This week, the FTC ordered Cerebral to pay a $7 million fine, accusing the company of mishandling users’ sensitive health data and misleading consumers about cancellation policies. Experts agree that other virtual healthcare providers need to work on their legal and compliance strategies in order to avoid a similar fate.
The Federal Trade Commission only gets notified when a merger/acquisition deal value is above $100-$110 million, so smaller deals nonetheless lead to a slow consolidation of the market. In conference remarks, FTC Chair Lina Khan outlined the ways in which the agency is trying to counter this phenomenon.
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
GoodRx failed to notify users that it sold their personal health information to Google, Facebook and other tech companies, the FTC claimed. The agency filed an order that prohibits GoodRx from sharing its users' data with third parties for advertising purposes and requires the company to pay a $1.5 million penalty. GoodRx agreed to pay the settlement but did not admit to wrongdoing.
This is the third complaint the FTC filed against proposed hospital mergers so far this year.
To get approval for the deal, Medtronic agreed to sell an Intersect subsidiary to soothe the FTC's concerns.
The agency reminded health apps and wearables companies that they must disclose any breach of users’ health information, even if they are not a HIPAA covered entity. Companies that fail to disclose a breach could face thousands of dollars per day in fines.
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
The FTC sued to block the merger between the two New Jersey-based health systems and won a preliminary injunction earlier this month. But the providers believe that the merger would not raise prices or stifle competition — like the FTC alleges it would — and have filed an appeal.
The Federal Trade Commission is no longer opposing the proposed merger between Einstein Healthcare Network and Jefferson Health. Nearly three years after it was first announced, the deal can now move forward uncontested and will result in an 18-hospital system.
Two UnitedHealthcare policies have raised several concerns among providers, including that they may display anti-competitive behavior and could block patient access to certain healthcare services. The American Hospital Association is asking the FTC and CMS to review and potentially block these policies.
Flo, a popular period-tracking app, reached a settlement with the FTC over allegations that it misled users about how their health information would be shared. As part of the settlement, the startup is required to conduct an independent review of its privacy practices.
We will highlight Build My Health's revenue practice management tools, which could help physician practices add up to $250,000 to their practices.
Video conferencing company Zoom reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that the company used end-to-end encryption in its video calls, when it reportedly used a lower level of security.
In a joint statement, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and FTC Chairman Joseph Simons said they would look into anticompetitive practices like preventing biosimilar makers from obtaining product samples and misleading communications about biosimilars' safety and efficacy.
The Federal Trade Commission and its U.K. counterpart concluded that Roche would not likely have an incentive to delay or discontinue development of Spark's hemophilia A gene therapy. Roche markets a monoclonal antibody for the same disease.
Bristol-Myers Squibb said Celgene would sell the drug, Otezla (apremilast), to Amgen. The pharmaceutical company had said it would seek a divestment of the drug to satisfy competition concerns from the FTC.
Surescripts says that instead of using its own National Provider Identification (NPI) number, Pillpack fraudulently used NPIs that was associated with random healthcare providers.