More Healthcare Coverage
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May 22, 2025
Calif. County Gets Vax Exemption Bias Class Disbanded
A California federal judge dissolved a class of county workers who alleged their requests for religious exemptions from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate were handled differently from other employees' medical exemption bids, finding the group was not as similar as she had previously believed.
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May 21, 2025
Court Won't Revive Mental Health Class Suit Against Fla. Blue
A Florida appeals court Wednesday declined to revive a proposed class suit by state employees enrolled in a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida healthcare plan alleging the insurer designed a claims process to obstruct approval and payment of claims for mental health care.
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May 20, 2025
Health Clinics Say Fake Trash Fee Scheme Cost Them Millions
Republic Services Inc. got hit with a proposed class action by health clinics in Michigan and Ohio that claim the waste disposal company breached its contracts with them by charging "tens of millions" in excess fees without any legal justification.
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May 20, 2025
Red Cross Seeks Clarity On Deposition Order In Vax Bias Case
The American Red Cross asked a Michigan federal judge on Monday to clarify that an April ruling allows the organization to depose the husband of a Christian nurse alleging she was fired for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine, saying the worker's attorneys refused to make him available.
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May 20, 2025
Doctor's Disability Bias Claim Too Late, Mass. Court Says
A former Brigham and Women's Hospital anesthesiologist and Harvard Medical School faculty member is time-barred from pursuing disability bias claims for actions by the hospital that he was aware of as early as 2006, an intermediate Massachusetts appellate court has concluded.
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May 19, 2025
Bluebird Beats Patent Case Over Blood Disease Therapies
A Delaware federal judge has tossed a lawsuit against Bluebird Bio alleging two of its multimillion-dollar gene therapy treatments for blood disorders infringed patents held by San Rocco Therapeutics LLC, after the dispute had been narrowed by a previous claim construction ruling.
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May 19, 2025
Twins' Doc Not Liable For Ball Player's Death, Fla. Court Told
A Minnesota Twins physician told a Florida state court Monday that he can't be sued for negligence over the death of a minor league player he treated during spring training, arguing that Minnesota employment law shields him from liability even when treating players outside the state.
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May 19, 2025
9th Circ. Backs Family's Win In Suit Over Denied Benefits
The Ninth Circuit declined to upend a guild member's win in his lawsuit challenging his healthcare plan's decision to deny coverage for his son's mental health treatments, but said a lower court was wrong to award the family additional damages on their breach of fiduciary duty claim.
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May 19, 2025
Doc Loses 4th Circ. Fight Over $5.5M Order After FCA Deal
A North Carolina district court was right to reject a doctor and his wife's request to overturn or modify a $5.5 million judgment against them for allegedly hiding assets after settling a previous False Claims Act case with the government, the Fourth Circuit ruled Monday.
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May 15, 2025
'Our Father' Fertility Doc Must Face Bio Daughter's Suit
An Indiana appellate panel on Thursday revived a suit accusing the rogue fertility doctor featured in the "Our Father" Netflix documentary of causing his biological daughter's emotional distress, saying a dispute over whether the suit was filed too late is for a jury to decide.
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May 15, 2025
Spinal Implant Co. CEO Pleads Guilty Ahead Of Kickback Trial
The head of a Massachusetts medical device company pled guilty Thursday to a false statements charge days before he was set to face a jury over claims that he and another executive bribed surgeons with sham consulting deals to get them to use the company's spinal implants.
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May 15, 2025
Hillrom Says Missing Attachment Could End Antitrust Case
Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. told an Illinois federal court Thursday that a missing attachment from an email turned over by Linet Americas Inc. should show the rival hospital-bed maker waited too long to file its antitrust case.
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May 15, 2025
Geisinger Recruits Envision Healthcare Atty To Be CLO
Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health has brought on Envision Healthcare's former general counsel to serve as the company's top in-house attorney and lead the legal department.
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May 14, 2025
Actinium Faces Derivative Suit Over FDA Application Claims
Officers and directors of biopharmaceutical company Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc. face a shareholder derivative action accusing them of breaching their fiduciary duties after the company's lead product candidate failed to secure a certain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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May 14, 2025
Tonix Pharmaceuticals Recruits Seasoned Industry Atty As GC
Tonix Pharmaceuticals has found as its new general counsel a former Celgene Corp. lawyer involved in that company's integration with Bristol Myers Squibb.
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May 13, 2025
Asterisk Doesn't Save CVS In Sanitizer Row, 9th Circ. Told
An attorney for a man suing CVS Pharmacy urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to revive his claims alleging the company misled consumers with a promise its hand sanitizer kills 99.99% of germs, arguing the asterisk on the front label does not clear the company of wrongdoing despite a recent ruling from the circuit that gives significance to that type of asterisk.
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May 13, 2025
Watchdog Demands Info In DC Court On Dead ICE Detainees
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is violating public records laws by refusing to turn over documents related to three people who died in ICE custody at two detention centers in Florida and Arizona, a government watchdog group alleged in a suit filed in D.C. federal court Monday.
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May 13, 2025
FTC To Keep Focus On Key Sectors, Address Personal Liberty
The head of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition said Tuesday the agency will remain focused on healthcare, technology and labor issues as enforcers also work to ensure corporate power does not infringe on personal liberties.
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May 13, 2025
Ga. Justices Revives Claim Over Med Student's Negligence
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday revived a woman's claim seeking to hold two doctors vicariously liable for a medical student's alleged negligence during a hysterectomy, saying there are questions about whether the student was acting as their servant at the time.
