From Arkansas' attorney general filing a lawsuit against Optum Rx and Express Scripts to Sutter Health beating a whistleblower's double-billing allegations, here are 10 recent healthcare industry lawsuits, settlements and legal developments Becker's has reported since June 17:
1. Houston-based Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine and Surgical Associates of Texas jointly agreed to pay $15 million to resolve claims they billed for concurrent heart surgeries that violated CMS teaching physician and informed consent regulations.
2. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers Optum Rx and Express Scripts for their alleged role in enabling the opioid epidemic in the state.
3. The Supreme Court agreed to assess the constitutionality of Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for people younger than 18.
4. The Supreme Court declined to hear Home Depot's challenge to a $2.67 billion settlement with Blue Cross Blue Shield companies, ending a legal saga over alleged anticompetitive behavior that dates back to 2012.
5. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept the ACA preventive care mandate in place for now but raised questions about its constitutionality.
6. Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health beat a whistleblower's lawsuit alleging that the health system owed $519 million for double-billing expensive operating room services without documentation.
7. A federal judge in Texas ruled that HHS' guidance prohibiting the use of third-party online tracking technologies on hospitals' public-facing web pages is unlawful.
8. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health called off its planned $320 million acquisition of two North Carolina hospitals from Community Health Systems after an appellate court granted the Federal Trade Commission an emergency injunction blocking the deal.
9. Adventist Health Hanford (Calif.) reached a settlement with the state of California to pay $10,000 in civil penalties to resolve violations related to unauthorized protected health information disclosure.
10. A federal lawsuit from UnitedHealth Group was dismissed against two former executives, which alleged they stole and used confidential company information to create their own competing product for diabetes management.