Digital Health & Technology
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December 12, 2023
Point32Health Promotes Veteran Healthcare Atty As CLO
Susan A. Kee is the new chief legal officer at Massachusetts-based Point32Health, a not-for-profit health services organization formed three years ago from the merger of Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
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December 08, 2023
New Drug Patent Proposal Sparks Worry Over Gov't Overstep
The Biden administration's proposal to seize drug patents if the prices of the medicines are deemed unreasonable is expected to face significant legal pushback, and the potential effects on the pharmaceutical industry may not be what the administration had in mind, experts say.
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December 07, 2023
NC Radiology Group, Broker Strike Deal In Cyberattack Row
A North Carolina radiology practice told a federal court Thursday it struck a deal with its insurance broker resolving its suit alleging it lost more than $1 million as a result of a ransomware attack that occurred shortly after the broker allowed cyber liability coverage to lapse.
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December 06, 2023
Wellness or Medical? Device-Maker Attys Look for Answers
To be or not to be a medical device? That is the question attorneys are navigating with healthcare entrepreneurs seeking to market innovations incorporating artificial intelligence and digital technologies, and one that may help them avoid conflicts with U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
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December 06, 2023
Hospital Group Explores 'Responsible' Health Data Privacy
The Joint Commission, a healthcare accreditation nonprofit, launched a new health data privacy certification program on Wednesday that aims to train hospitals on protecting patient privacy while transferring the data to third-party organizations for secondary use.
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December 06, 2023
HHS Offers Plan To Bolster Hospital Defenses In Cyberattacks
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will propose new cybersecurity requirements for hospitals in an effort to implement greater accountability in the healthcare industry, the federal government announced Wednesday.
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December 06, 2023
NC Biz Court Trims Suit Claiming Hospital Sold Data To Meta
North Carolina's business court allowed a proposed class action against WakeMed Health & Hospitals to move forward after finding the plaintiffs adequately alleged claims of common-law negligence, breach of implied contract and breach of fiduciary duty in a suit claiming the hospital system sold patient data to Meta Inc. without consent.
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December 05, 2023
Massive Hack At 23andMe Got Health, DNA Ancestry Data
Hackers accessed data from about 6.9 million users of the DNA testing company 23andMe Inc., the company confirmed Tuesday. The breach got a wealth of sensitive information, including health and DNA ancestry profiles.
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December 04, 2023
Patients Sue Nevada Healthcare Vendor For Exposing Data
Two patients of an Illinois healthcare system filed a proposed class action against a Nevada medical transcription firm, alleging that the company failed to protect sensitive health information, even though the healthcare sector is a favorite target for hackers.
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December 04, 2023
Blank-Check Co. Aimei Health Technology Prices $60M IPO
Aimei Health Technology, a blank-check company focused on healthcare targets, priced its initial public offering at $60 million on Friday ahead of its Monday listing on the Nasdaq, offering 6 million units at $10 apiece.
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November 30, 2023
MOVEit Hack MDL Needs 'Structure,' Judge Tells Atty Gaggle
A federal district judge tapped to oversee the multidistrict litigation in a massive data breach involving Progress Software Corp.’s MOVEit transfer program told dozens of lawyers in a packed Massachusetts courtroom Thursday that she plans to choose class leaders by the beginning of January.
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November 29, 2023
House Told AI Is A Tool, Not A Decision Maker, In Health Care
Amid expanding innovations in artificial intelligence in the health care industry, from AI scribes of patient visits to algorithm-driven medical imaging, experts are urging lawmakers to develop regulation and oversight to avoid compromising patient safety and privacy.
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November 29, 2023
Investors Say Co. Lied About Ultrasound Tech Prior To Merger
A pair of shareholders in digital health company Butterfly Network Inc. have launched a derivative suit against the company's current and former top brass, alleging they drastically inflated the company's sales projections and the quality of its main ultrasound product to convince investors to approve a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.
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November 29, 2023
Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Boeing Jets, Robots, IT Deals
The federal government advanced a $2.5 billion plan to modernize the Indian Health Service's health records system, purchased $2.3 billion more of refueling tankers from Boeing, and is weighing adding robots to its $132 billion fast-paced construction of new nuclear submarines. Here are Law360's top government contracts for November 2023.
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November 29, 2023
Patients Lack Standing To Sue Over Email Hack, Ill. Court Says
An Illinois state appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of two proposed class actions from patients who alleged a large, physician-owned medical group in Illinois failed to safeguard patient data and allowed a hacker to steal information that may include patient Social Security numbers and medical information.
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November 22, 2023
Debevoise Attys On AI Potential In Health, 'Iterative' Mistakes
A growing number of health insurance providers are facing lawsuits targeting their use of an artificial intelligence algorithm in online claims processing. Maura Kathleen Monaghan and Jim Pastore of Debevoise & Plimpton spoke with Law360 about AI automation in insurance claims, auditing and the need for more top-level attention to the technology.
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November 21, 2023
Attys Want $4.2M In Fees For Aurora Health Privacy Case
Attorneys on Monday asked a Wisconsin federal judge to approve their request for a nearly 35% portion of a $12.25 million settlement of a suit against Advocate Aurora Health for disclosing private health information to Google and Facebook.
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November 20, 2023
NY-Based Hospital To Pay $80K For HIPAA Violations
A New York-based medical center on Monday agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights $80,000 as part of a settlement after the hospital shared protected health information of COVID-19 patients to a national media outlet.
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November 20, 2023
Feds ID 330K More Potential Victims In Medicare Data Breach
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid says the personal information of an additional 330,000 patients may have been exposed in a cyberattack carried out earlier this year targeting the file-sharing tool MOVEit.
