radar Health Law Scan

Legal Insights and Perspectives for the Healthcare Industry
Our FDA team published a LawFlash on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the first over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 test to be performed at home and the first OTC home sample collection kit for COVID-19 testing, as well as additional prescription at-home tests and sample collection kits.
On December 8, 2020, Judge Gerald Pappert in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Pennsylvania attorney general (AG) to preliminarily enjoin a proposed merger between Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (Einstein). The case was widely watched as the FTC sought to show that the combination of these two urban hospital systems would harm consumers.
Our tax team published a LawFlash on the recently released Internal Revenue Service Revenue Ruling 2020-27 and Revenue Procedure 2020-51, which provide guidance on the deductibility of certain expenses paid or incurred in a taxpayer’s business using loan proceeds from a “covered loan” provided under the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Our immigration team recently posted a LawFlash to discuss a recent decision by the US District Court for the Northern District of California that set aside two Interim Final Rules (IFRs) that sought to restrict severely eligibility for the H-1B Specialty Occupation nonimmigrant category.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has made the development and use of drug and device products to diagnose, treat, or prevent COVID-19 essential.
HHS recently announced the forthcoming termination of FDA’s Unapproved Drugs Initiative (UDI), in an apparent effort to combat prescription drug shortages and price spikes.
The OIG and CMS have finalized rules that will alter critical healthcare fraud and abuse regulations to remove or diminish obstacles to value-based enterprises that meaningfully embrace patient care coordination.
Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), all pesticide products (including surface sanitizing products) must be registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prior to sale, distribution, or use in the United States.
Telehealth is a highly regulated field and legal issues can vary across payers, across states, and even across countries. Our global healthcare industry team continues to highlight how regions around the world have quickly adapted to providing telehealth services following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In China, the Chinese government has been actively promoting internet-based medicine, even before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for telehealth services.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two welcome announcements on October 22 relating to the CARES Act Relief Fund Provider Relief Fund (PRF). First, the agency expanded the pool of eligible recipients to “include provider applicants such as residential treatment facilities, chiropractors, and eye and vision providers that have not yet received Provider Relief Fund distributions.”