Lawmakers Still Chewing On Dental Compact Bill
Michigan would join an interstate compact allowing out-of-state dentists and dental hygienists to practice in Michigan under legislation still receiving work in a House committee.
Rep. Parker Fairbairn (R-Harbor Springs)‘s HB 4935 would enter Michigan into the Council of State Governments (CSG) Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact. If adopted, Michigan would join Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Washington, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia and Maine in the agreement.
The bill moved out of the House Health Policy Committee without no votes and is now in the House Rules Committee, where it’s getting a second opinion.
Under the compact, dentists and dental hygienists would be able to streamline the process to practice in the state. Instead of applying for a full Michigan license, they would apply for a “compact privilege” to work in the state while maintaining their primary license elsewhere.
Bill Sullivan, the vice president of professional relations at the Michigan Dental Association in Okemos, said that entering the compact would allow more qualified professionals to practice in Michigan.
“This is to help those who want to move to Michigan without the bureaucratic process to get a license when they already have one,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said that while the compact would not require taking additional Michigan licensing exams, dentists and hygienists would still be required to follow Michigan’s code and safety requirements and pass the national dental exam.
The Michigan Dental Hygienists Association has been the leading force behind the agreement. They see the agreement benefiting Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, where residents have “little to no access to dental care,” according to Nealie Andrews, the legislative director at Acuitas, a government relations and lobbying firm.
Andrews emphasized that the compact would help address the state’s workforce shortages, particularly in health care, by closing critical gaps.
She said some of the state’s largest health care stakeholders, including Delta Dental and the Michigan Oral Health Council, have been advocating for more ways to fill staffing needs within their organizations.
The legislation, which would enter the state into the compact, has received significant pushback from dentists and community members concerned about the lack of hands-on clinical tests in Michigan before out-of-state dentists treat patients.
Dental hygienist Lisa Darrow said the compact opens the door for dental professionals from other states and countries, where they may have lower standards, to practice in Michigan.
For that reason, Dr. Edward Sarkisian, a Michigan licensed dentist for more than 46 years, said HB 4935 would significantly lower the standards for dental practice in Michigan and increase costs for Michigan and licensees. The compact
He said the bill allows people to get their licenses and open practice paths that do not require clinical hands-only examinations, as is required for 48 states. Several states require residency where hand skills are observed, he said.
“This bill significantly limits the authority of our state dental board to independently investigate and discipline practitioners,” Sarkisian said. “We are relinquishing this to an unknown Compact Commission.”
He also said withdrawal from the compact would require legislative action.
House Rules Committee Chair Bill G. Schuette (R-Midland) said he is still meeting with relevant stakeholders on all sides about the bill and trying to work out an agreeable version of the bill. The House is not in session again until mid-April and will not come up before then.
Emily Cardone, a public relations executive with 10 to 1 PR, said that several lawmakers sponsoring the bill have been meeting with stakeholders, indicating potential movement on a separate compact that would require extra clinical testing.
House and Senate Make a Deal, Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Will Happen
In a cross-chamber deal ahead of spring break, House Republicans moved a local development bill today by Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) with the expectation that the Senate would return the favor the next week by taking up by Rep. Rylee Linting (R-Wyandotte)‘s physician licensure legislation before a looming deadline.
This deal is especially notable as both represent swing seats less than seven months from the November election. Linting will face a rematch against former Rep. Jaime Churches, who she defeated in 2024 to earn the seat.
“We did it again,” said Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township). “That’s why people call me the best dealmaker here in Lansing, and when you have Rep. Linting working under legislation, you’re going to get over the finish line.”
Unless legislative action is taken, Michigan will lose its place in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) on March 28—a multi-state agreement that allows thousands of physicians to more easily obtain licenses to practice across state lines. Hall said he has confidence that Governor Gretchen Whitmer will sign the bill before Michigan loses its spot.
To help keep the contact in place, HB 5455 would create an act to reinstate Michigan’s position.
“We had to make sure that we stayed in this compact that we have been in since 2017 with great success,” Linting said, thanking Hall for making this a priority and the Senate for putting the people before political games. “It would be devastating if we let political games get in the way of supporting communities all across Michigan.”
As part of the apparent agreement, the House also passed SB 581 sponsored by Hertel, aimed at serving Harsens Island in the 12th Senate district, an island located where the St. Clair River meets Lake St. Clair, accessible by ferry.
Currently, local governments are limited to having only one Downtown Development Authority. The bill allows Clay Township — which Harsens Island is a part of — to have an additional Downtown Development Authority just for the island. It permits any local government to have an extra DDA if they’re divided by a body of water.
The two bills are tie-barred, meaning SB 581 cannot take effect unless the Legislature also passes HB 5455 .
Hall gave credit to Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) as she “stood up and figured out a way to get it done.”
