Digital Health & Technology
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June 16, 2023
Immunomedics Attys Win $12M Fee In $40M Data Scandal Deal
Attorneys who represented a proposed class of investors in pharmaceutical company Immunomedics Inc. will receive nearly $12 million as their fee.
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June 15, 2023
Florida Dental Provider Faces Lawsuits Over Data Breach
Patients of a Florida-based dental insurance provider brought a proposed class action lawsuit alleging negligence over a ransomware data breach that leaked the private information of more than 8.9 million people on the dark web, saying they face a lifetime risk of having their identities stolen.
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June 09, 2023
Reed Smith Adds 2 Attorneys With HHS Background
Reed Smith LLP has brought on two seasoned health care attorneys from Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP with experience at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, the firm confirmed to Law360 on Friday.
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June 08, 2023
FTC's Health Privacy Efforts Raise Specter Of Litigation
The Federal Trade Commission is moving to step up its already aggressive policing of how health apps use and share sensitive personal information, but unresolved questions over the scope of the agency's authority is likely to spark challenges that could sharply curtail these efforts.
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June 08, 2023
Harvard Health Plan Faces Class Action In Hack Affecting 2.5M
A Massachusetts-based health care provider and insurer skimped on data security, then sat on information about a data breach affecting more than 2.5 million patients and providers for nearly two months, a proposed class action filed Wednesday alleges.
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June 05, 2023
Broker Seeks Early Win In Coverage Row With Health Network
A health care network's breach of contract and negligence suit against its former insurance broker should be dropped, the broker told a North Carolina federal court, asserting that the claims are premature since the underlying insurance dispute and putative data breach class action remain pending.
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June 02, 2023
Judge Calls Apple's Conduct In Smartwatch Row 'Careless'
A federal judge in California on Friday ripped Apple's failure to preserve emails from a former top executive in its health division as "irresponsible and careless, and perhaps even grossly negligent," a day after a Silicon Valley medical device startup tried to draw the attention of a federal appeals court to alleged misconduct at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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May 31, 2023
Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Moon Landing And VA Records
Law360 highlights significant contracts from May 2023, including long-pending and over-budget projects such as NASA's purchase of Blue Origin's $3.4 billion lunar lander and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' renewal of a troubled $10 billion record systems project.
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May 30, 2023
Data Of Nearly 9 Million People Swiped In Dental Insurer Hack
Nearly nine million people's personal medical data and Social Security numbers were stolen in a cyberattack earlier this year on one of the largest dental insurers in the U.S., new filings with state regulators show.
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May 24, 2023
On Deck In JPML: FTX, Cheer Abuse, T-Mobile
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Thursday will consider whether to centralize sprawling fallout from the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, as well as claims of hearing loss from the drug Tepezza and allegedly exploding solar panel systems.
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May 23, 2023
Nurse Targets Chicago Hospitals Over Biometric Cabinets
A Chicago health system and two of its hospitals have been hit with biometric privacy claims by a nurse who says she and others were unlawfully required to scan their fingerprints to access a medicine cabinet without first providing informed consent.
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May 23, 2023
Health Care Pro Departs Jones Day For Mintz In San Francisco
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC has continued its San Francisco expansion by adding a partner from Jones Day as a member of its health law practice.
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May 22, 2023
Patient Wants Pa. Health Co. Nude Photo Leak Suit Alive
A patient accusing Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley Health Network of negligently allowing ransomware attackers to steal and publish her nude photos has asked a federal judge to keep her lawsuit alive, claiming that the hospital should have bolstered its defenses after acquiring a company that had suffered a prior data breach.
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May 22, 2023
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware's Chancery Court was tough last week for former executives of SeaWorld, VMware and Momentus, who all saw their lawsuits for alleged unpaid benefits dismissed. The court also rejected an attempt from Warner Bros. Discovery to shift legal fees and a request by Fox Corp. to keep court documents under wraps. Here's your wrap of weekly news out of Delaware's Chancery Court.
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May 19, 2023
Tort Report: Spectrum Deal To End $1B Verdict Appeal
Cable TV and internet giant Spectrum's pending deal to end an appeal of a $1.1 billion wrongful death award and a $96 million trucking crash verdict in Michigan lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.
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May 19, 2023
Ohio Health System Agrees To Pay $1.75M In Data Breach Suit
An Ohio health care system has agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle class action claims that it failed to protect more than 216,000 patients' personal and medical information from being illegally accessed during a 2021 data breach, according to federal court filings.
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May 17, 2023
Aetna Sued After Russian Hack Stole Data Of 3M Customers
Health insurer Aetna has been hit with a proposed class action alleging that the company's outdated security measures allowed Russian hackers to access sensitive personal information in a breach targeting multiple health care providers and over 3 million customer records.
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May 16, 2023
EyeMed Cuts $2.5M Multistate Deal Over Data Breach
Vision insurance company EyeMed has agreed to pay $2.5 million to officials in Oregon, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania to end a probe into whether its allegedly lax data security led to a 2020 hack that compromised the data of more than two million people.
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May 15, 2023
Mass. Hospital To Pay $1M To End Kronos Data Breach Claims
The University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center will pay $1.2 million to settle a data breach class action and federal wage lawsuit tied to a 2021 hack of workforce management company Kronos Inc. that took the hospital's payroll processing system offline for more than a month.
