More Healthcare Coverage
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March 13, 2025
Fed. Circ. Dings Antibody Patent App For Lacking Description
The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed a decision from top U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials in a highly watched and technical dispute over an antibody patent application, concluding that preambles for so-called Jepson claims need sufficient written descriptions.
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March 13, 2025
Pa. Justices Let Convicted Doctor Reapply For License
A former University of Pittsburgh Medical Center radiologist who lost his license for unlawfully prescribing Vicodin can seek reinstatement less than 10 years after his 2019 suspension thanks to a change in state law defining a drug trafficking offense, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
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March 13, 2025
SEIU Fund Escapes Surgery Centers' Underpayment Suit
A Service Employees International Union benefit fund no longer has to face a lawsuit four surgical centers launched accusing it of shortchanging them on patient treatments, with a New York federal judge saying Wednesday the centers have failed to show that any agreement existed between themselves and the fund.
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March 11, 2025
Fla. Court Urged To Remove Cigna Claims Processor In MDL
Cigna Healthcare on Tuesday urged a Florida federal court to remove a settlement claims processor in a long-running multidistrict litigation case involving alleged underpaid insurance reimbursements to medical providers, telling a judge that the company has misspent more than $25 million in funds meant for members of a class action within the MDL.
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March 11, 2025
Brazilian 'Drug King' Ran Black Market Pharmacy, Feds Say
Federal prosecutors said a Brazilian national living in the United States without permission falsely portrayed himself as a pharmacist to sell members of a large Portuguese-speaking community west of Boston an array of medications, including painkillers, steroids and other controlled drugs.
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March 11, 2025
Software Co. Tells Fed. Circ. It's Owed Over $12.7M In IP Dispute
A software developer pushed back at the federal government's defense of a $12.7 million copyright infringement award on Monday, telling the Federal Circuit that the judgment should be based on the company's actual negotiations with the Defense Health Agency.
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March 10, 2025
GAO Says NIH Treated Bidders Disparately On $20M IT Deal
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has sustained a protest over a $19.9 million National Institutes of Health software development task order, finding the NIH unreasonably treated similar aspects of the protester's and awardee's bids differently.
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March 06, 2025
DC Judge Won't Block USAID From Firing Contractors
A D.C. federal judge on Thursday declined to temporarily block the termination of personal services contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, concluding their challenge to the dismantling of the agency is likely ill-suited for federal court.
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March 05, 2025
Contractors Claim Constitutional Injury In USAID Cuts
A group representing U.S. citizen personal services contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development insisted before a D.C. federal judge on Wednesday that their challenge to the Trump administration's dismantling of the humanitarian agency differs from another brought by workers employed directly by USAID.
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March 05, 2025
BCBS Hit With New Antitrust Suits By $2.8B Deal Opt-Outs
Dozens of hospitals and healthcare systems that opted out of a landmark $2.8 billion Blue Cross Blue Shield antitrust settlement filed fresh Sherman Act lawsuits against the insurance entities in Pennsylvania, California and Illinois federal courts Tuesday, accusing them of colluding to restrict competition for the purchase of healthcare services.
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March 05, 2025
Trump's NIH Cost-Cutting Measure Blocked By Judge
A Massachusetts federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot cap indirect costs for research grants at the National Institutes of Health, rejecting the move as a rushed cost-saving measure that violates federal law governing the expenses.
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March 04, 2025
Colo. Justices Won't Review Hospital Tax Classification Suit
The Colorado Supreme Court declined to review an appeals court ruling finding that a rehabilitation hospital should be classified as a commercial property for tax purposes because it was predominantly designed for its services and not for residency.
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March 03, 2025
Credit Bureaus Look To Duck Renewed Medical Debt Claims
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion asked a California federal judge Monday to toss an updated case accusing the credit reporting agencies of violating antitrust law by agreeing to exclude medical debt under $500 from consumer credit reports.
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March 03, 2025
Insurer Doesn't Owe Spine Surgery Suit Defense, Judge Says
An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify an orthopedic treatment center or one of its surgeons in a suit over a botched spine surgery, a Georgia federal court ruled Monday, saying the policy bars coverage for claims reported to another insurer before its effective date.
