Newsletters

09.01.16

The FCPA Pilot Program: A Tale of Two Cases

This month, we review a recent Ninth Circuit case that allowed a qui tam relator’s action against various Medicare Advantage organizations to proceed, holding that the relator had adequately stated a “cognizable legal theory” of liability under the False Claims Act (FCA) in ...


08.26.16

Arbitrator Or Judge? California Supreme Court Weighs in

Yet again, the California Supreme Court considered arbitration in the context of an employment agreement, this time reflecting on whether a judge or an arbitrator should decide whether class arbitration is available where the agreement is silent on the matter.


08.24.16

Lovenox Case Muddies Waters on Loyalty Discount Programs

Pharmaceutical manufacturers utilize a variety of sales and marketing techniques to maximize sales of their products. 


08.24.16

Difficult Choices for Healthcare Providers as California Legalizes Assisted Suicide

California's "End of Life Option Act" (the Act) went into effect this June—making California the fifth state (behind Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana) to allow terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live to receive drugs that will allow them to end their life.


08.16.16

FCC Issues Report and Order on Budget Act Exemptions

On August 11, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Report and Order implementing Section 301 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by excepting from the Act's consent requirement robocalls "made solely to collect a debt ...


07.28.16

Take Two: EEOC Amends Pay Data Collection Proposal

Tweaking its initial plan, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released an updated proposal about the collection of pay data from employers.


07.27.16

Steering and Its Broad Implications for Payer-Hospital Negotiations

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division (DOJ) and the North Carolina Attorney General sued Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) in North Carolina District Court alleging that CHS exercised its dominant market power to prevent insurers from steering patients to its ...


07.27.16

California Supreme Court Clarifies Constitutional Limits on Punitive Damages

In Brandt v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court held that when a plaintiff proves that an insurance company withheld policy benefits in bad faith, attorneys' fees reasonably incurred to compel payment of the benefits are recoverable as an element of damages.


07.27.16

Scalia's Death Has Limited Impact on Major Healthcare Cases

Justice Antonin Scalia's death apparently impacted only one of the four major healthcare cases pending before the United States Supreme Court this term.


07.27.16

The FCA: Escobar Means More Than You Think

On June 6, 2016, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in the Medicaid case of Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, adopting a form of the "implied certification" theory of knowingly fraudulent representations under the False Claims Act (FCA).