Two Democratic-led Senate committees in June adopted a report projecting that the U.S. House Republicans’ proposed Medicaid reforms will create a $2 billion hole in the state budget and drop more than 500,000 beneficiaries due to new paperwork or eligibility obligations.

The report was adopted by the Senate Health Policy Committee, as well as the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services. For Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores)’s health policy committee, the report was accepted into the panel’s record through an unopposed motion without a roll call vote.

Meanwhile, for Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit)’s appropriations subcommittee, the report was adopted along partisan lines.

While speaking to MIRS, Santana [Read More]

By ARTHUR ALLEN

Within an hour of receiving a COVID vaccination in November 2020, Utah preschool teacher Brianne Dressen felt pins and needles through her arms and legs. In the medical odyssey that followed, she suffered double vision, chronic nausea, brain fog, and profound weakness. Once a rock climber, she became a couch potato.

Although Dressen’s symptoms were rare in that season of hundreds of millions of COVID vaccinations, they were common enough to draw the attention of a National Institutes of Health neuroscientist named Avindra Nath, who examined Dressen and more than 30 other people with a similar syndrome in 2021. He recommended Dressen take steroids and antibodies — treatments that saved [Read More]

By JENNI COLAGIOVANNI & ERIN LIECHTY
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On May 21, 2025, CMS announced its plan to significantly expand audit efforts of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. CMS’ expanded audit effort is two-fold: (1) audit all eligible MA contracts for all newly initiated audit payment years, and (2) expedite audits from payment years 2018 to 2024. The Trump administration is turning its attention to these plans because it is estimated that MA plans have overbilled the government between $17 billion and $43 billion annually and because despite the vast overpayment suspected there has been no concerted effort to audit these plans since 2007.

CMS’ MA audit expansion plan is comprised of [Read More]

By RALPH LEVY
Dickinson Wright

Although in prior articles in this publication, I addressed tax issues faced by physicians and other practice groups, the purpose of this article is to guide physicians and other medical professionals as they compare the taxes payable by them under completing offers to join practice groups. These tax consequences will vary depending on several factors, including whether the offer includes equity ownership and whether or not the group is organized as a professional corporation.

Suppose the offer is for employment without an ownership interest in the practice group, regardless of whether the employer is organized as a professional corporation (PC) or as a professional limited liability company (PLLC). [Read More]

AG Reaches Agreement To Clean Up PFAS-Contaminated Materials

Attorney General Dana Nessel has reached a settlement agreement with Domtar Industries and E.B. Eddy Paper to address releases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at the Techni-Comp Inc. composting site near Port Huron.

Under the terms of the settlement, Domtar has agreed to remove compost piles containing sludges contaminated with PFAS at the site and dispose of the contaminated material in a licensed landfill. In addition, Domtar will investigate PFAS in sediments in surface waters at the site.

The settlement, entered as an enforceable Consent Decree by the 31st Circuit Court in St. Clair County on June 20, includes a $300,000 payment to the Department of [Read More]

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Health care has proved a vulnerable target for the firehose of cuts and policy changes President Donald Trump ordered in the name of reducing waste and improving efficiency. But most of the impact isn’t as tangible as, say, higher egg prices at the grocery store.

One thing experts from a wide range of fields, from basic science to public health, agree on: The damage will be varied and immense. “It’s exceedingly foolish to cut funding in this way,” said Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and former director of both the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

The blaze of cuts have yielded nonsensical and perhaps unintended [Read More]

A massive tax cut/Medicaid reform bill that cleared the U.S. House this month has sparked a messaging war at all levels of politics between Republicans and Democrats attempting to frame the issues for the public.

For Republicans, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” makes tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s first term permanent, but for Democrats, the changes to how Medicaid is administered mean “people will die.”

All the while, both sides are sidestepping the significant debt that comes with the plan, which still needs U.S. Senate approval to get to Trump’s desk.

U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took aim at the cuts the bill would administer [Read More]

By KAITLYN DELBENE
Wachler & Associates, PC

A press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on March 27, 2025, announced a self-described “dramatic restructuring” of the Department as part of the administration’s efforts at “workforce optimization.” Among other changes, the press release revealed a plan to slash the HHS workforce by 25 percent and announced oversight of certain HHS offices by a new Assistant Secretary for Enforcement. As these sweeping changes are implemented, providers should be aware of possible ramifications for their practices. The cuts to the HHS workforce have been challenged in a lawsuit by 21 states and the District of Columbia, though no injunction has yet [Read More]

Healthcare Michigan – Michigan’s 21st Century Healthcare News Source

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

UIA Director Testifies In Oversight Subcommittee About $8-$15 Billion In Fraud During COVID-19
The House Oversight Subcommittee on State and Local Assistance Programs heard testimony from Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) Director Jason Palmer over the agency’s handling of pandemic-era unemployment benefits, which resulted in an estimated $8 to $15 billion in overpayments.

The meeting focused on two reports from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) that detailed widespread fraud, mismanagement, and systemic failures within the UIA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Palmer, who took over the office just 86 days prior, acknowledged the agency’s past failures and pledged [Read More]