A Deloitte-Run System Denied Medicaid Benefits for Michigan’s Disabled. Now Trump’s Law Piles On.

By RACHANA PRADHAN, SAMANTHA LISS & KATE WELLS

Marie Noon takes eight medications a day. One keeps her heart rate from spiking to avoid a stroke. One prevents debilitating headaches. Another ensures she doesn’t retain excess fluid.

More than a decade ago, Noon said, she was diagnosed with adult-onset Still’s disease, a rare type of inflammatory arthritis that can cause rashes, debilitating pain, and fevers. The disease upended her life.

She had been living a typical suburban life in Michigan, shuttling her two kids to activities like cheerleading, choir practice, and track. She was active in the PTA. She managed [Read More]

(LANSING) — Lansing-area healthcare advocates blasted U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) in mid-July over his votes on Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies as they announced they submitted enough signatures to place a local healthcare initiative before voters in November. Organizers said Lansing voters submitted 7,385 signatures to the city clerk last week, exceeding the 4,433 required to qualify for the ballot.

The proposals would establish citizen-led Healthcare Action Committees tasked with holding public hearings and developing recommendations to address healthcare costs and access at the local level. The committees would also examine how actions taken by state and federal officials affect residents’ healthcare.

Some folks are skeptical of the group behind the [Read More]

By STEPHEN SHAVER
Wachler & Associates PC

As Medicare continues to expand its efforts to combat fraud, waste, and abuse, healthcare providers across the country are paying close attention to new audit and compliance initiatives. Hospice providers have experienced particularly intense scrutiny and one of Medicare’s preferred tools has increasingly become the Provisional Period of Enhanced Oversight (PPEO) program. While PPEO audits have thus far only been implemented in a few states, CMS has already expanded the program and further expansion or nation-wide implementation may not be far off. Understanding the purpose of the PPEO initiative and the broader direction of Medicare oversight can help healthcare organizations prepare for potential future changes.

In [Read More]

By DANA ULRICH
Dickinson Wright 

LOI drift is one of the more underappreciated risks in healthcare transactions, and one of the more avoidable ones. It happens when the terms agreed to in a letter of intent, such as a co-branding commitment or a governance right, simply don’t make it into the definitive agreement. Whether by oversight or negotiating attrition, the result is the same: the deal you thought you closed isn’t the deal that governs the relationship. For healthcare organizations entering complex affiliations, joint ventures, or MSO arrangements, that gap can be costly.

 Apex Health, Inc. v. Atrium Health, Inc., 2026 NCBC 10 (N.C. Super. Ct. Feb. 11, 2026) is a notable example [Read More]

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

Single-Payer, Universal Healthcare Gets 58% Support In MI Poll

A 58% majority of Michigan voters support a universal, single-payer health care system, according to polling released today by Progress Michigan.

The organization, in partnership with Public Policy Polling, surveyed 641 Michigan voters, asking whether they would “strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose a single-payer, universal health care system in the United States, with the costs of healthcare for all residents being covered by a government-funded public system.”

According to the results, 47% of respondents said they strongly support a single-payer system, while 11% said they somewhat [Read More]

By DARIUS TAHIR

Bill Curry, 65, raises cattle on the same land in rural Oklahoma once owned by his father and generations before him. Each quarter, for several years, he has made the 2½-hour drive to Oklahoma City for an epidural in his spine to treat his back pain.

But this year, because of a new Medicare program, Curry has traveled a little more often.

In February, during one trip, he was told unexpectedly that he needed preapproval for the procedure. Then he went again a month or so later to get the injection, for a total of 10 hours on the road. His clinic wanted him to come in a third time, [Read More]

By DUAA ELDEIB

They entered the world the way babies should, with piercing cries announcing their arrival. They passed their newborn screening tests. Some made it to their 2-week wellness visits without concern.

Then, without warning, their systems began to shut down. A 7-week-old boy in Maryland developed sudden seizures. An 11-pound girl in Alabama stopped breathing for 20 seconds at a time. A baby boy in Kentucky vomited before becoming lethargic. A brown-haired girl in Texas, not yet 2 weeks old, bled around her belly button.

Desperate to save them, records show, doctors inserted tubes into their airways and hooked them up to IVs. They ordered blood transfusions. They spent half an [Read More]

By ROLF LOWE
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

In  2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced a new enforcement tool, Provisional Period of Enhanced Oversight (PPEO), specifically aimed at newly enrolled hospice providers. PPEO was implemented under the Social Security Act and is intended to apply enhanced oversight to new providers in high-risk categories. The PPEO program was developed due to CMS’ concerns about program integrity in the hospice program including potential fraud (criminal and civil), improper claim submissions and delivery of services that do not meet Medicare’s requirements for medically reasonable and necessary services.

The PPEO program was initially rolled out in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas on September 17, 2024. [Read More]

By RALPH LEVY
Dickinson Wright 

In a prior article in this publication, I provided guidance for physicians and other medical professionals on how to compare the taxes payable under competing offers to join practice groups.  I pointed out that these taxes will vary depending on several factors, including whether the offer includes equity ownership and whether the group is organized as a professional corporation (PC) or a professional limited liability company (PLLC).  Although it appears that a recent decision by the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals on the self-employment taxes payable by a limited liability limited partnership could affect this guidance, on a closer look at this decision, it does not [Read More]

Supremes Decline State’s Appeal In Benton Harbor Drinking Water Lawsuits

Lawsuits against the Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy (EGLE) arising out of elevated lead levels in Benton Harbor water stand after the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s appeal.

Justice Brian Zahra would have granted the appeal, but he didn’t explain why in the court’s order.

In a January per curiam opinion, the Michigan Court of Appeals panel held the Court of Claims “properly concluded” that the state’s evidence didn’t eliminate factual questions arising from residents’ claims.

Separate lawsuits – led by Jennifer Janssen-Rogers, Daretha Braziel and Oliver Kavanaugh – argued, in part, that the city violated residents’ rights to bodily integrity by not doing [Read More]