By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
Did you catch the oxymoron in the headline? Reactive disaster planning – or reactive planning of any sort – of course is not planning. But writing this so close to what we can only hope was and is the worst disaster of our lifetime, we mut be honest and admit that our responses to the myriad disasters wrought by the pandemic were rarely planned. Some of us may have been quicker to act than others, more willing to admit that indeed a crisis of heretofore unknown proportions was upon us. But still, we reacted. We had not adequately planned.

In Michigan, we were at the epicenter of our nation’s [Read More]

By DUSTIN WACHLER, ESQ.
Prior to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Medicare coverage of telehealth was restricted to a limited set of services provided via interactive audio and video telecommunications systems between a healthcare provider at a “distant site” and a beneficiary at an “originating site” as defined by Medicare. In order to qualify as an “originating site,” the beneficiary was required to be in a physician office, healthcare facility, or other authorized site located in either a county outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or a rural Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) in a rural census tract. In addition to Medicare requirements, telehealth arrangements must also comply with state telemedicine [Read More]

By RALPH Z. LEVY JR.
Taxpayer losses in two recent Tax Court cases serve as reminders that physician and other incorporated medical practice groups should take care in the “zero out” approach to the payment of compensation to the group’s owners and that success in this area may depend on whether the practice is organized as a “C” corporation or has elected to be taxed as an “S” corporation and if the practice group is owned by one or more professionals.

Regardless of whether the practice group is organized under local law as a professional corporation (PC) or a professional association (PA), is taxed as a “C” corporation or as an “S” [Read More]

By ALLAN DOBZYNIAK, MD
So many of the organizations alleging to represent a consensus of individual physicians simply do not. The narrative that equates all physicians with the organizations that claim to represent them is just wrong. Unfortunately, this narrative has become repetitive and increasingly common.

Consider that the American Medical Association has only a membership of around 12 percent of practicing physicians; hence, it does not represent the majority. It has unquestionably become increasingly political in its views. The organization and leadership have moved to the progressive left. Priorities such as “systemic racism,” “social justice” and “equity” have been engaged to clarify its organizational identity of “wokeness.” It has recently dismissed [Read More]

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

Mental Health Crisis Management Program Brought To Teachers Under Bill

The Michigan Department of Education would need to create a professional development course on mental health crisis management and rapid response for educators under Sen. Sylvia Santana’s (D-Detroit) latest legislation.

Already, the MDE has advocated for the doubling—at a minimum—of funding of intermediate school districts (ISDs) for distributing mental health amenities to students. Under Santana’s SB 0321, the department would join forces with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in fostering a program that equips teachers for mental health challenges.

“The mental and emotional toll of this [Read More]

By PAUL NATINSKY
In early February 2020, the news stories and warnings began to appear about a virus in China emerging from a “wet market” in a city of 11 million whose name I’d never heard. My first thought was here we go again. Just like MERS or SARS—and seemingly every winter’s inevitable exaggerated blizzard forecast—I figured it was another alarmist health scare that would never reach American shores.

In mid-March, it became clear that this time it was real—the “coronavirus” had arrived, was spreading fast and was going to wreak havoc in our lives. Even at first and amid the confusion of mixed messages and unclear science, I suspected this disease [Read More]

The rising cost of prescription medicine was the issue of the day before the House Health Policy Committee as it took up two bills March 4, one to bar so-called copay “accumulators” and a second to require drug makers to report price increases to the state.

HB 4353, sponsored by Rep. Bronna Kahle (R-Adrian), would require all copays to count toward an insured’s deductible and out-of-pocket costs. HB 4347, by Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Twp.), would require manufacturers to report price increases to the Department of Insurance and Financial Services.

The bills are reintroductions of legislation considered last term.

Sarah Procario of the Hemophilia Foundation of Michigan told the committee many patients rely [Read More]

By LIZ SZABO
There’s a reason soldiers go through basic training before heading into combat: Without careful instruction, green recruits armed with powerful weapons could be as dangerous to one another as to the enemy.

The immune system works much the same way. Immune cells, which protect the body from infections, need to be “educated” to recognize bad guys — and to hold their fire around civilians.

In some covid patients, this education may be cut short. Scientists say unprepared immune cells appear to be responding to the coronavirus with a devastating release of chemicals, inflicting damage that may endure long after the threat has been eliminated.

“If you have a brand-new virus and [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
“If they close a door, go through the window. If the window is closed, check the chimney.” When faced with an obstacle, these were the words of wisdom from my mother, a native of Poland who spent time in a displaced persons’ camp after World War II. While I haven’t gone down the chimney yet, I’ve certainly gone through many windows in the past year. So now, a look back.

Mid-March 2020 adds another meaning to the famed Ides of March, which alternatively refers to the assassination of Julius Caesar, a lunar celebration in ancient history marking a new year, or simply a very bad omen – which would [Read More]

By STEPHEN SHAVER
In an effort to increase the availability of COVID-19 testing and decrease the cost of testing to individual consumers, Congress required group health plans and commercial health insurers to provide coverage for COVID-19 testing with no cost-sharing, prior authorization, or other medical management requirements. However, months of ambiguous guidance have opened the door for inconsistent implementation and left providers, especially the clinical laboratories doing the testing, in a precarious position.

Congress’s efforts began with the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFRCA), enacted on March 18, 2020. The FFCRA required group health plans and commercial insurers to provide coverage of FDA-approved tests “for the detection of SARS–CoV–2 or the [Read More]