Health Care

On Monday, FDA issued a final rule to amend FDA’s established definitions of “intended use” for drugs and devices, the primary consideration in determining whether a product is regulated for a particular use and what regulations apply.

In this final installment of our Health Care Enforcement Review and 2017 Outlook series, we analyze health care enforcement trends gathered from 2016 civil settlements and criminal resolutions of health care fraud and abuse cases. Behind the headlines covering enormous recoveries in 2016, several themes are apparent.

While 2016 marked one of the least productive years in the history of Congress, the same cannot be said of health care enforcement and regulatory agencies. Perhaps motivated by the impending change in administration, these agencies promulgated a number of notable regulations in 2016.

Today, my colleagues Laurence Freedman, Samantha Kingsbury, and Karen Lovitch released the latest in our ongoing series reviewing health care enforcement activities in 2016 and their impacts looking forward to 2017.

In 2016, courts around the country heard cases involving a variety of False Claims Act (FCA) and other enforcement-related matters, and going forward these case law developments are expected to have an impact on both the scope of FCA liability and the means by which FCA liability can be proven at trial. 

Over the past year, clear trends have emerged in FDA’s enforcement activities. Enforcement arising from alleged violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) can take many forms, including FDA advisory actions such as warning letters, adverse inspectional observations that can lead to specific administrative action.

Next Tuesday, January 12th, Mintz and ML Strategies will host the first installment of our three-part series focusing on the 21st Century Cures Act (“Cures Act”).  The Cures Act represents significant legislation that will have overarching implications on medical research, product development, and drug and biologic manufacturing.

Happy New Year! As we kick off 2017, our Health Care Enforcement Defense team brings you its annual review of key government policies, regulations, and enforcement actions in 2016, and the impact these trends are expected to have on enforcement in the year ahead.

On January 12th at 1:00pm EST, my colleague Susan Foster, PhD will present a webinar on Transferring Data from the EU.

Last week, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report analyzing CMS' readiness to implement major parts of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act  of 2015 (MACRA).

Since congressional enactment and presidential signing of the Cures Act into law earlier this month, we have been blogging on discrete regulatory and clinical areas affected by its provisions.

As you have seen in our recent coverage, the 21st Century Cures Act is a major legislative undertaking, and it will have a great impact the medical device industry. Join my Mintz Levin and ML Strategies colleagues Tom Crane, Bethany Hills, and Rodney Whitlock on January 18th for a MassMEDIC webinar, “Impact of the Cures Act on the Medical Device Industry.”

As we noted in our December 9th post, the 21st Century Cures Act (the “Cures Act”) requires FDA to develop a framework and guidance for evaluating real world evidence (“RWE”) in the context of drug regulation to support approvals of new indications for previously approved drugs, and to support or fulfill post-approval study requirements.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has withdrawn its controversial rule implementing the Medicare Part B payment demonstration. The agency stated that after consideration of the comments, it will not move forward with the demo.

On Tuesday, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act (the "Act”) into law. The Act is a massive piece of legislation that has implications for many different aspects of the interconnected medical research, product development, and health care delivery enterprises.

More than two years since issuing the proposed rule, the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued the long-awaited and highly anticipated final rule (the Final Rule) that provides amendments to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) regulatory safe harbors and adds protections for certain payment practices and business arrangements under the beneficiary inducement provisions of the Civil Monetary Penalty Law (CMP).

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century Cures Act (the “Act”) by a vote of 94 to 5.  Spearheaded by Michigan Representative Frank Upton, the bill now heads to President Obama who has promised to sign it. The Act is ambitious, and will impact a wide swath of the U.S. health care system.

A Trump victory was not the only surprise on election night. California’s drug pricing initiative, which would have required state agencies to negotiate drug prices at least as low as those paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was defeated by a wide margin (46% to 54%).

Before we all turn our full attention to the nominations of Representative Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and policy consultant Seema Verma to lead CMS, we need to remember that there are still approximately 45 days remaining in the current administration.

As we reported earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights described a phishing campaign that is attempting to convince recipients of their inclusion in OCR's Phase 2 audit program.