In the fight against COVID-19, healthcare innovation has been unprecedented. New technology, protocols, and laws have changed the way healthcare functions. However, physician compensation remains complex, burdensome, and often contentious. Physician compensation has always invited compliance risks, operational bottlenecks, and administrative burdens, but now, innovative hospitals are simplifying the process with automation.
When people hear the phrase “regulatory compliance”, they often think about the finance, banking, or tech industry – not the business of loose and pressed leaves. In fact, the tea industry has been on the rise and is projected to reach almost $69 billion by 2027. Within that market, the green tea segment is the highest growth contributor with an estimated $16 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach almost $26 billion by 2027. This leafy market comes with its own set of compliance issues and a potential for growth this year.
Despite the technology and data collection sectors rapidly growing over the past few decades, laws protecting consumers in these spaces have barely expanded, if at all. The first, and only, comprehensive federal data privacy regulation was passed in 1974, roughly ten years before the first Mac computer was invented. Since then, we’ve seen a few more federal laws put in place to protect consumer data and even some states take actions into their own hands, but we have yet to see another comprehensive law from the federal government. This begs the question, will the federal government finally enact new data privacy laws for the country as a whole to adhere to, or will they continue to let states take the reins forcing companies to comply with multiple laws at once?
Net neutrality (or network neutrality) is the idea that internet service providers (ISPs), such as Verizon or Comcast, should not be able to block or prioritize different sorts of data. The Ninth Circuit, which is comprised of Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Washington state, is the largest Court of Appeals in the United States both in population and land mass. Recently, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a case that net neutrality requirements applied to internet service providers in those states. This decision put to test the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia’s 2019 decision of Mozilla v. FCC, which ruled that states would be able to create regulations regarding net neutrality.
When you think of the most valuable commodity in the world today, you might automatically think of money, however, personal data has now become one of the most valuable forms of currency today. The vast amounts of personal data available have made it increasingly valuable to companies who know how to use it to their advantage. The means of receiving this data are sometimes questionable, and up until recently, often unregulated, leading to companies using unethical methods to get their hands on this valuable data. The US is starting to follow the rest of the world and develop extensive data privacy laws that cover more than just medical information to ensure that consumers are protected, but there’s still lots of disagreements surrounding how and what should be protected in the US.
On December 6, 2021, the White House issued a consolidated federal strategy regarding fighting corruption that threatens national security. The memorandum directed a number of federal departments to conduct interagency reviews that allowed them to come together and proceed with a joint strategy to combat corruption in the United States.
The 2022 Beijing Olympics will reach millions of people around the world. Despite the Games quickly approaching, the most prominent Olympic sponsors have remained silent about the human rights violations in China. The United States announced the decision to diplomatically boycott the games but athletes will compete.
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that states could not create onerous requirements that interfered with a patient’s right to an abortion up to the point of viability of the fetus, which was around 24 weeks. Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey established and protected patients’ rights to privacy and healthcare autonomy in reproductive health. However, as I previously explained in Abort Texas’ New Abortion Law, Texas’ new law erodes that decision. On January 20, 2022, the Supreme Court was presented with the opportunity to address this issue. The Court denied Texas abortion clinics’ request to immediately return to litigation over the Court’s acceptance of Texas’ six-week abortion law. However, the threat to reproductive health is not isolated to Texas; other states have enacted similar laws.
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are dominating the headlines with record-breaking profits and dismissals of antitrust lawsuits; however, that may not last long with new antitrust bills gaining traction in Congress. In fact, when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16 – 6 to advance a major antitrust bill on January 20, 2022, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, the tech companies stock prices dipped. Currently, with bipartisan support, the bill is on a path to pass the Senate.
Although lawmakers must disclose their trades to the public, some members of Congress believe more stringent regulations are necessary to limit members’ trading activity. Specifically, Senator Jon Ossoff (D., Georgia) has become a leading voice, planning to introduce legislation that would compel members of Congress to put their assets in a blind trust. Moreover, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has been pushing for stricter ethics rules for Federal officers amidst several resignations of Fed bank officers.