to an increasingly complex landscape of health privacy laws.

  • January 28, 2025

    Remote Access To Anti-Addiction Meds Unclear Under Trump

    Depending on what the Trump administration does next with a telehealth rule finalized in the last days of the Biden administration, remote access to a lifesaving medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder could either be expanded or constricted.

  • January 27, 2025

    UnitedHealth Raises Cyberattack Estimate To 190M Individuals

    A debilitating cyberattack last year that sabotaged vital billing and prescribing services operated by a UnitedHealth Group unit affected personal information belonging to roughly 190 million individuals, the health insurer disclosed Friday, nearly doubling its previous estimate of the scope of the incident. 

  • January 24, 2025

    Patient Can't Sue Over Clinic's 'Data Incident,' Ill. Justices Say

    A medical clinic patient who received a letter stating a "data incident" may have compromised her personal information but appeared not to have led to the information's misuse does not have standing to pursue proposed class claims for damages, the Illinois Supreme Court said Friday.

  • January 24, 2025

    IVF Patients Want CooperSurgical Embryo Loss Suits Joined

    Four product liability lawsuits targeting the maker of recalled culture media for in vitro fertilization should be consolidated and sent to the Connecticut Superior Court's complex litigation docket, the parties have agreed, but defendant CooperSurgical Inc. wants them kept out of Stamford.

  • January 22, 2025

    Pharma Co. Says Ex-CEO's Alleged Misconduct Is Not Fraud

    Artificial intelligence-driven pharmaceutical company Exscientia PLC has asked a New Jersey federal court to toss a suit alleging it is responsible for share price declines following the termination of its CEO after claims emerged he participated in inappropriate relationships with employees, arguing the alleged misconduct is not securities fraud.

  • January 21, 2025

    Experts See Hope, Flaws In FDA's Oxygen Test Bias Guidance

    Enthusiasm among health and legal experts about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new draft guidance on skin-tone bias in blood oxygen meters is being tempered, with some suggesting that more action, including in the courts, might be needed to change how the devices are tested and manufactured.

  • January 17, 2025

    Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

    Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2024, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and significant transaction work that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.

  • January 17, 2025

    Law360 Names Firms Of The Year

    Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 54 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, steering some of the largest deals of 2024 and securing high-profile litigation wins, including at the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • January 16, 2025

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Judge Bids Adieu, TikTok Wants Out

    The North Carolina Business Court's former chief judge hung up his robes for the last time as the court entered the new year with a ruling that shapes the fate of beset real estate company MV Realty's consumer fraud trial and arguments by TikTok Inc. that its platform being "too engaging" isn't enough for the state to begin an enforcement action.

  • January 16, 2025

    Henry Ford Patient Drops Data-Scraping Claims

    Henry Ford Health has resolved a proposed class action accusing the health system of sharing patients' data with Meta Platforms Inc. and Google Inc. via tracking software embedded in the hospital system's websites, including its patient portal.

  • January 15, 2025

    Robo Surgery Co. Caused $140M In Lost Profits, Jury Told

    Surgical Instrument Service suffered lost profits of up to $140 million because Intuitive Surgical Inc. blocked it from providing a service that extends the life of an Intuitive da Vinci surgery robot component, an economist told jurors Wednesday in a trial over claims Intuitive abuses its market power.

  • January 15, 2025

    Quest Diagnostics Gets Meta Data-Share Suit Tossed For Now

    Quest Diagnostics got allegations that it unlawfully shared patient data with Meta Platforms through ad tracking software dismissed Tuesday, after persuading a New Jersey federal judge to reconsider his earlier ruling that allowed an eavesdropping claim under California's Invasion of Privacy Act to go forward.

  • January 15, 2025

    Atrium Health Accused Of Giving Patient Data To Google

    Atrium Health installed trackers in its mobile app and website to collect patients' data without their consent and then shared that personal information with Google and Facebook for targeted advertising, according to a proposed class action in North Carolina Business Court.

Expert Analysis

  • SEC Cybersecurity Rule Presents Burden For Health Care Cos.

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    A new rule from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission aims to increase cybersecurity resiliency, but may only force regulated entities — particularly those in the health care space — to face a far more complicated environment with increased strategic and litigation risks, say Bess Hinson and Angad Chopra at Holland & Knight.

  • Comparing US And EU Approaches To Health AI Regulation

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    Victoria Larson and Julia Cotney at Verrill Dana compare current U.S. and EU regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence and machine learning in the healthcare industry and highlight key principles that providers and developers should be aware of.

  • Why Privacy And Trade Secret Law Are On A Collision Course

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    The conflict between the legal regimes of trade secret law and data privacy law is growing as companies increasingly collect and use data about their customers, making it key for organizations to find ways to comply with both laws in order to protect their intellectual property and the privacy of their customer, says Jenny Colgate at Rothwell Figg.

  • Negotiating AI-Life Sciences Partnerships To Minimize IP Risk

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    When life sciences companies and AI companies form partnerships to foster innovation, the parties should align interests as well as mitigate intellectual property risks by strategically identifying and addressing the unique AI-related legal issues, such as training data, AI model and output, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Parsing Through The FTC's Proposed Health Privacy Updates

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recently proposed updates to its Health Breach Notification Rule contain subtle but significant changes to key terms that help modernize the agency's health app regulation and provide stakeholders an important opportunity to help shape the future of virtual health care, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Regulating AI: An Overview Of Federal Efforts

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    The U.S. has been carefully managing a national policy and regulatory ecosystem toward artificial intelligence, but as AI technology continues to expand into our everyday lives, so too has its risks and the need for regulation, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.

  • Compliance Takeaways From HHS Information Blocking Rule

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    A recently finalized rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General demonstrates a renewed focus on investigating practices that may interfere with patients' access to their electronic health information, and should encourage renewed compliance efforts across a range of processes, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Life Sci Cos. Should Work With FDA To Shape AI Regulation

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    Due to the rapidly evolving nature of potentially long-term regulatory paradigms for artificial intelligence, drug and biologic manufacturers looking to leverage AI should engage strategically with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure clarity surrounding compliance obligations, say Lowell Zeta and Blake Wilson at Hogan Lovells.

  • BIPA, Meta Pixel Suits Could Reshape Cybersecurity Litigation

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    Businesses and attorneys should watch several pending electronic privacy cases that revolve around disclosure of protected personal information and health data, which may shape how courts handle damages and class actions in the future of cybersecurity litigation, say Kelly Johnson and Melanie Condon at Goldberg Segalla.

  • The Double-Edged Sword Of Using ChatGPT In Health Care

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    While ChatGPT has shown promising potential in health care, one of the key challenges for players in this space is balancing patient privacy and data protection with the benefits of utilizing this technology, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Addressing Legal Issues Raised By AI Use In Health Care

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    With the usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning in health care likely to be governed by a patchwork of state laws for the near future, industry actors should build flexibility into products to meet evolving regulatory concerns, including monetization of patient data and professional licensing questions, say Sara Shanti and Phil Kim at Sheppard Mullin.

  • New Health Data Compliance Considerations For Pa. Lawyers

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    Given the regularity with which attorneys handle private health information, it is important for Pennsylvania firms to understand recent significant amendments to the state's data breach law, which address information not currently covered by federal law, says Mark Mattioli at Post & Schell.

  • Mitigating Risks Of Developing Drugs And Devices With AI

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    As the use of artificial intelligence in drug and medical device development advances, companies should implement five key steps to identify and mitigate areas of potential risk before regulatory frameworks catch up, say attorneys at King & Spalding.