By PAUL NATINSKY
Like the rest of the cuts by chainsaw, the 15-percent cap on indirect costs for National Institutes of Health projects is a sharp-edged reduction in spending. Purportedly targeted at reducing waste and inefficiency, the indiscriminate reduction belies that mission.

The most rudimentary of analyses would have proved the approach infeasible. About $9 billion of the NIH’s $35 billion in grants for 2023 were for indirect costs, which include equipment and office space, technology, research security, data processing, biosafety, financial and accounting support, and legal and compliance support. Indirect costs average around 28%, with some over 60%, according to NIH-reported numbers. The costs are negotiated on a project-by-project basis.

The proposed cuts, which remain under legal challenge, would stop many projects in their tracks. Twenty-two states immediately filed suits in federal court after Trump administration rolled out its plan in early February.

“The NIH funding cuts that were peremptorily imposed (and then stopped by the courts) are terrible for the University and even more so for the state of Michigan and for all of our citizens,” said Marianne Udow-Phillips, a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, who has worked in a number of roles during a long career in health policy in Michigan.

The [Read More]

By PATRICIA CALLAHAN

This story first appeared in ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.

Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica.

In an aborted plan to roll out the news, the agency would have emphasized the importance of vaccinating people against the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that has spread to 19 states, the records show.

A CDC spokesperson told ProPublica in a written statement that the agency decided against releasing the assessment “because it does not say anything that the public doesn’t already know.” She added that the CDC continues to recommend vaccines as “the best way to protect against measles.”

But what the nation’s top public health agency said next shows a shift in its long-standing messaging about vaccines, a sign that it may be falling in line under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines:

“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” the statement said, echoing a line from a column Kennedy wrote for the Fox News website. [Read More]

By JESSE ADAM MARKOS, ESQ.
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

Michigan is currently facing a shortage of physicians, especially in the state’s many rural and underserved areas.  In response, efforts are being made to remove barriers to entry for high-quality providers, like the often-confusing licensing process across state lines.  More specifically, the Michigan Legislature has recently taken action to renew Michigan’s standing as part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (“ILMC”) and to ensure that it can remain within the compact permanently.  The ILMC streamlines the licensing process for physicians seeking to practice across state lines and has proven successful in increasing access to care.  However, Michigan’s participation in the compact is currently set to expire March 28, 2025 and lawmakers must move quickly before it expires.

Michigan first joined the ILMC in 2018 when Governor Snyder signed Public Act 524 of 2018 and Public Act 563 of 2018, making Michigan the 25^th state to join compact.  Currently, 35 states participate as members.  The ILMC allows physicians who are licensed in other member states the ability to get licensed easier in Michigan based on having a compact license.  It also allows Michigan physicians to get licensed easier in other member states.

Pursuant to the ILMC, a licensed physician in Michigan [Read More]

By NICOLETTE TABER
Dickinson Wright

On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (“the Departments”) issued their 2024 Report to Congress on the enforcement and implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”). This regularly required report follows the Departments’ Final Rules issued in September 2024. (For more information on the September 2024 Final Rules, click here to read my previous article on this topic).

The 142-page report to Congress highlights the Departments’ efforts to strengthen and enforce the protections of MHPAEA, the Departments’ efforts to raise awareness of MHPAEA by working with federal and state partners, and areas of improvement for plans and issuers. Notably, the report reviews the enforcement efforts performed by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) and their impact on the Departments’ efforts to effectuate mental health parity.

EBSA has primary enforcement jurisdiction over MHPAEA for approximately 2.6 million private, employment-based group health plans covering roughly 136 million Americans. Nearly 25 percent of its enforcement program focuses on MHPAEA nonquantitative treatment limitations (“NQTL”). CMS has enforcement authority over approximately 91 thousand non-federal governmental plans [Read More]

Possible Federal Cuts To Medicaid, Education Always On Flood’s Mind

State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks and State Budget Office Director Jen Flood said they have been watching the federal government “daily” to see if any changes could hit what the state expects in their 2026 budget.

Speaking at an Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) event, Flood said she has seen proposed federal cuts to nearly $900 million in Medicaid funding and a possible 10 percent removal from education in federal grant funding because of the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.

