More Healthcare Coverage
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May 29, 2025
Express Scripts Says Arkansas Can't Ban PBM Pharmacies
Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts sued the state of Arkansas in federal court Thursday, alleging that the state's recently enacted law banning PBMs from owning pharmacies in the state violated the U.S. Constitution and ran afoul of federal law governing military employee benefits.
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May 28, 2025
3rd Circ. Pauses J&J Unit Appeal In Talc Study Libel Case
The Third Circuit on Wednesday granted a bid by Johnson & Johnson's talc liability unit to stay briefing in its appeal seeking to revive a libel case over a scientific article linking talcum power to mesothelioma.
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May 28, 2025
Amtrak Worker Admits To Part In $11M Benefits Fraud Scheme
A New Jersey-based Amtrak employee has pled guilty to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the passenger railroad's health plan for an estimated $11 million in benefits, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced Wednesday.
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May 28, 2025
Mallinckrodt Investors Get Initial OK For $5.5M Settlement
Investors of drugmaker Mallinckrodt received preliminary approval of their $5.5 million settlement with two executives and a director of the company Wednesday, ending the investors' claims they were misled into believing Mallinckrodt had recovered from bankruptcy and would make a $200 million payment to opioid claimants.
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May 28, 2025
Fla. Ambulance Co. Must Make Missed Payments In OT Deal
An ambulance service will have to shell out the remaining $42,500 it owes to a group of emergency medical technicians and paramedics to settle their overtime after having missed payment deadlines several times, a Florida federal court ordered Wednesday.
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May 28, 2025
Vt. Judge To Order Release Of Harvard Researcher
A Vermont federal judge on Wednesday said a Harvard Medical School researcher and Russian national accused of smuggling frog embryos into the United States is entitled to release from immigration custody while she challenges her detention.
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May 28, 2025
China Can't Duck PPE Hoarding Claims By Fla. Medical Pros
A Florida federal judge won't fully dismiss claims from a group of medical professionals alleging that China, through a New Jersey company, hoarded personal protective equipment to create a monopoly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding the allegations fall within the commercial activity exception to sovereign immunity.
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May 27, 2025
Philly Children's Hospital Can't Undo $11.6M Med Mal Award
A Pennsylvania appeals court panel on Tuesday affirmed an $11.6 million award in a suit accusing the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia of partially causing the death of a 4-year-old boy, saying there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict.
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May 27, 2025
NC Justices Say Doc Is Employee, Not Official With Immunity
The North Carolina Supreme Court has overturned an appeals court decision that a University of North Carolina professor had public-official immunity in a defamation suit over an investigation into a colleague's going-away party, holding he is an employee of a public agency, not a public official entitled to immunity.
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May 23, 2025
Texas Nonprofits Can Be Sued For Doc Med Mal, Justices Rule
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that nonprofit health organizations can be sued for the alleged medical malpractice of one of their physician employees, in a dispute over an allegedly botched brain surgery.
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May 22, 2025
Ex-Harvard Morgue Manager Cops To Trafficking Body Parts
A former manager of Harvard Medical School's morgue pled guilty on Wednesday to trafficking human remains donated for research, including brains and skin, that he stole from the morgue as part of a nationwide scheme that prosecutors said had many body parts resold.
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May 22, 2025
Source Code Inventor Hits Wellness Tech Co. With IP Suit
The developer of source code that uses "structured energy patterns, photonic collision and dynamic linguistic displays" as a medical treatment accused a Las Vegas wellness technology company Thursday of infringing his code's copyright and reaping more than $100 million in sales as a result.
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May 22, 2025
Sutter Health's $228.5M Antitrust Deal Gets Initial OK
A California federal judge on Thursday preliminarily approved Sutter Health's $228.5 million deal settling a 13-year case over claims the hospital chain boosted costs by pushing all-or-nothing networks on insurers, saying that after a trial and a Ninth Circuit reversal, "it's nice that we didn't have to try this case twice."
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May 22, 2025
Mich. Judge Says Red Cross Can Depose Ex-Nurse's Husband
A Michigan federal judge on Thursday clarified that he intended to allow the American Red Cross to depose the husband of a nurse who alleges she was wrongfully denied a religious exemption from the organization's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, putting to rest a bout between the parties about the order's interpretation.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Firms Still Have Lateral Market Advantage, But Risks Persist
Partner and associate mobility data from the fourth quarter of 2024 shows that we’re in a new, stable era of lateral hiring where firms have the edge, but leaders should proceed cautiously, looking beyond expected revenue and compensation analyses for potential risks, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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We Must Allow Judges To Use Their Independent Judgment
As two recent cases show, the ability of judges to access their independent judgment crucially enables courts to exercise the discretion needed to reach the right outcome based on the unique facts within the law, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From SEC To BigLaw
As I adjusted to the multifaceted workflow of a BigLaw firm after leaving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, working side by side with new colleagues on complex matters proved the fastest way to build a deep rapport and demonstrate my value, says Jennifer Lee at Jenner & Block.
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Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession
For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.
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4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy
This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.
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A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.