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May 12, 2025
No One Can Challenge Rehab Permit Deal, Conn. Tells Court
No one is aggrieved by a Connecticut agency settlement that granted a conditional approval to the operator of a substance abuse treatment facility, so no one can challenge it in court, the state attorney general's office argued Monday before the Connecticut Supreme Court.
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May 12, 2025
Will Justices Finally Rein In Universal Injunctions?
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to address for the first time Thursday the propriety of universal injunctions, a tool federal judges have increasingly used to broadly halt presidential orders and policy initiatives, and whose validity has haunted the high court's merits and emergency dockets for more than a decade.
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May 12, 2025
Texas Justices Say Nursing Home Can Appeal $7.1M Verdict
The Texas Supreme Court has revived a nursing home's appeal of a $7.1 million injury verdict in favor of one of its employees, saying the nursing home has shown that it did not have actual notice of the judgment and is entitled to an extension to the filing deadline.
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May 08, 2025
Fed. Circ. Weighs If Expert's Testimony Justifies Spine IP Loss
A Federal Circuit panel on Thursday considered how much an expert strayed from a lower court's claim construction in an inventor's patent infringement suit against DePuy Synthes, with one judge questioning if it was merely effective cross-examination that tripped the expert up, and not much more.
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May 07, 2025
CVS Hid Prescription Discounts From Medicaid, States Allege
CVS failed to disclose to state Medicaid programs that it was offering discounts on prescriptions to cash-paying customers, violating regulations aimed at assuring that government insurance programs pay the lowest possible price for drugs, the attorneys general of four states said in a complaint unsealed Wednesday.
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May 07, 2025
9th Circ. Axes Fired University Worker's 1st Amendment Fight
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive a lawsuit claiming two former University of Arizona officials fired a health sciences employee because of his husband's criticisms of a hiring process, saying the administrators are immune from the worker's free speech claim.
Expert Analysis
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Law School's Missed Lessons: Preparing For Corporate Work
Law school often doesn't cover the business strategy, financial fluency and negotiation skills needed for a successful corporate or transactional law practice, but there are practical ways to gain relevant experience and achieve the mindset shifts critical to a thriving career in this space, says Dakota Forsyth at Olshan Frome.
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A Cold War-Era History Lesson On Due Process
The landmark Harry Bridges case from the mid-20th century Red Scare offers important insights on why lawyers must be free of government reprisal, no matter who their client is, says Peter Afrasiabi at One LLP.
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How BigLaw Executive Orders May Affect Smaller Firms
Because of the types of cases they take on, solo practitioners, small law firms and public interest attorneys may find themselves more dramatically affected by the collective impact of recent government action involving the legal industry than even the BigLaw firms named in the executive orders, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Texas Case Shows Why Juries Are Well-Suited To COVID Suits
The original jury verdict in Baylor College of Medicine v. Lloyd's, currently on appeal to the Texas Supreme Court after being overturned by an appellate panel, illustrates why COVID-19 business interruption claims with their case-specific facts need to be decided by juries, not by judges using a one-size-fits-all approach, says Jeremy Lawrence at Farella Braun.
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4th Circ. Health Data Ruling Opens Door To State Law Claims
In Real Time Medical v. PointClickCare, the Fourth Circuit recently clarified that state law claims can rest in part on violations of a federal law that prohibits electronic health information blocking, expanding legal risks for health IT companies and potentially creating exposure to a range of competitive implications, say attorneys at BCLP.
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Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital
Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
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How To Accelerate Your Post-Attorney Career Transition
Professionals seeking to transition to nonattorney careers may encounter skepticism as nontraditional candidates, but there are opportunities for thought leadership and to leverage speaking and writing to accelerate a post-attorney career transition, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Evgeny Efremkin at Toronto Metropolitan University.
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Law School's Missed Lessons: Be An Indispensable Associate
While law school teaches you to research, write and think critically, it often overlooks the professional skills you will need to make yourself an essential team player when transitioning from a summer to full-time associate, say attorneys at Stinson.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Leadership To BigLaw
The move from government service to private practice can feel like changing one’s identity, but as someone who has left the U.S. Department of Justice twice, I’ve learned that a successful transition requires patience, effort and the realization that the rewards of practicing law don’t come from one particular position, says Richard Donoghue at Pillsbury.
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Law Firm Executive Orders Create A Legal Ethics Minefield
Recent executive orders targeting BigLaw firms create ethical dilemmas — and raise the specter of civil or criminal liability — for the government attorneys tasked with implementing them and for the law firms that choose to make agreements with the administration, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Firms Must Embrace Alternative Billing Models Or Fall Behind
As artificial intelligence tools eliminate inefficiencies and the Big Four accounting firms enter the legal market, law firms that pivot from the entrenched billable hour model to outcomes-based pricing will see a distinct competitive advantage, says attorney William Brewer.
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How Attorneys Can Master The Art Of On-Camera Presence
As attorneys are increasingly presented with on-camera opportunities, they can adapt their traditional legal skills for video contexts — such as virtual client meetings, marketing content or media interviews — by understanding the medium and making intentional adjustments, says Kerry Barrett.
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How Importers Can Minimize FCA Risks Of Tariff Mitigation
False Claims Act risks are inherent in many tariff mitigation strategies, making it important for importers to implement best practices to identify and report potential violations of import regulations before they escalate, says Samuel Finkelstein at LMD Trade Law.