In reaction to today’s House passage of his bill, Sen. Hertel says it’s always a good day when good policy passes.
Hall said that he was hoping to get a deal on the Selfridge National Guard Base supplemental, but ultimately he said that the Senate Democrats are “dragging their feet” on it and “jeopardizing the mission.”
Senate Adjourns At 2:25 p.m.
The Senate adjourned today around 2:25 p.m., with Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids)‘ office expressing that renewing Michigan’s membership in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) – which expires in nine days – is a “very big priority for her.”
“It’s very important that this gets done. There’s been a lot of unnecessary pressure put on physicians, their teams and their patients because of this. This could have been done a long time ago,” said Rosie Jones, Brinks’ press secretary. “We’re all kind of scratching our heads as to why the Speaker and House Republicans have sat on this and made this into the stressful situation that it’s become.”
Michigan entered the IMLC in late 2018, through a law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder. Including Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, the agreement among participating states grants physicians expedited licensure to travel and practice outside their home states.
In the post-pandemic world, the compact has played a significant role in telehealth, permitting physicians to serve patients virtually, although they might not reside in the same state as them. For the Detroit Medical Center, the compact has reportedly served its patient base’s psychiatry needs, and its served Upper Peninsula residents to receive rural care without needing to travel to Minnesota or Wisconsin.
There are two bills that will keep Michigan from exiting the compact on March 28. There is Sen. Roger Hauck (R-Union Twp.)‘s SB 303 that the Senate passed in May of last year, and Rep. Rylee Linting (R-Wyandotte)‘s HB 5455 that the House passed early last month.
Linting represents one of the most competitive legislative districts, and she flipped her Downriver-based seat from blue to red – defeating then-incumbent Rep. Jaime Churches by 2,305 votes – in 2024. Some around town are speculating that House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) wants to deliver a win and public act for Linting, and the Democratic-controlled Senate is resisting.
“Well, I would respond that the initial bill we passed 10 months ago was a Republican bill,” Jones said when asked if that’s the reason the Senate didn’t approve HB 5455.
The House begins its spring break next week, with no session scheduled until April 14. Meanwhile, the Senate is anticipated to have an active session for at least two days next week, going on its spring break from March 31 through April 9.
“We are in session next week. They are not, and so there’s still work to be done there, but there are multiple pathways that we can accomplish this,” Jones said.
Asked Wednesday about the potential of passing a supplemental spending plan that could include $152 million for Selfridge, Brinks said, “A lot of conversations about that. Nothing is conclusive at this point.”
Meanwhile, the House has passed all three bills on its agenda today, but is still in session as leadership continues to discuss a deal on a supplemental.
‘Medical Daycare’ Offered As Alternative For Medically Complex Kids
Medically complex children and their families could soon have access to specialized “medical daycare” centers under legislation heard during the House Health Policy Committee.
The bill package, HB 5251 and HB 5252 , would create a licensing system for prescribed pediatric extended care (PPEC) centers —nonresidential facilities that provide nursing care, therapy and developmental support during the day. While the model already exists in other states, Michigan currently lacks a framework to regulate or operate them.
Chair Curt VanderWall (R-Ludington) said that he and Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo) have been working on the legislation for several years and that the PPECs would be for individuals 21 years or younger who have an acute, chronic or intermittent condition requiring ongoing care requiring the use of medical devices for life-sustaining body functions.
“These will be a great resource for the families of these children who often spend enormous amounts of time and money caring for their medically complex children,” VanderWall said. “This gives them an opportunity to work while being reassured that their children are being taken care of properly.”
Rogers described the facilities as a “one-stop shop” that blends medical care with social and developmental support, offering an alternative to in-home nursing, which is often inconsistent due to staffing shortages.
Testimony highlighted the strain families currently face. Ann Marie Ramsey, a faculty member at the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan, said many children remain hospitalized longer than necessary because home nursing is unavailable, while parents often leave jobs to provide around-the-clock care.
“Many parents actually lose their jobs because they can’t find consistent nursing care,” Ramsey said. “And when there’s no backup, the parent can’t go to work and, consequently, they lose their employment. Parents have to remain awake and alert 24 hours a day watching these children and, therefore, if they don’t have nursing care, they are unable to work.”
Supporters say PPEC centers could help address those gaps by providing reliable, community-based care that also improves children’s social development, as they wouldn’t be sequestered at home.
Witnesses Say Ex-House Aide Controlled State Grant Funds For Health Park
A financial professional working with Complete Health Park (CHP) testified today that a more than $820,000 total payment to a consulting firm owned by David Coker Jr. was a “red flag” for him.
