Health Law Advisor

In this episode of the Diagnosing Health Care Podcast:  Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, some states have banned abortion in all or most circumstances and many more have enacted new restrictions or enforced old ones.

Establishing and maintaining effective systems to protect sensitive personal data and confidential business information from outside interference while also assuring that privacy interests are protected is among an organization’s highest priorities. Our security and privacy team at Epstein Becker & Green has written extensively about the guidance and best practices issued by federal and state regulatory and enforcement agencies. Execution, monitoring and continually updating these preventive practices define an organization’s first line of defense. But what happens in the event that an organization actually suffers a breach? Is there guidance that might be available, particularly to healthcare organizations, to deal with continuity and disaster planning (BC/DR) directed towards assuring resilience and recovery in the event of a potentially-disastrous cyberattack?

The success of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm depends in large part upon trust, yet many AI technologies function as opaque ‘black boxes.’ Indeed, some are intentionally designed that way. This charts a mistaken course.

In this episode of the Diagnosing Health Care Podcast:  How does the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) intend to leverage its enforcement authority under the False Claims Act to advance DOJ’s recently announced Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative?

In this episode of the Diagnosing Health Care Podcast:  This term, the Supreme Court of the United States is set to rule in a Medicare reimbursement case that has sparked a fresh look at the historical deference often granted to agencies and whether it should remain, be modified, or even be overruled.

Attorneys Stuart Gerson, Robert Wanerman, and Megan Robertson discuss why Chevron deference matters to health care industry stakeholders and what aspects of deference arguments should be in focus as these cases progress.

The Diagnosing Health Care podcast series examines the ...

Recent data thefts and systems intrusions, particularly with respect to ransomware, have assured that cybersecurity is top of mind for corporate executives and compliance officials. We at EBG have tried to keep you up to date with respect to legislative, regulatory and litigation developments and recommended best practices and procedures.

As we close out the year, we all should remain mindful that cyber criminals, especially those who are supported or protected by foreign adversaries, have little incentive to rest up during the holidays.

On December 13, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected the petition of New York health care workers seeking to stop the State from enforcing regulations requiring covered personnel of hospitals, nursing homes, public health centers, and other health care entities to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of continued employment, subject to narrow exceptions. The Supreme Court’s unsigned order allows the continuing enforcement of the regulations, as litigation of the multiple lawsuits challenging the statewide vaccine mandate for health care workers issued last August continues.

Our colleagues Alaap Shah and Stuart Gerson of Epstein Becker Green have written an Expert Analysis on Law360 that will be of interest to our readers: "Health Cos. Must Prepare for Growing Ransomware Threat."

The following is an excerpt (see below to download the full version in PDF format):

Ransomware attacks have become big business, and they are on the rise. And entities in the health care and life sciences space have become primary targets of opportunity for attackers.

As the recent Colonial Pipeline Co. ransomware event illustrates, a small group of black hat hackers, living in ...

Tuesday’s decision by Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia categorically approving the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, without imposing any conditions or limitations and rejecting granting a stay for appeal purposes, will, unless blocked if there is an appeal, open the way for a series of pending vertical merger deals.

A “vertical merger” is a merger of two companies that do not compete and that are at different levels of the product or service-provision process. Such mergers do not reduce the number of competitors in a given market and, by ...

By Stuart Gerson

The September 30, 2014 decision of a United States District Judge for Eastern District of Oklahoma in the case of State v. Burwell  adds an interesting wrinkle to the debate over whether the provision in the Affordable Care Act that authorizes federal subsidies (tax credits) applies to individuals who are covered by  a qualified health plan that is enrolled through an Exchange established by the Federal government, not a State.  An IRS Rule (26 C.F.R.§ 1.36B-1(k)) allows this, while the ACA itself bases eligibility on participation in a plan that was "enrolled in ...

By Stuart Gerson

As we noted in our various blogs and communications on the subject (HEAL Advisory and HEAL Blog), the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's action today, to rehear in December the Halbig case (Halbig v. Burwell, D.C. Cir., No. 14-508 ), challenging  Obamacare subsidies in the federal health exchange, is not unexpected given the current makeup of the Court. This development now makes it more likely that the Supreme Court will not take action on the King cert petition (King v. Burwell, U.S. 4th Circuit , No. 14-1158) until after the DC ...

By Stuart Gerson

In this blog and subsequently in an article on the subject under the aegis  of the American Health Lawyers Association that can be found at http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=b68c51ae-2bdb-490e-ac3d-02c351a19310 EBG analyzed the DC Circuit's decision  in  In re Kellogg Brown & Root, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 12115 (D.C. Cir. 2014).  The DC Circuit's holding reinforces the protections established by the Supreme Court 30 years ago in Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383 (1981), that afford privilege to confidential employee communications ...