By JUDITH GRAHAM
Dr. Hasan Shanawani was overcome by frustration. So, he picked up his cellphone and began sharing on Twitter his family’s enraging experiences with the U.S. health care system.
It was an act of defiance — and desperation. Like millions of people who are sick or old and the families who care for them, this physician was disheartened by the health care system’s complexity and its all-too-frequent absence of caring and compassion.

Shanawani, a high-ranking physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs, had learned the day before that his 83-year-old father, also a physician, was hospitalized in New Jersey with a spinal fracture. But instead of being admitted as an inpatient, [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
As any regular reader of this column knows, I’m a big booster of the pharmacy profession and have been committed to maximizing the skill level and reach of pharmacists when it comes to primary care. That’s why our organization was among the first Patient Care Organizations (formerly PO’s) in Michigan to actively recruit pharmacists into care management training programs and to seek out pharmacists to serve as care managers at large primary care practices within our network. It’s been gratifying to see other Patient Care Organizations follow suit.

Still, I was taken aback when I read a recent Detroit Free Press article with the headline, “Flocking to pharmacies instead [Read More]

By ALLAN DOBZYNIAK, MD
Doctor, if you have recently visited with upper hospital management in the plush executive suite, it was most surely you who stood out conspicuously. Being greeted by one of the administrative secretaries, you were asked to be seated and wait along with others, consultants, lower level management, salesmen, business associates, insurance executives and maybe even golf buddies. You were notable as the only one not appearing in sartorial splendor, groomed to the hilt, well rested and adorned in a three-piece suit. You were the person bleary-eyed from the night shift or up all night with an emergency, dressed in a white coat with pockets full of papers [Read More]

By ANDREW B. WACHLER, ESQ.
On Nov. 1, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Boasberg ruled that the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) must eliminate the Medicare appeals backlog by the end of fiscal year 2022.

As of the end of 2018, there was a backlog of 426,594 appeals. Judge Boasberg’s ruling imposes a timetable for reducing the backlog of appeals. Specifically, HHS must clear 19 percent of the appeals by the end of fiscal year 2019; 49 percent of the appeals by the end of fiscal year 2020; 75 percent by the end of fiscal year 2021; and eliminate the backlog entirely by the end of 2022. Beginning [Read More]

By JULIE ROVNER
“The Mueller Report” is so last week’s news. Health care has returned in force as the dominant political issue in Washington, reflecting what voters have been telling pollsters for the past year.

The Trump administration moved night to get more in line with President Donald Trump’s voter base by endorsing a Texas federal judge’s December opinion that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down as unconstitutional.

After he arrived at the Capitol for lunch with Republican senators Tuesday, Trump endorsed the change, suggesting it will usher in Republican priorities instead. “The Republican Party will soon be known as the ‘party of health care!’” he told reporters.

Less than two [Read More]

Critics of Medicaid work requirements say that a U.S. district judge’s ruling disapproving work requirements for Medicaid recipients in Kentucky and Arkansas could lead to a similar ruling in Michigan.

Judge James Boaasberg in Washington, D.C., recently ruled work requirements to receive Medicaid in Kentucky and Arkansas are “arbitrary and capricious.” That may also affect states with similar laws, according to Families USA, a nonprofit health care organization.

Michigan is one of those. Republican lawmakers pursued work requirements for Medicaid recipients enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Plan last year. They take effect next year.

Sen. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) sponsored the bill that added the work requirements after President Donald Trump approved states to [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
Because my column is due a few weeks prior to publication, I can only hope that the ugliness of the Wayne State University Board of Governors schism has diminished by the time you are reading this. Still, I am compelled to comment on what has disintegrated into personal name calling and the appearance of grandstanding by some board members. Lost in all this seems to be an understanding of the mission and values of a university and the role of its board of governors.

While I don’t want to get involved here in the discussion on whether University boards of governors should be appointed or elected, the fact of [Read More]

The Authority Health Board of Directors has named Loretta V. Bush, MSA, president and CEO of Authority Health, effective May 1, announced Gail Warden, Chairman of the Authority Health Board. Ms. Bush will replace Chris Allen, who has served as president of Authority Health since its inception in 2004, who will retire on April 30.

“I am pleased to announce that Loretta Bush will be our new president and CEO,” Gail Warden said. “Her extensive experience in public health practice and administration makes her an excellent candidate to lead our organization in the next phase of its history. She has impressive background addressing the complex health issues of the uninsured, underinsured [Read More]

By JESSE ADAM MARKOS, ESQ.
The National Practitioner Data Bank (Data Bank) has published an article in the April 2019 issue of NPDB Insights that urges reporting entities to include a detailed narrative when submitting an Adverse Action Report. The Data Bank’s stated purpose for requesting detailed information is to give organizations a more complete picture of what occurred to assist in making critical hiring and credentialing decisions. However, it will also result in healthcare providers being saddled with a career-damaging Data Bank report that contain inaccurate details and contested facts. Importantly, options are available to these providers to help minimize the damage. More specifically, healthcare providers have the right [Read More]

GOP Lawmakers Think DHHS Caro Study A Sham
Two Republicans representing Tuscola County say the state has already made up its mind about moving the replacement Caro Center, based on emails published by a TV station.

ABC 12 got its hands on emails from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer administration officials discussing the future of the proposed replacement for the psychiatric facility, including messages from Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

According to the report, Gordon in January “increasingly believes that closing Caro entirely is the correct path forward.”

In another email “within weeks,” Gordon suggested the idea of forming a commission “that would help us get the right answer, [Read More]