“I can say Medicaid is on my mind every day right now. Michigan is one of the states that actually draws down more federally than a lot of others,” Flood said.

She said the federal government was looking to wrap up reconciliation before Easter, but she didn’t know if or when it would happen.

“Hopefully these changes are out away, so we have some time to figure out how it would impact the state, but we’ve got to start preparing for different scenarios,” she said.

Flood said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s current budget still stood because there were no federal changes that had been passed federally. If that happened, it would cause a “recalibration” of the budget, even if it [Read More]

By PAUL NATINSKY

As Robert F. Kennedy eases into the Health and Human Services director’s chair, his flashpoints and shortcomings are widely publicized, but lightly opposed.

Kennedy’s skeptical views on vaccine effectiveness and safety, fondness for fringe conspiracy theories and likely embrace of deep Medicaid cuts have the healthcare community and many policymakers concerned about the new secretary’s public health stewardship.

Kennedy’s lack of administrative acumen looms large as he assumes control over a department that employs 80,000 and oversees a $3 trillion annual expenditure representing 22.8% of the U.S. federal budget.

Kennedy lacks managerial experience at organizations even a small fraction of that size. HHS is responsible for the care of 140 million Americans. That number is largely made up of the country’s most vulnerable citizens, including people too poor to afford to buy health insurance, those whose employers don’t offer coverage, and people over age 65 or who have disabilities.

Yet, despite these glaring warning signs, the healthcare community is oddly silent or seemingly eerily reassured.

Nationally, the online news outlet Politico could round up only a handful of healthcare insiders to comment under a veil of anonymity. Only the American Public Health Association spoke on record.

“They think he’s the wrong person for the job,” Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive [Read More]

By PHIL GALEWITZ

Medicaid is under threat — again.

Republicans, who narrowly control Congress, are pushing proposals that could sharply cut funding to the government health insurance program for poor and disabled Americans, as a way to finance President Donald Trump’s agenda for tax cuts and border security.

Democrats, hoping to block the GOP’s plans and preserve Medicaid funding, are rallying support from hospitals, governors, and consumer advocates.

At stake is coverage for roughly 79 million people enrolled in Medicaid and its related Children’s Health Insurance Program. So, too, is the financial health of thousands of hospitals and community health centers — and a huge revenue source to all states.

On Feb. 13, the House Budget Committee voted to seek at least $880 billion in mandatory spending cuts on programs overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That committee oversees Medicaid, which is expected to bear much of the cuts.

Senate Republicans, working on their own plan, have not proposed similar deep cuts. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Finance Committee’s top Democrat, said he expects “an effort to keep the Medicaid cuts hidden behind the curtain, but they’re going to come sooner or later.”

Since Trump took office, Republicans in Washington have discussed making changes to Medicaid, particularly by requiring [Read More]

By AMY MAXMEN

Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas. Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus.

Since the outbreak emerged three weeks ago, the Texas health department has confirmed 90 cases with 16 hospitalizations, as of Feb. 21. Most of those infected are under age 18. Officials suspect that nine additional measles cases reported in New Mexico, across the border from the epicenter of the Texas outbreak in Gaines County, are linked to the Texas outbreak. Ongoing investigations seek to confirm that connection.

Health officials worry they’re missing cases. Undetected infections bode poorly for communities because doctors and health officials can’t contain transmission if they can’t identify who is infected.

“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer for The Immunization Partnership in Houston, a nonprofit that advocates for vaccine access. “I think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

An unknown number of parents may not be taking sick children to clinics where they could be tested, said Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas. “If your kids are responding to fever reducers and [Read More]

By STEPHEN SHAVER
Consultant, Wachler & Associates PC

Nearly every third-party payor of claims for healthcare services – Medicare, Medicaid plans, commercial insurers, etc. – will at some point request that the billing provider submit copies of the documentation and medical records that support the services billed. In these circumstances, an ounce of prevention is often worth a pound of cure. The payor will often make decisions regarding coverage and overpayment allegations based on the records submitted by the provider. The provider can proactively address or even prevent many disputes by careful attention to their response to the medical records request.