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March 03, 2025
Adult Day Care Owner Must Pay $1.5M For Medicare Fraud
The former owner of a Michigan adult day care facility was sentenced Monday to spend one year in prison and pay about $1.5 million in restitution for submitting $3.4 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare for psychotherapy services that were either unnecessary or not provided by qualified professionals.
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March 03, 2025
Oddities Shop Owner Says Collecting Body Parts Not Criminal
A woman accused of taking part in an interstate ring buying and selling human remains allegedly stolen by the former director of Harvard University's morgue asked a federal judge on Monday to dismiss an indictment against her, arguing that charges of transporting stolen goods don't apply to body parts.
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March 03, 2025
Justices Decline Data Breach Suit Against SC Medical Center
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Fourth Circuit decision that a health center cannot use federal immunity as a shield against a data breach lawsuit even though it received public funds, despite the company's warning that the ruling has created a circuit split.
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February 27, 2025
USAA, Mich. Clinics Resolve Billing Fraud Row
United Services Automobile Association said Wednesday that it has resolved its claims against physical therapy providers the insurer alleges solicited car crash victims to refer and bill them for unnecessary medical care.
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February 26, 2025
Judge Says VA Could Exclude $14B Consulting Deal Bid
A Court of Federal Claims judge has rejected a protest over a company's exclusion from a $14 billion multiaward consulting contract, saying the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs appropriately determined the firm wasn't qualified for the deal.
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February 25, 2025
San Francisco Must Face Airline Group's Suit Over Health Law
San Francisco lost its bid to escape an airline industry group's challenge to a healthcare ordinance Tuesday, with a California federal judge ruling that the city and county must face claims that the Healthy Airport Ordinance is preempted by three federal statutes.
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February 25, 2025
Wage-Fixing Jury Should Hear Of DOJ Pivot, Exec Says
A nursing executive headed for trial next month on wage-fixing charges has urged a Nevada federal judge to let the jury hear that before 2016 the Justice Department didn't view such conduct as criminal, in the lone remaining test of the DOJ's labor antitrust enforcement initiative.
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February 24, 2025
Fed. Circ. Shouldn't Assume Doctors Read Labels, Profs Say
The Federal Circuit has been reviewing whether generic-drug companies induce infringement of their limited-use drugs based on a misunderstanding of how prescribing physicians do their job, law professors from Illinois and Pennsylvania have argued in a new paper.
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February 24, 2025
Patent Eligibility Appeals 'Will Not Go Away,' Justices Told
Another plea to hear a patent eligibility case has been lodged at the U.S. Supreme Court, this time in an amicus brief from the owner of two invalidated patents covering medical machinery that warned "the problem will not go away. The problem will get worse and worse."
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February 24, 2025
GAO Sinks Protest Over Army Corps Solicitation Amendment
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has said the Army Corps of Engineers rightly changed a solicitation to remove the requirement that solicitors attach a project labor agreement, denying a construction contractor's protest of the change.
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February 24, 2025
Shooting Victim Blames Nursing Home For Lack Of Security
A Pennsylvania man who was robbed and shot while visiting his brother at a Pittsburgh nursing home last November has filed a lawsuit against the facility in state court, claiming the company falsely represented that it was safe and secure.
Expert Analysis
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When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US
As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.
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What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025
The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.
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6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School
Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.
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Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware
Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out
In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity
Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review
For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Calif. Ruling May Shield Public Employers From Labor Claims
In Stone v. Alameda Health System, the California Supreme Court recently exempted a county hospital from state-mandated rest breaks and the Private Attorneys General Act, granting government employers a robust new bulwark against other labor statutes by undermining an established doctrine for determining if a law applies to public entities, say attorneys at Hunton.
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When Investigating An Adversary, Be Wary Of Forged Records
Warnings against the use of investigators who tout their ability to find an adversary’s private documents generally emphasize the risk of illegal activity and attorney discipline, but a string of recent cases shows an additional danger — investigators might be fabricating records altogether, says Brian Asher at Asher Research.
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3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less
Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.
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What To Expect From State AGs As Federal Control Changes
Under the next Trump administration, Democratic attorneys general are poised to strengthen enforcement in certain areas as Republican attorneys general continue their efforts with stronger federal support — resulting in a confusing patchwork of policies that create unintended liabilities for businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.