Insights

Washington – August 20, 2026: The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 57 of the firm's attorneys in its 2027 edition, a testament to the firm's deep bench of legal talent across practices and offices nationwide. In addition, 29 attorneys have been named to the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® list, recognizing outstanding attorneys earlier in their careers. 

Chicago – August 17, 2026: Martin J. Bishop, co-chair of Crowell’s Health Care Group and a member of the firm’s Management Board, has been named to Crain’s Chicago Business’ 2026 list of Notable Leaders in Accounting, Consulting, & Law. The award honors leading Chicago attorneys, accountants, and consultants who have demonstrated significant professional leadership, industry impact, mentorship, and community involvement. 

Washington – August 13, 2026: Crowell & Moring partners Jeffrey Gleason, Andrew Avsec, and Rochelle-Leigh (Shelley) Rosenberg have been named to BTI Consulting Group’s 2026 Client Service All-Stars list, which recognizes attorneys for exceptional client service. This list is based on independent research and feedback from more than 16,000 corporate counsel and other legal leaders.  

Between 2021 and 2025, Medicaid spending on ABA therapy grew six times faster than the number of children who received services, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of Medicaid expenditure, according to CMS. On August 4, 2026, CMS released a toolkit to help state Medicaid and CHIP agencies strengthen their programs and limit fraud, waste, and abuse tied to increased demand for ABA therapy. In 2025, Medicaid spent about $10 billion on ABA and related therapy services for children with ASD — a dramatic increase from the $2 billion spent in 2021. 

Over the past several years, the biopharmaceutical industry has embraced artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in near lockstep with the pace of AI/ML innovations. Today, industry leaders are using AI/ML to, among other things: discover and assess biological pathways, target chemical structures and sequences; design proteins; model pre-clinical and clinical trials; recruit and screen potential patient populations; evaluate clinical trial results and biomarker data; prepare regulatory filings; and manage supply chains. Deployment of new AI/ML models promises extraordinary advances in pharmaceutical development. However, as with any technological and scientific advances, the use of AI/ML also poses substantial legal risks that life sciences companies need to consider and proactively manage. 

On September 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued “Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2026-03” to clarify compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTL). Under the 2013 final rule implementing MHPAEA, health plans and issuers must use comparable processes, strategies, evidentiary standards, or other factors when applying NQTLs and they cannot apply such methods more stringently to benefits for mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) compared to benefits for general medical and surgical care. While the bulletin doesn’t break much new ground on compliance, it does reaffirm existing enforcement priorities and expectations. 

Join us for an interactive and educational event tailored for biotech leaders seeking to ensure security compliance while leveraging the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS). This session will dive into the critical elements of designing secure, scalable, and compliant systems for biotech operations, from research and development to clinical trials and beyond.

The landscape of AI governance and regulation is shifting. Following the release of the White House’s “America’s AI Action Plan” in July 2025 and the President’s signing of related Executive Orders, the White House has emphasized (at least rhetorically) a preference for innovation, adoption, and deregulation. But that does not tell the entire story. The Administration remains committed to exercising a heavy hand in AI, including by banning the U.S. government’s procurement of so-called “woke AI,” intervening in the development of data centers and the export of the AI technology stack, imposing an export fee for certain semiconductors to China, and assuming a stake in a U.S. semiconductor company. State legislatures are also racing to implement their own regulations, particularly around AI’s use in critical areas, such as healthcare, labor and employment, and data privacy. The many sources of regulation raise the specter of a fragmented compliance environment for businesses. This webinar will delve into the Administration’s AI strategy, going beyond the headlines to analyze:

Host Megan Beaver talks to Alex Lucas and Jason Mayer about the No Surprises Act, a 2021 law designed to protect patients from unexpected medical bills, the federal independent dispute resolution process it created, the challenges that have plagued that process, and the new federal rule issued on June 4, 2026. The episode also covers the growing wave of enforcement litigation and what’s on the horizon for IDR.

This podcast episode features the following speakers:

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