This week my health care colleagues authored an industry trends report highlighting many of the major regulatory issues facing life sciences and health care companies in the coming year. The “Outlook: U.S. Health Care 2021” report includes sections on post-COVID trends and lessons learned, the future of value-based care, the intersection of health care and data, and the evolving environment of health care delivery. While less litigation-focused than our usual posts, there are a number of important changes playing out in our industry of which we should all be aware. Plus, the post-COVID preemption article does reference a PREP Act post authored by yours truly, so there’s always some tie-in to litigation. I hope our faithful readers will take a look at the articles (all listed with links below) for what to expect in health care trends in 2021 – I think you’ll find it’s a great read.

Post-COVID trends and lessons learned:

• COVID-19 fuels federal preemption of state practice-of-medicine laws
• Attack of the SPAC: Success of alternative IPO method hinges on due diligence

Future of value-based care:

• Stark and Anti-Kickback final rules provide clarity and flexibility to value-based care

Intersection of health care and data:

• Information blocking rule establishes new data sharing principles for health care industry
• Compounding is the latest darling of telehealth and Big Tech, but is Silicon Valley prepared for the regulation that comes with it?

Evolving environment of health care delivery:

• Diagnostic test supervision: CMS relaxes rules but also creates ambiguity