By EWE MATUSZEWSKI
Anniversaries can be wonderful – or emotionally difficult. I just celebrated a milestone wedding anniversary – a joyous occasion. Yet, the first anniversary of my brother’s passing as a result of suicide is looming and brings back feelings of shock, disbelief and the lingering question, “Is there anything I could have done?” My brother and I were, sadly, neither geographically nor emotionally close as adults (his choice on both.) Yet the raw feelings remain, the helplessness, the abiding sense of loss.

In my head, I know there truly was nothing I could have done. But I choose to do something now. And that is to be open about death [Read More]

By JESSE ADAM MARKOS, ESQ.
Wachler & Associates

On June 27, 2022, three days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nearly 50 years of settled law in a direct assault on women’s rights and reproductive freedom, the Court issued an important decision for physician autonomy in a consolidated case ruling in Ruan v. United States. In that case, the Court raised the burden of proof for federal prosecutors seeking to hold physicians accountable under the Controlled Substances Act for the rise in addiction and death during the opioid crisis. While many of these prosecutions have certainly been laudable, others have involved treatment that was not so clearly egregious, treating what, at [Read More]

By KATHLEEN CAMPBELL WALKER
Dickinson Wright

On Feb. 12, 2022, the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship of the House Committee on the Judiciary held a very informative hearing regarding the relevance of foreign physicians in the healthcare system of the United States. The hearing was titled, “Is There a Doctor in the House? The Role of Immigrant Physicians in the U.S. Healthcare System.” The testimony provided underscores the ridiculous labyrinth of immigration rules set to complicate and cause ongoing unpredictability for foreign physicians trying to obtain approval to serve the U.S. public – even when desperately needed.

Dr. David J. Skorton, the President and Chief Executive Office of the Association of American [Read More]

Legislature Says Planned Parenthood’s Abortion-Ban Challenge ‘Premature’

Lansing Lines appears with cooperation from MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

The Michigan Legislature asked a Court of Claims judge to dismiss Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion-ban law.

The filing says Planned Parenthood’s claims are “premature” because they “are based on a series of hypotheticals” and the relevant statute, MCL 750.14, “is not being enforced, and plaintiffs do not claim that there are any concrete threats of enforcement.”

“No state authority has sought to enforce the statute at issue here, making plaintiffs’ claims unripe,” the court brief from Nicholas Miller, of Washington, D.C.-based Schaeer-Jaffe LLP, reads on behalf of the Legislature. “First, [Read More]

A package of four Senate bills that modify the requirements for health facilities wishing to expand, including those increasing psychiatric bed numbers or purchasing an air ambulance, received a hearing in the House Health Policy Committee.

SB 181, sponsored by Sen. Curtis VanderWall (R-Ludington), would allow health facilities to bypass certificates of need in order to expand their number of psychiatric beds. It would also increase the threshold on expenditures requiring certificates of need to $10 million.

Currently, health facilities wishing to increase in size or spend more than $2.5 million on upgrades need a certificate.

SB 182, sponsored by Sen. Lana Theis (R-Brighton), would increase Certificate of Need Commission members from 11 [Read More]

By SAM WHITEHEAD
Until last year, Georgia’s Medicaid coverage for new moms with low incomes lasted 60 days.

That meant the Medicaid benefits of many women expired before they could be referred to other medical providers for help with serious health problems, said Dr. Keila Brown, an OB-GYN in Atlanta. “If they needed other postpartum issues followed up, it was rather difficult to get them in within that finite period of time,” said Brown, who works at the Family Health Centers of Georgia, a group of community health centers.

Georgia lawmakers, recognizing the state’s high rate of pregnancy-related deaths, have taken action. In 2021, Georgia extended the Medicaid coverage window to six months [Read More]

Maximize Your Learning Events With These Best Practices

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
I will admit to being taken aback by how many positive comments I received on my last column: Don’t Get Trained – Learn! I appreciate all of the feedback and your interest. I hope I’m not wearing out my welcome by staying on this topic for June as well.

While it may be unusual for a healthcare executive to spend so much time in curricula development, it is a significant part of my work life. I attribute that not only to my love of learning but the sheer volume of new information coming out daily on health and well-being (and the billing [Read More]

What Is In A Diagnosis Code? More than you might Think for Medicare Advantage Payments

By ROLF LOWE
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) used by both providers and payers to identify diagnoses and procedures was developed by the World Health Organization and has been in place since the mid 1970’s. The utilization of ICD codes for various aspects of delivering healthcare services has increased since their introduction and is now an integrated part of many payment and reimbursement models. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) collects information on the ICD codes as a condition of payment, including it as an area of information to provide on the CMS [Read More]

LANSING LINES

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

House Education Focus On COVID-19 Policy Is ‘Waste Of Time,’ Dems Say

More bills limiting mask mandates and vaccines in schools are “wasting time” on issues that won’t help students, Rep. Darrin Camilleri (D-Brownstown Twp.) said after the House Education committee voted out a package on COVID-19 policy in schools.

SBs 600-603 would prohibit mandatory vaccinations, face masks or testing for students to attend school or school events.

The bills were all reported with recommendation from the committee on a 7-5 vote.

But Camilleri, who voted no, said moving forward with the legislation is a waste of time when [Read More]

House Insurance Committee Chair Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) began the process of passing legislation that penalizes auto insurers that are not fully compensating the providers of those taking care of people catastrophically injured in car accidents.

Although it wasn’t on the agenda, Rendon took up Rep. Ryan Berman’s (R-Commerce Twp.) HB 5870, which hits insurers acting in bad faith that don’t pay the bill sent to them by providers three times the amount of the overdue payment plus attorney costs.

She then took testimony from health care providers who claimed they hadn’t been compensated under the law for, in some cases, 10 months. They claimed they are having to take money out [Read More]