Jacob Leider testified that he initially didn’t see red flags with Coker’s plan to build the large health complex in Clare, and he was genuinely interested. But then he discovered Coker paid himself via his IW Consulting business and that was a “conflict of interest” under the terms of the $25 million grant the Legislature approved in Fiscal Year 2022 for CHP.
Leider, who said he wanted the CHP to continue, testified that he also discovered a questionable $150,000 payment to a marketing company for services not performed and possibly owned by a disbarred attorney.
“(Coker) told me I was new to government and grants, and how they all work, and to trust him, that it was all taken care of,” Leider said.
The testimony came today during the preliminary examination for Coker, a former aide of then-Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth.
Coker is accused of embezzlement, false pretenses, criminal enterprise and violating the state’s safekeeping of public moneys law, which prohibits public officers or their employees from commingling public funds with their own money. He faces up to 20 years in prison if he’s convicted as charged.
The hearing is expected to continue on April 8, after which 54A District Court Judge Kristen Simmons will decide if there’s enough evidence to send Coker to circuit court for trial.
Assistant Prosecutor Kelli Megyesi said she has at least two additional witnesses and defense attorney Joshua Blanchard said he will have “one or two” witnesses.
Coker received a $25 million grant in Fiscal Year 2022 budget, which included more than $1 billion in rushed earmark spending.
The AG’s office alleges Coker used that money to buy gold coins, gold bars, silver, platinum, vehicles and firearm accessories.
Leider testified that he saw red flags, including that the CHP grant money paid two invoices to IW Consulting (IWC) – Coker’s consulting business – in December 2022, which led him to consult with a certified accountant as well as an attorney.
Leider, who noted that he was aware of a contract between CHP and IWC authorizing a 7% fee, also testified that he discussed his concerns with Coker, as well. Coker claimed he had the state’s approval for his expenditures.
Also testifying were Terrance Powell, who served on CHP’s board, and Darrell Harden, a grants manager with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Powell testified that as a friend, he didn’t hesitate when Coker asked him to join the CHP board in summer/early fall 2022, and although he had no experience with nonprofits or financial issues, he was made CHP’s board treasurer.
However, Powell said he was not on the CHP’s financial records as it was Coker who “directed everything.”
On cross-examination, Powell acknowledged that “on paper” the CHP board was in control, but in reality, “Dave was in control.”
Powell testified that he resigned from CHP’s board in early 2023 due to concerns about another board member’s criminal background.
That board member was Anthony Demasi, a disbarred attorney who worked as a consultant on the project and who helped Coker secure the grant.
Demasi, who Attorney General Dana Nessel said has cooperated in her department’s investigation, has a 2010 conviction on federal fraud charges and in April 2024 he pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges stemming from the use of credit cards he got using the identity of an employee. He was subsequently sentenced to one year and one day in prison for the latter conviction, according to court records.
Powell and Harden both testified that about $3.5 million was paid for land and Powell said a builder was hired at about $5 million, but a stop order came from the state before dirt was moved.
Harden testified that he worked with Coker to establish the grant agreement, which included a ban on conflicts of interest, between DHHS and CHP.
Harden said Coker at least twice told him that he would not personally benefit from the grant project. However, he eventually received the contract for IWC after authorizing about $600,000 in invoices, and he was concerned because Coker was listed as the owner.
“That would have constituted a conflict of interest,” Harden said, noting that as a result, he would not have been able to pay that invoice “because a person involved with the project would have had a personal interest through a company that they own in the project.”
Health Care March Continues For Return Of ACA Credits, Medicaid Funds
Protect Our Care Michigan, a health care advocate organization, released a report today and held a press conference with state Sen. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) to advocate for the return of cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
The report claimed, because of the cuts made by the federal government in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to Medicaid, that 64,000 people in Michigan would lose health care insurance, 14 hospitals would close and other Michigan hospitals could lose $1 billion per year.
“Donald Trump and Republicans are putting on a full-court press trying to take away people’s health care and that’s not the kind of March Madness Michiganders want. Protect Our Care’s report shows us clearly all the ways Trump is making reckless and life-threatening attacks on health care,” Singh said.
Singh said he was hearing from constituents that the cost of health care, drugs, groceries, housing and car insurance were a problem. He said the continuation of the Affordable Care Act tax credits were keeping medical insurance rates down and the decision not to extend those credits would only pile on to medical insurance coverage.
He said it was difficult to do anything with Medicaid from within the state Legislature because a significant part of the state’s funding for the program came from the federal government.
“For the federal government not to do its part, you can understand why states cannot fill that. We will do our best within the constraints that we have to ensure that those who need us the most that we provide those services,” he said.
He said the budget presented by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was trying to deal with some of those issues and the Senate was looking at similar ways to help.
