By RALPH Z. LEVY & BRIAN S. FLEETHAM

Successful negotiation of physician employment agreements requires a careful balance of the objectives of the prospective employer with those of the prospective employee while ensuring that the negotiated agreement complies with the federal and state laws that apply to agreements of this type.  The prospective employer wants to make certain it has enough professionals to handle the needs of its patients, and the prospective employee wants to be paid adequately and fairly for services provided while preserving a work-personal life balance.  If the agreement “blows up,” the prospective employer wants protection against the physician “stealing” its patients, and the prospective employee [Read More]

Michigan’s Unique Drug Immunity Statute Is No More

(FLINT) A Gov. John Engler-era law that shields drug manufacturers from liability if their medicine received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval was flushed down the toilet late last month.

With Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature, Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor)’s SB 410 ends the 1995 Michigan Product Liability Act, a statute House Democrats and Democrats et al. used with some success on the campaign trail about 15 years ago.

The bill, which received bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, will end Michigan’s status as the only state with what Whitmer called an “immunity shield in place.”

Joined by bill sponsor Irwin, who Whitmer said has been working to overturn immunity [Read More]

By BRAM SABLE-SMITH

UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. — As activists parse the results of a Nov. 8 vote to protect abortion rights in Ohio, Jamie Corley is already well on her way to putting a similar measure in front of Missouri voters next year.

Corley, a former Republican congressional staffer, filed not one, but six potential ballot measures in August to roll back her state’s near-total ban on abortion, triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to end federal protections for terminating pregnancies.

“I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous it is to be pregnant in Missouri right now,” Corley said at a restaurant near her home in this St. Louis suburb. “There is a [Read More]

By SUSAN ADELMAN, MD
When lawyers and legislators talk about abortion, they often struggle to define viability, but the matter is much more complicated than most of them acknowledge. The classic Supreme Court case Roe versus Wade claims that viability starts at the third trimester, which they interpret as meaning 28 weeks gestation. British law has settled on 24 weeks. American state laws vary from 20 to 25 weeks.  The problem is that whether or not a fetus would be viable outside of the womb depends on many factors.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology explains that “many other factors…influence viability, such as sex, genetics, weight, circumstances around delivery, and availability [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
I wrote last month about my admiration for The Salvation Army’s outreach efforts to combat the social determinants of health through its services to the hungry, the homeless, and those with substance use disorder or other difficult life challenges. This month, I want to extend my admiration to the payors and partners who joined The Salvation Army and MedNetOne in a new program aimed at ramping up numbers for Medicaid Renewal.

Some background. As the federal government seeks to redetermine who is qualified for Medicaid following a pandemic-related executive order that extended Medicaid benefits without proof of continuing qualification, each state is required to champion redetermination and renewal efforts. [Read More]

By ROLF LOWE
On November 2, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced new policies related to the Calendar Year 2024 Physician Fee Schedule intended to improve and promote access to mental health and substance use disorder services to meet the growing demand for these services. In its November 6, 2023, blog discussing the changes[1] CMS identified three areas the policies are intended to address which are expanding the behavioral health workforce, covering gaps in in access to behavioral health services and paying more accurately for behavioral health services.

The types of behavioral practitioners able to enroll in Medicare are being expanded to allow the enrollment [Read More]

By SUZANNE SUKKAR & KATHLEEN CAMPBELL WALKER

The nursing profession vital signs are unstable and require an intervention. The single largest occupation of health care workers is Registered Nurses (RN). It is also the fifth largest profession nationally.[1] Yet the nursing profession is facing extreme shortages as the need for health care workers grows. Specifically, according to data projections, the United States (US) will have a shortage of RNs resulting from an aging population and significant numbers of nurses nearing retirement age.[2] Compounding the situation is US nursing schools’ limited capacity to enroll nursing students into programs due to the lack of faculty, limited clinical placements [Read More]

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

Thompson Wants House Hearings Held About Hawthorn, Walter Reuther Hospital

In a letter to House Behavioral Health Subcommittee Chair Felicia Brabec (D-Ann Arbor), Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown) requested the subcommittee hold a hearing to look at instances where the state juvenile mental health system has failed greater Detroit families.

She specifically referenced the Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Wayne County, which is temporarily housing children within an adult facility, and the Hawthorn Center in Novi, which lawmakers have previously requested an audit of.

In addition to the 17 patient escapes Thompson said have been reported since 2020, the center was recently subjected to [Read More]

Ahead of national physician assistant (PA) week, Oct. 6-12, several House members introduced a bipartisan, four-bill package including PA’s under the blanket of mental health professionals and changing their title to “physician associate.”

The bills, sponsored by Reps. Carrie A. Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor), Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit), Reggie Miller (D-Belleville) and Curtis VanderWall (R-Ludington), create the “Patient-Led Care Bill Package,” which Rheingans said will improve patient access to care, “while also reducing some of the red tape that’s standing in the way of physician assistants.”

Rheingans’ bill, which she said was read in this afternoon, would address the 3.5 million Michiganders living in a health provider shortage area, including the 38% of Michiganders who experience a mental illness [Read More]

By SUSAN ADELMAN, MD
The British have a one-payor public healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS), which pays for most medical care in the UK. For the rest, many NHS doctors also see patients privately, and a number of others have strictly private practices. As our English cousins explained, the NHS has been breaking down and running short of money for years. Now, the aftermath of COVID and the onset of serious inflation have stimulated widespread strikes. And for the first time, both junior doctors and consultants are walking out together nation-wide for three to four days at a time. The issues are both financial and matters of patient care. [Read More]