First, a provider should be aware of what entity issued the request, what specific records it has requested, and for what purpose. For example, a Medicare Unified Program Integrity Contractor (“UPIC”) is charged with investigating allegations of fraud within the Medicare program and may conduct a records review differently from other Medicare contractors. The Special Investigation (“SI”) unit or team at many commercial insurers serves much the same function. The provider is generally required to comply with the request for records, whether by law, regulation, or contractual agreement. It is, therefore, important to carefully review the record request and provide documentation that is responsive. Where the request [Read More]

By ERICA ERMAN
Dickinson Wright

Can you remember healthcare security 20+ years ago? It seems like a different world from now. Believe it or not, the HIPAA Security Rule has barely changed since it was first enacted in 2003[1]and has been long overdue for a significant remodel. Read on for highlights of the proposed new Security Rule and action items.

A Very Brief HIPAA History

 As a quick background, the HIPAA Security Rule was first penned in large part to create minimum security standards for electronic protected health information (ePHI) and to protect patients’ rights over their healthcare data. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009 added the now well-known Breach Notification Rule as well as other significant changes in an effort to protect patient information. As healthcare professionals well know, much of the onus of protecting that information has fallen on HIPAA-covered entities and providers.

Questions, Concerns, Complaints – Comment Period Is Open

On January 6, 2025, the proposed new HIPAA Security Rule was added to the Federal Register. For any of our readers interested in filing comments to the proposed rule, please note that the comment period is open until March 7, 2025 (60 days after the proposed rule was [Read More]

Richardville Urges Leadership, Bi-Partisan Cooperation To Address ‘Mental Health Crisis’

Back in 2014, then-Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville put together a $1.5 billion road funding plan with higher fuel taxes, among other things. He said the incentive at the time was what he was hearing in his district.

“I think the most common phrase I’m hearing from back home is ‘just fix the roads. In fact, they say ’just fix the damn roads,” Richardville is quoted in an MLive article as saying.

Richardville was before his time in coining that catchphrase. His counterpart in the Senate at the time, Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer, used the slogan during her gubernatorial campaign with success.

But like Whitmer, Richardville wasn’t able to get any traction on this plan. Gov. Rick Snyder and House Speaker Jase Bolger gave it a frosty response and the issue carried over into the next term.

Now, with House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) putting out a revamped proposal using existing revenue and now-Gov. Whitmer slated to come out as soon as Monday with a road funding plan that she has said will be a mix of new revenue and cuts, Richardville feels bipartisanship may be back in the air.

And that’s what brings the former Senator from Monroe back to Lansing. Richardville was the guest on [Read More]

By STEPHANIE ARMOUR

Former President Donald Trump’s return to the White House will likely bring changes that scale back the nation’s public health insurance programs — increasing the uninsured rate, while imposing new barriers to abortion and other reproductive care.

The reverberations will be felt far beyond Washington, D.C., and could include an erosion of the Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections, the imposition of work requirements in Medicaid and funding cuts to the safety net insurance, and challenges to federal agencies that safeguard public health. Abortion restrictions may tighten nationwide with a possible effort to restrict the mailing of abortion medications.

And with the elevation of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Trump’s inner circle of advisers, public health interventions with rigorous scientific backing — whether fluoridating public water supplies or inoculating children — could come under fire.

Trump’s return will give a far broader platform to skeptics and critics of federal health programs and actions. Worst case, public health authorities worry, the U.S. could see increases in preventable illnesses; a weakening of public confidence in established science; and debunked notions — such as a link between vaccines and autism — adopted as policy. Trump said in an NBC News interview on Nov. 3 that he would “make a [Read More]

This year, Michigan hospitals will continue pushing legislators to ban drug manufacturers from creating restrictions and limited-access conditions around their “340B Drug” products, which they say will preserve discounted drug access for rural hospitals.

The federal 340B Drug Pricing Program was established in 1993. According to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, drug manufacturers participating in the Medicaid insurance program must supply outpatient drugs to 340B facilities at “significantly reduced prices.” Becoming a 340B facility depends on the number of Medicaid recipients and considerably “underserved” individuals that a hospital serves.