“It doesn’t have to be that hard. Congress can be a partner in this, and that’s why we continue to ask them to go back to the table, fund those tax credits, fund Medicaid, because the resources are there if they decide to do that,” he said.
United Dairy Industry Of Michigan Says No To Raw Milk Consumption
Raw, unpasteurized milk should “absolutely not” be available for consumption, said Jolene Griffin, the industry relations vice president at the United Dairy Industry of Michigan. With her own family running a dairy farm in Hastings, Griffin presented on Michigan’s dairy industry to the House Agriculture Committee, saying she believes everybody should stick to pasteurized milk when asked about the raw product by Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare).
“We created pasteurization for a reason, and it has worked for over 160 years . . . There is a risk in anything we do, and if we can remove that risk, we absolutely should,” Griffin said. “When people consume raw milk, they are not exposed to the same germs and bacteria that those cows have been exposed to, that they might be shedding.”
Griffin said even in her family, drinking raw milk is not a risk they take despite being on the farm every day, instead going to the grocery store to “buy our milk just as everyone else does.”
According to Griffin, Michigan was the first state to require that all milk sold to consumers be pasteurized in 1948, ahead of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibiting the interstate shipment of raw milk in 1987.
She described pasteurization as a practice going back to the 1860s, raising the milk’s temperature to 161 degrees for 15 seconds, a practice intended to eliminate the presence of E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and similar bacteria.
Proponents of raw milk argue that when milk’s temperature reaches 149 degrees, whey proteins are denatured, which, if still intact, could assist with allergies, inflammation and asthma among youths. The subject of raw milk has become popular in national headlines, with President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claiming he drank raw milk growing up and returned to it after 2021 as an adult.
In the Republican-controlled House, legislation by Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford) – one of the chamber’s most conservative voices, and the majority vice chair of the House Appropriations panel – awaits a vote by the whole body. HB 5217 , HB 5218 and HB 5219 would permit farmers in Michigan to sell raw milk to directly consumers under specified labeling and safety protocols.
For example, the raw milk must be maintained at a 45-degree or below temperature within two hours after milking, and be from an animal tested for brucellosis and tuberculosis at least once every 12 months.
“Well, I probably should be dead. I grew up on raw milk,” said Rep. Joseph Fox (R-Fremont) today in reaction to Griffin’s personal and professional opposition to consuming raw milk.
Meanwhile, the Democratic-controlled Senate has gone in the opposite direction, with the chamber as a whole waiting to vote on SB 770 by Sen. John Cherry (D-Flint), adopting the stricter “Grade ‘A’ Pasteurized Milk Ordinance” from 2023, during President Joe Biden’s administration.
The conversation today explored other components of Michigan’s dairy industry, covering about 580 farms and approximately 440,000 dairy cows. Furthermore, there are more than 100 dairy processing plants, which pasteurize the milk.
Griffin described how cows “love to lay on sand,” with her own family’s dairy farm offering them sand bedding that conforms around them, “nice and cool” in the summer and inorganic, unable to grow bacteria.
Rep. Sarah Lightner (R-Springport), who operates a small crop farm and custom hay baling operation with her husband, explained how when she first married her husband, he was a nutritionist on a dairy farm.
She would milk cows with him to keep from going “days and days” without seeing each other. While it was a very good experience for her, “I told him ‘this is not for me. I will never milk another cow a day in my life.’ And he’s like, ‘Babe, never say never.'”
“I’m telling you right now, I will take that sign up on the Deja Vu down there and be one of the ugly strippers before I milk another cow,” Lightner said. “It is a tough job, and we need you, and I always tell people to support the dairy industry.”
Additionally, they discussed how, in the aftermath of Trump launching a large-scale offensive against Iran with Israel, fertilizer costs are rising.
For example, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, nitrogen fertilizer supply chains are closely connected to the Persian Gulf. It published that countries exposed to disruptions in the region account for approximately 30 percent of global ammonia exports, as well as nearly 49 percent of urea exports in the world.
Griffin said although farmers are resourceful, with a lot utilizing manure as fertilizer, “unfortunately it might raise the cost.”
“The price of milk right now is pretty low, and so farmers aren’t getting for their milk what they should be to break even,” she said. “Sixteen dollars and 50 cents for every 100 pounds of milk that they sell, and break-even right now is about $20 for farms.”
As prices increase for inputs, “we will see more of our farmers having to exit the business.”
Meanwhile, Eric Crawford, the Grand Rapids-based representative for Gordon Food Service, said that cottage cheese is having a moment. He noted that with folks not eating as much because of more popular uses of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, the demand for cottage cheese is “outstripping what we can supply.”
“It used to be an insider joke (where) we looked at the obituaries and (saw), ‘oh no, there’s another cottage cheese buyer going out,'” Crawford said. “We doubled our capacity with cottage cheese just this past month.”