By SAMANTHA LISS

Millions of people who apply for Medicaid in the coming years will have to prove they’ve been working, going to school, or volunteering for at least a month before they can gain or retain health insurance through the government program.

But Republican lawmakers in some states think the new rules — part of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last July by President Donald Trump — don’t go far enough.

Indiana is leading that charge, with a new law that requires applicants to prove they’ve been working or participating in a similar activity for three consecutive months to get benefits.

Meanwhile, residents in many other states will have to [Read More]

By SAM WHITEHEAD

Katie Crouch says calling her state’s Medicaid agency to get information about her benefits can feel like a series of dead ends.

“The first time, it’ll ring interminably. Next time, it’ll go to a voicemail that just hangs up on you,” said the 48-year-old, who lives in Delaware. “Sometimes you’ll get a person who says they’re not the right one. They transfer you, and it hangs up. Sometimes, it picks up and there’s just nobody on the line.”

She spent months trying to figure out whether her Medicaid coverage had been renewed. As of late March, she hadn’t been reapproved for the year for the state-federal program, which provides health [Read More]

By SHANIYA RAHEJA
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

Over the past year, Medicare providers have increasingly felt the harsh effects of a shifting federal enforcement landscape. CMS has adopted a more assertive program‑integrity posture across all of its operations, signaling a renewed focus on payment accuracy and fraud‑prevention initiatives. This broader regulatory trend is reflected in the 2025 Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Final Rule, where CMS emphasized its intent to “strengthen program integrity standards,” “promote accurate eligibility determinations,” and “improve oversight and reduce vulnerabilities to fraud and abuse” across federally administered programs (CMS Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Final Rule Fact Sheet, 2025). Although the rule governs marketplace operations, it reflects the same enforcement [Read More]

By LEE G. PETRO

As artificial intelligence (AI)‑driven tools proliferate across clinical care, diagnostics, and health insurance operations, the U.S. regulatory landscape is shifting rapidly in 2026. Absent a comprehensive federal AI statute, healthcare organizations face a patchwork of federal oversight (primarily through the FDA, CMS, and HHS) layered with a growing number of state AI health laws.

Federal Framework Shaping AI In Healthcare:

At the federal level, existing authorities and recent policy signals are converging to regulate AI in healthcare without yet creating a standalone “AI Act.” The most important federal AI actors are:

• FDA: The FDA continues to emphasize premarket review for higher-risk systems (e.g., AI‑assisted radiology tools, ECG or pathology [Read More]
  

By CELINE GOUNDER
Photos by ERIC HARKLEROAD

President Donald Trump will soon nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its acting chief, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, told agency employees at a Wednesday staff meeting.

According to a recording obtained by KFF Health News, Bhattacharya at one point suggested to CDC staff that Trump could name a new leader for the agency as soon as Thursday. “But if not, I don’t think much will change,” he said.

Though his official position as acting director was set to expire Wednesday, Bhattacharya will continue to lead the agency until the top spot is filled. Meanwhile, news outlets including Axios and  [Read More]

By JULIE APPLEBY

Complaints about enrollment fraud in Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage have bedeviled the federal marketplace for years.

Now, the Trump administration is claiming wins in reducing the problem while simultaneously saying more controls are needed.

It has proposed a sweeping set of ACA regulations for next year, including stepped-up requirements for some applicants to prove eligibility for subsidies or enrollment and new scrutiny of sales agents and marketing practices.

While there is a general acknowledgment that there is fraud in the ACA marketplace, some health policy analysts say these new requirements miss that mark and instead will make it harder for people who are eligible to enroll.

“There is a trade-off, particularly with [Read More]

By ALLAN DOBZYNIAK, MD
R.F.K. Jr. is mandating nutrition education for medical students. Certainly nutrition is an important part of health. But is teaching it as a course devoted to nutrition in medical school the best way to influence a general appreciation of good nutrition for our citizens?

In medical school and post doctoral training nutrition is generally taught related to illness. For example, a patient who has had a cardiac bypass needs a diet designed to achieve an ideal weight and decrease the LDL cholesterol to the data driven optimal range, likewise for diabetes. A risk factor analysis for heart disease would include cholesterol testing, perhaps coronary artery calcium scoring and [Read More]

By ROLF LOWE
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

In 2018 the Michigan Legislature introduced and passed Public Act 463 of 2018 providing a pathway for licensure as a dental therapist, with the legislation becoming effective in March of 2019. Nearly seven years later the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) are finally seeing the fruits of their labor to increase access to dental care to Michigan residents begin to blossom, with the state’s first dental therapist becoming licensed and starting to practice in the Upper Peninsula in early 2026. Michigan is one of fourteen states that currently authorizes the practice of dental [Read More]

 By NICOLETTE TABOR
Dickinson Wright

 On Jan. 29, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order with the potential to significantly impact behavioral health and substance use disorder providers.

Executive Order 14379, titled “The Great American Recovery Initiative,” outlines the Trump Administration’s efforts to coordinate the federal government’s response to substance use disorders and the addiction crisis in the United States. Importantly, the executive order acknowledges that addiction “is a chronic, treatable disease” and that the framework for addiction treatment should parallel that of other chronic diseases – signaling a continued historical shift in the US healthcare framework. While this executive order does not immediately affect substance use disorder (SUD) providers, it does provide [Read More]

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 [Read More]