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November 20, 2023
Mich. Health Co. Sued Again Over Breach Spanning 2M People
Michigan health system McLaren Health Care Corp. was hit with another federal lawsuit claiming it recklessly failed to protect its data systems from a cyberattack in August that allegedly compromised the personal information of over 2 million individuals.
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November 17, 2023
NY Health System Accused Of Exposing 3.9M Patients' Data
New York state's largest health care system Northwell Health Inc.'s failure to protect private information exposed the data of about 3.9 million patients in a recent breach, according to a proposed class action filed in federal court.
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November 17, 2023
Fraud, Abuse Remain Top HHS Challenges, Watchdog Says
A top challenge for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services remains the potential for abuse of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the agency's watchdog said in an annual report Thursday.
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November 17, 2023
Vaccine Maker Novavax Appoints New COO, CLO
Novavax Inc., a maker of vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases, on Friday appointed a president and chief operating officer and announced a new chief legal officer to replace an official who is retiring next month.
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November 15, 2023
Meta Seeks Trim Of 'Copycat' Health Privacy Suit
Meta Platforms Inc. urged a California federal judge Wednesday to shave down a lawsuit alleging the tech giant is illegally receiving consumers' sensitive health information through its Meta Pixel tool, arguing that the suit is a "copycat" of another case the court trimmed in September.
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November 15, 2023
NY Hospital Cyber Regs A Balm, Not Cure, For Security Woes
New York state's proposals for addressing hospital cybersecurity — and providing millions in funding for security upgrades — could help some of the state's smallest hospitals catch up on the latest safeguards and minimum standards against ransomware attacks and data breaches, but they're far from a cure-all for the incidents plaguing health care.
Expert Analysis
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The State Of Consumer Class Actions Amid COVID-19
While the pandemic has slowed the filing of consumer class actions, they remain a significant part of the litigation landscape — with false labeling claims remaining particularly popular, likely because they are easy to file and frequently survive motions to dismiss, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Anticipating The Biden Administration's Health Care Agenda
The Biden administration is unlikely to successfully push sweeping and partisan health care legislation in the next two years, but it will be able to reverse a litany of Trump administration policies pertaining to the Affordable Care Act, reproductive health care and more, say Nick Manetto and Ilisa Halpern Paul at Faegre Drinker.
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What Biden Presidency May Mean For Data Privacy Litigation
The administration of President-elect Joe Biden will likely bring major changes to data privacy law and attendant litigation, including federal legislation that could preempt state laws, renegotiation of conditions for EU data transfers to the U.S., and increased Federal Trade Commission enforcement activity, say attorneys at Squire Patton.
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5 Tips For In-House Counsel Anticipating Cyber Class Actions
In light of a 270% increase in data breaches this year, and the attendant class actions, in-house counsel can prepare to efficiently manage litigation by focusing on certain initial steps, ranging from multidistrict litigation strategy to insurance best practices, say David McDowell and Nancy Thomas at MoFo.
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Where Data Privacy And CFPB Are Headed Under Biden
Data privacy is likely to be a key area of legislative and enforcement focus for President-elect Joe Biden, and consumer financial protection is expected to be an immediate priority due to the economic impact of the pandemic, with the most drastic shift likely to occur at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
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Ethics Considerations For Law Firms Implementing AI
Richard Finkelman and Yihua Astle at Berkeley Research Group discuss the ethical and bias concerns law firms must address when implementing artificial intelligence-powered applications for recruiting, conflict identification and client counseling.
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The Legal Implications Of Mobile Health Advancements
With the pandemic rapidly accelerating the timeline for the shift to remote and mobile health care, providers will need to keep a close eye on new privacy and cybersecurity risks, and on new potential to collect real-time information from patients, say attorneys at Squire Patton.
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The Post-Election State AG Enforcement Landscape
Election results so far have kept the number of Republican and Democratic state attorneys general even, and no matter the outcome of the presidential race, AGs will work across the aisle on important issues like health care, competition and the environment, says former Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan at Kirkland.
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What A Trump Or Biden Win Will Mean For State AGs
The outcome of the presidential election will have significant consequences on cooperation between federal agencies and state attorneys general, but either way robust multistate investigations — especially in the consumer protection space — will continue, says Sean Riley at Cozen O'Connor.
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Outside Whistleblowers Are Critical To Exposing Fraud
Outsiders like industry experts, competitors, public interest organizations and concerned citizens often have deep knowledge, industry data and financial incentives that put them in a better position than insiders to spot fraud, say attorneys at Youman & Caputo, Fox Rothschild, Goldstein & Russell and Herrera Purdy.
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Comparing Recent State Data Breach Law Updates
Public and private entities should revisit their incident response plans to ensure compliance with and understand the differences among heightened data breach notification requirements that five states and Washington, D.C., added or amended this year, says Jane Petoskey at Polsinelli.
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Best Practices For Health Care Mergers In The COVID-19 Era
Health providers considering consolidation as a result of the pandemic's impact should attempt to mitigate antitrust enforcers' concerns by substantiating a merger with evidence of cost and quality efficiencies and making efforts to seek competition-friendly alternatives, say attorneys at Shook Hardy.
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Assessing Health Data Privacy Damages During A Pandemic
Class action litigation related to data privacy in the health care industry is expected to trend upward during the COVID-19 era due to increased reliance on telehealth and contact tracing initiatives, heightening the importance of understanding the different economic approaches and challenges to valuing damages, say analysts at Cornerstone Research.