By RACHANA PRADHAN & CHRISTINA JEWETT
A high-ranking federal official in late February warned that the United States needed to plan for not having enough personal protective equipment for medical workers as they began to battle the novel coronavirus, according to internal emails obtained by Kaiser Health News.

The messages provide a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s statements at the time that the threat the coronavirus posed to the American public remained “very low.” In fact, concerns were already mounting, the emails show, that medical workers and first responders would not have enough masks, gloves, face shields and other supplies, known as PPE, to protect themselves against infection when treating COVID-19 [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
Despite its high-tech sounding name and implications, telehealth is not new. Our own organization was using it years ago for a very challenged subset of society—teems who had urgent and ongoing mental health needs living in rural areas underserved by behavior health specialists.The grant-funded program was offered with the assistance of Michigan Medicine and I strongly believe it was a lifesaver for some teens. Despite relatively early adoption in this and other select cases, though, I certainly can’t brag that all of our practices were using—or even remotely interested (pun intended) in—telehealth. It was a continuum from zero awareness to occasional use. What a difference a pandemic makes!

Interestingly, [Read More]

(This story presented in cooperation with MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service)

Multiple southeast Michigan hospitals are at capacity with COVID-19 patients and several more expect to hit capacity the first week of April as the number of patients continues to climb, according to the president and CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

Michigan’s COVID-19 cases jumped to 6,498 by 3 p.m. March 30 with 81 percent still in the three-county region of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties. Detroit continues to be the epicenter with 1,801 cases and 52 deaths.

With 134 hospitals statewide and roughly half in Southeast Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is accepting the U.S. Army Corps [Read More]

By RALPH LEVY
A recent Tax Court Memorandum decision, S. Ghadiri-Asli v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo 2019-149, serves as a reminder for healthcare providers to report properly all gross receipts and to substantiate business expenses claimed as deductions.

One of the two taxpayers, a physician, practiced medicine as a sole practitioner who specialized in infectious diseases. During the years in question, the physician’s billing and collection functions were performed by a third party outside billing service. All payments were remitted directly to the physician. Using the information provided by the physician to the billing service that included explanation of benefit (EOB) forms, patient face sheets and other correspondence received by the physician, [Read More]

By JONEL ALLECIA
An outbreak of coronavirus disease in a nursing home near Seattle is prompting urgent calls for precautionary tactics at America’s elder care facilities, where residents are at heightened risk of serious complications from the illness because of the dual threat of age and close living conditions.

The emergence of the novel contagious illness at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, has left one resident dead and four others hospitalized, with three in critical condition, local health officials said late last month. A health care worker in her 40s also remained in satisfactory condition. The resident who died was a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions, officials [Read More]

Michigan Chief Medical Officer Joneigh S. Khaldun told a Senate committee Feb. 27 that while there is no drug to attack the coronavirus, she and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are working to utilize the tools they do have—screening, communication and education.

Khaldun told the Senate Health Policy and Human Services Committee, “If this were to come to Michigan, we’d be focusing on non-pharmaceutical intervention.”

Khaldun noted that the state is closely monitoring the spread of the virus. The Detroit Metro Airport is one of 11 airports across the country where U.S. citizens who are considered at high risk based on their travels can re-enter the United States.

A process [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
The venture capitalist will see you now. Unfortunately, it’s not the lead-in to a joke. It’s the next inevitable step in usurping the role of primary care. As those of us long invested in the health-centered goals of the primary care community mark wins with the patient-centered medical home, team-based care and care management strategies; as we dive deeper into the role that social determinants of health play in limiting access to care and optimal health and wellness – and offer practical solutions; as we find success with data-driven, population health strategies…the business people see dollar signs, instead.

The impetus for this blog is the early February news that [Read More]

JESSE A. MARKOS, ESQ.
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

Licensed Medical Professionals generally experience the same risk of developing problems with alcohol or drugs as those in other professions. An estimated 10 to 14 percent of medical professionals develop such problems at some point during their careers. However, they are five times more likely to misuse prescription medications such as opioid pain medications and benzodiazepine anti-anxiety drugs. Medical professionals are uniquely vulnerable to these medications due to a combination of stress, long hours and increased access. Those struggling with prescription medication abuse should immediately seek treatment. One option available is the Michigan Health Professional Recovery Program (HPRP). However, this particular recovery program may [Read More]

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
It has been nearly three months since the first cases of a new coronavirus pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China, and it is now a global outbreak. Yet, despite nearly 90,000 infections worldwide (most of them in China), the world still does not have a clear picture of some basic information about this outbreak.

In recent weeks, a smattering of scientific papers and government statements have begun to sketch the outlines of the epidemic. The Chinese national health commission has reported that more than 1,700 medical workers in the country had contracted the virus as of Feb 14—that is alarming. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that [Read More]

By JEREMY BELANGER with L. PAHL ZINN
Many providers are familiar with compliance in a health care context. They know to make agreements compliant with the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute, for instance. But the keys to a good compliance system (policies and procedures, designation of a compliance officer/committee, training and education, communication, ethics and culture, top-down compliance, enforcement, auditing and monitoring, and corrective action) apply to areas outside of health care as well, including the operation of a business. This article will discuss two areas in which a business should apply the principles of compliance to their business practices: antitrust and tax.

Broadly speaking, antitrust laws are about protecting [Read More]