In a recent interview with MIRS, Laura Appel – the Michigan Health and Hospital Association’s executive vice president – said 87 hospitals in the state were 340B hospitals at the time.

She spoke to MIRS while the Senate was wrapping up its overnight, 29-hour Senate session. However, as she observed the Capitol from her office window, she admitted that one of the biggest bills MHA most wanted to be passed in the 2023-24 term was dead.

Right now, states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri outlaw drugmakers in their state from putting up “340B Contract Pharmacy Restrictions.” On Dec. 13, the Senate passed a bill 30-5 – with three senators not voting – prohibiting manufacturers from setting up guardrails in their 340B contracts.

The [Read More]

Lansing Lines is presented in cooperation with MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

Whitmer Signs Maternal Health Package, Pharmacist Birth Control Bills, Other Insurance Changes

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed 16 bills this month, many surrounding women’s reproductive health care, including two that let pharmacists prescribe birth control, a nine-bill package putting pregnancy on Medicaid, and two on birthing centers and doulas.

Whitmer was slated to sign HB 5435 and HB 5436 in Flint today, but the event was canceled because of the snow and freezing weather. Whitmer posted the signing on social media, where she thanked Reps. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit) and Kara Hope (D-Holt) for sponsoring the bills.

“Today, I’m signing commonsense bills to further protect everyone’s fundamental freedom to make their own decisions about their own body,” Whitmer said. “These bills will save women time and money so they can access the birth control they need and cut unnecessary red tape that stands between people and their health care.”

The bills would not only allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control, but would also require insurance to cover birth control, as well.

The bills passed along party lines and Republicans voiced their opposition to the bills, opening the guidelines to allow prescriptions regardless of age.

Planned Parenthood of Michigan applauded the passage of the two bills.

“As [Read More]

By ROLF LOWE
Wachler & Associates

On Dec. 18, 2024, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced that Michigan, along with New York, Oklahoma and South Carolina were selected to participate in the Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) Model. The IBH Model is another step forward by CMS in integrating health care services and improving outcomes for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The IBH Model was announced in January of 2024 with CMS providing funding opportunities for state Medicaid agencies willing to participate in the IBH Model. The Implementation of the IBH Model started on January 1, 2025, and is scheduled to be in effect for eight years.

The IBH Model in Michigan is being implemented in designated sub-state geographic service areas. The provider participants in the in the IBH Model are specialty behavioral practices, community mental health centers, opioid treatment programs and public or private practices where individuals can receive outpatient mental health or Substance Use Disorder (SUD) services or both. The IBH Model refers to the providers as practice participants. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) intends to implement the IBH Model in both urban and rural areas. Providers being selected to become practice participants in the IBH Model are those that [Read More]

By GLENN S. RICHARDS & LEE G. PETRO
Dickinson Wright

Introduction

On December 13, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced significant updates to its Mapping Broadband Health in America platform. This enhanced tool, now incorporating a range of new health metrics, aims to provide deeper insights into the connection between expanding broadband connectivity and critical health outcomes, with a particular focus on maternal health.

Background

The FCC administers two healthcare subsidy programs under its Universal Service Fund: the Rural Health Care (RHC) program and the COVID-19 Telehealth program. The RHC program provides funding to eligible health care providers to support the cost of broadband and telecommunications services that enable telehealth and telemedicine. The COVID-19 Telehealth program was created during the pandemic to provide funding to eligible health care providers to purchase telecommunications services, information services, and connected devices to provide connected care services to patients in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to these efforts, the FCC’s Mapping Broadband Health in America platform was launched to visualize and analyze the relationship between broadband access and chronic diseases. The platform has evolved to address various public health challenges, including opioid abuse and maternal health. The latest update significantly expands the platform’s capabilities, making it a valuable [Read More]

Michigan’s public mental health plans filed a lawsuit accusing the state’s Department of Health and Human Services of imposing unnegotiated contract terms and threatening to cut off funding.

The plans, known as prepaid inpatient health plans argued DHHS’ actions violate state law and jeopardize mental health and substance use disorder services for thousands of residents.

“This isn’t just a contract dispute – it’s about ensuring the stability of behavioral health services that families across the state rely on every day,” said Robert Sheehan, chief executive officer of Community Mental Health Association of Michigan.