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May 11, 2023
NC Suit Over Health Care Co.'s Data Breach Migrates To Fla.
A proposed class action against a health care provider accused of letting hackers steal patients' personal information is being transferred from North Carolina to Florida, the named plaintiff's attorney confirmed Thursday after a joint dismissal stipulation was filed in the Tar Heel State venue.
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May 10, 2023
FCA Chases 'Shrewder' Kickbacks As 50-Year Hunt Intensifies
When sophisticated drug and device companies have confronted deadly diseases and daunting approval standards, they've hired the brightest scientific and legal minds — or bribed prescribers with cash, liquor, steaks, vacations and lap dances. The latter approach undergirds a landmark law that has been fueling litigation for 50 years and enters its next half-century chasing a new generation of camouflaged kickbacks.
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May 08, 2023
Pa. Health Co. Says Patients Can't Blame It For Stolen Nudes
Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley Health Network sought to toss out a proposed class action over online ransomers stealing and posting nude photos of patients from their medical files, arguing to a federal court that the complaint lacked specifics on how the hospitals, rather than the hackers, were at fault.
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May 06, 2023
Law360's 2023 Health Care Editorial Advisory Board
Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2023 Health Care Editorial Advisory Board.
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May 04, 2023
Lowey, Bursor & Fisher Want To Steer GoodRx Privacy Suits
Attorneys for GoodRx users who accused the health care platform of breaching privacy laws by sharing their sensitive health information with advertisers Google, Facebook and Criteo asked a California federal judge Wednesday to tap two firms — Lowey Dannenberg and Bursor & Fisher — to lead the charge, citing their extensive experience with privacy class actions.
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May 03, 2023
MoFo Litigation Leader Jumps To Paul Hastings
Global law firm Paul Hastings LLP has brought on Morrison Foerster LLP's former litigation department chair for the Palo Alto office, strengthening the firm's intellectual property litigation practice, the firm announced Wednesday.
Expert Analysis
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Health Info Interoperability Rule Raises Privacy Concerns
A new Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology rule requires health care providers to supply patients' health information upon request, but compliance may be complicated when patient privacy laws prohibit information sharing, say Elizabeth Hein and Cynthia Haines at Post & Schell.
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Cybersecurity Steps For Law Firms Amid Heightened Risks
With large swaths of the population indoors and primarily online, cybercriminals will be able to exploit law firms more easily now than ever before, but some basic precautions can help, says Joel Wallenstrom at Wickr.
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Consumer Device Data May Pose Problems In Med Mal Suits
Information generated by smart watches and other consumer technology may help doctors assess patient health, but could be subject to challenges during medical malpractice suits since it is still unclear who can legally authenticate it, says Marilyn Skrocki at Saginaw Valley State University.
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Health Cos.' Biz Associate Agreements Need COVID-19 Update
Health providers should update their business associate agreements to account for increased federal enforcement related to COVID-19, rising usage of telehealth and new rules regarding interoperability, say Cynthia Haines and Elizabeth Hein at Post & Schell.
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MDL Decisions Demonstrate The Need For Rule 702 Reform
An analysis of 27 recent cases shows that multidistrict litigation courts frequently fail to screen out unreliable expert opinion testimony — making it imperative that the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules enact amendments to address this problem, say attorneys at Phillips Lytle and King & Spalding.
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What Constitutes Reasonable Security Per Calif. Privacy Law?
Designing reasonable policies and procedures under the California Consumer Privacy Act — even in the absence of clear statutory guidance — is a task that may become more urgent as plaintiffs already have taken advantage of the act's private right of action, say attorneys at Buckley.
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5 Ways Health Cos. Can Reduce Pandemic Cybersecurity Risk
Health care companies with newly remote workforces that are increasingly the target of cyberattacks should take several protective measures beyond merely implementing the patching recommendations suggested by a recent federal government cybersecurity alert, say Elliot Golding and Kristin Bryan at Squire Patton.
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Health Litigation Trends To Watch Now And After COVID-19
COVID-19 presents a number of immediate challenges for health care providers and payers, as well as increased litigation related to standard-of-care issues, data breach risks and other concerns that will extend beyond the end of the pandemic, say attorneys at Manatt Phelps.
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It's Time To Scrap FTC's Health Breach Notification Rule
The Federal Trade Commission's notification rule for nonhealth companies that suffer health record data breaches is too narrow, and should be replaced by a federal privacy law that provides uniform and meaningful protections for consumers, says Dena Castricone at DMC Law.
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The Current Barriers To International Health Cooperation
Although governments continue to construct direct barriers to international health collaboration by restricting foreign direct investment, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity of borderless health care goods and services, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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CCPA Is 1 Of Many Retailer Data Privacy Class Action Worries
As class actions targeting the sale of consumer data pose an increasing threat to retailers under the California Consumer Privacy Act and other states’ consumer protection laws, companies must ensure compliance with each statute and assess their vulnerability to deceptive conduct allegations, say Stephanie Sheridan and Meegan Brooks at Steptoe & Johnson.
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Workplace Body Temperature Devices Raise Privacy Concerns
As employers begin using no-contact temperature taking devices to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they'll need to comply with state biometric data and breach notification laws, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and federal guidance, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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11 Post-Pandemic Predictions For Telehealth Regulation
Though many regulatory changes related to telehealth usage will revert after the pandemic, they will likely pave the way for more permanent developments in the future, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.