The six-count complaint, filed on behalf of NorthCare Network Mental Health Care Entity and Northern Michigan Regional Entity in the Court of Claims, alleges in part violation of the Headlee Amendment, and the PIHPs seek a writ compelling the state to continue providing Medicaid and general funds to the PIHPs as well as retraction of any communications and actions “taken to terminate the relationship between DHHS and plaintiffs.”

The plaintiffs, who want a preliminary injunction prohibiting DHHS from withholding substance abuse disorder health home services funding, also want a hearing to dispute DHHS’ decision to terminate contracts and they seek unspecified damages.

DHHS said in a late statement that “the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is [Read More]

By ANNIE WALDMAN

This story was originally published Nov. 19, by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.

For years, it was a mystery: Seemingly out of the blue, therapists would feel like they’d tripped some invisible wire and become a target of UnitedHealth Group.

A company representative with the Orwellian title “care advocate” would call and grill them about why they’d seen a patient twice a week or weekly for six months.

In case after case, United would refuse to cover care, leaving patients to pay out-of-pocket or go without it. The severity of their issues seemed not to matter.

Around 2016, government officials began to pry open United’s black box. They found that the nation’s largest health insurance conglomerate had been using algorithms to identify providers it determined were giving too much therapy and patients it believed were receiving too much; then, the company scrutinized their cases and cut off reimbursements.

By the end of 2021, United’s algorithm program had been deemed illegal in three states.

But that has not stopped the company from continuing to police mental health care with arbitrary thresholds and cost-driven targets, ProPublica found, after reviewing what is effectively the company’s internal playbook for limiting and cutting therapy expenses. The insurer’s strategies are [Read More]

 By JENNI COLAGIOVANNI
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) resulted in the waiver of certain pre-pandemic restrictions to expand Medicare coverage of telehealth services and increase access to care for Medicare patients.  More than a year and a half after the end of the PHE, several of these continuing telehealth flexibilities are set to expire on December 31, 2024, returning Medicare coverage of some telehealth services back to their pre-pandemic requirements.

Background: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicare coverage of telehealth services was primarily limited to patients located in rural areas and restricted to certain provider types and services. Patients were generally required to travel to approved clinical sites to engage in telehealth services from providers in other locations. Early in the pandemic, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) broadened the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services’ waiver authority under section 1135 of the Social Security Act.  Pursuant to this broadened authority, CMS waived the requirements of section 1834(m)(4)(E) of the Act and 42 CFR § 410.78 that specified the types of “distant site” practitioners that could bill Medicare for telehealth services to include all practitioners eligible to bill Medicare for their professional [Read More]

By KIMBERLY J. RUPPEL
Dickinson Wright

As is the case in many industry sectors, the end of the year brings us to wonder what is in store for healthcare in 2025. Although the future is anyone’s guess, the following three areas of healthcare are most likely to experience robust activity.

1. Non-Compete Litigation

Non-compete provisions are designed to prohibit an employed or contracted healthcare provider from competing against the contracting entity by working for or starting a competing business within a particular geographic area for some time. In April 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) promulgated a rule (the “Rule”) generally prohibiting non-compete clauses in employment agreements except for certain “Senior Executives” with policy-making authority who were compensated greater than $151,164 per year. There was also an exception for non-compete agreements entered into as part of a sale of a business. That Rule was to become effective September 4, 2024. However, a number of lawsuits were filed seeking to prevent its application.

• Fifth Circuit Appeal Ryan

In this case, the plaintiffs argued the FTC exceeded its statutory authority in promulgating the Rule and asked the court to declare the Rule illegal, and the court agreed. As a result, the court determined the Rule was not enforceable nationwide. The FTC [Read More]

Bill To Relax Public Employee Health Insurance Moves

Public employee unions would have more ability to collectively bargain their members’ health insurance costs under legislation that moved early last month in the Senate on a party-line vote and, later in the day, in the House.

In response to local government employees and teachers getting fed up with soaring health insurance costs, Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) sponsored bills (introduced before the hunting break) that give some flexibility to what’s known as the “80/20” and “hard cap” options.

The revamped versions of SB 1129 and SB 1130 address the same issue as bills that moved out of a House committee last week, but are not the same.

“By taking swift action on this critical issue, the legislators have taken a critical step in reigning in skyrocketing health care costs for Michigan teachers and school support staff, which can keep the best and brightest educators working in our local schools and helping our students learn,” said Michigan Education Association President and CEO Chandra Madafferi.

“Our students deserve to have great educators in every school, and we can only do that by allowing school districts to offer competitive wages and benefits that can keep talented educators in the profession.”

Meanwhile, the House passed HB 6058 , sponsored by [Read More]

By ARTHUR ALLEN

Many scientists at the federal health agencies await the second Donald Trump administration with dread as well as uncertainty over how the president-elect will reconcile starkly different philosophies among the leaders of his team.

Trump announced Thursday he’ll nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, after saying during his campaign he’d let the anti-vaccine activist “go wild” on medicines, food, and health.

Should Kennedy win Senate confirmation, his critics say a radical antiestablishment medical movement with roots in past centuries would take power, threatening the achievements of a science-based public health order painstakingly built since World War II.

Trump said in a post on the social platform X that “Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” echoing Kennedy’s complaints about the medical establishment. The former Democratic presidential candidate will “end the Chronic Disease epidemic” and “Make American Great and Healthy Again!” Trump wrote.

Vaccine makers’ stocks dipped Thursday afternoon amid news reports ahead of Trump’s RFK announcement.

If Kennedy makes good on his vision for transforming public health, childhood vaccine mandates could wither. New vaccines might never win approval, even as [Read More]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is coming into the nomination process in an unusual position, with a long list of his own policy priorities separate from the president-elect’s, and a public promise by Trump to let him “go wild” on his ideas.

Céline Gounder, the editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News and a CBS News medical contributor, answers questions below about the role Kennedy has been tapped to take on and some of the ideas in the sweeping “Make America Healthy Again” platform he may try to push through.

Q: What is the role of the Department of Health and Human Services, and how much power does the HHS secretary have over its work?

A: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services comprises several agencies and offices including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Office of the Surgeon General, and much more.

There is a big difference between political appointees and career civil servants. Political appointees set strategic priorities and align their department or agency’s policies with the current administration’s objectives. Civil servants have the institutional [Read More]

By JESSE ADAM MARKOS, ESQ.
Wachler & Associates, PC

 The National Practitioner Data Bank (Data Bank) published an article in a recent version of their in-house publication, NPDB Insights, that reinforces the importance of exercising caution before resigning from a hospital.  For those on staff or employed by a hospital, a resignation may at first glance appear to be the best path forward when their relationship with that hospital has deteriorated.  However, that resignation will often create more problems than it resolves if it triggers a report to the Data Bank because the resignation occurred during an ongoing investigation by the Hospital.  And since a Data Bank report can have significant professional and economic ramifications, it is important for physicians to understand how to appropriately disengage from a hospital and avoid a Data Bank report when possible.

By way of background, the Data Bank is an alert system that collects and discloses certain adverse information about physicians and other health care providers.  An adverse report to the Data Bank can significantly impact a physician’s reputation and career.  State licensing authorities, hospitals and other health care entities, and professional societies search the Data Bank when investigating qualifications.  A response that contains an adverse report can act as a permanent [Read More]

By KATHLEEN WALKER
Dickinson Wright

On November 1, Texas hospitals faced a new requirement under an Executive Order issued by Governor Greg Abbott on August 8, 2024 (Order), requiring them to document medical costs related to the care of individuals without legal immigration status. Governor Abbott provided the following statement explaining the reasoning behind his Order:

“Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state,” said Governor Abbott. “Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants. That is why today I issued an Executive Order requiring the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect and report healthcare costs for illegal immigrants in our state. Texas will hold the Biden-Harris Administration accountable for the consequences of their open border policies, and we will fight to ensure that they pay back Texas for their costly and dangerous policies.”

Under the Order, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) must collect data on the use of Texas acute care hospitals for inpatient and emergency care for “illegal immigrants.” Beginning November 1, covered hospitals and designated providers must collect this data and [Read More]