By PHIL GALEWITZ
Despite Republican resistance to the federal health law, the percentage of Americans without health insurance in 2017 remained the same as during the last year of the Obama administration, according to a closely watched report from the Census Bureau.

However, the uninsured rate did rise in 14 states. It was not immediately clear why, because the states varied dramatically by location, politics and whether they had expanded Medicaid under the federal health law. Those states included Texas, Florida, Vermont, Minnesota and Oregon.

The uninsured rate fell in three states: California, New York and Louisiana.

An estimated 8.8 percent of the population, or about 28.5 million people, did not have health insurance [Read More]

By EMMARIE HUETTEMAN
There are many lawmakers who made their names in health care, seeking to usher through historic changes to a broken system.

John McCain was not one of them.

And yet, the six-term senator from Arizona and decorated military veteran leaves behind his own health care legacy, seemingly driven less by his interest in health care policy than his disdain for bullies trampling the “little guy.”

He was not always successful. While McCain was instrumental in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, most of the health initiatives he undertook failed after running afoul of traditional Republican priorities. His prescriptions often involved more government regulation and increased taxes.

In 2008, [Read More]

By FRED SCHULTE
As Purdue Pharma faced mounting criticism over deaths linked to OxyContin, rival drugmakers saw a chance to boost sales by stepping up marketing of similarly dangerous painkillers, such as fentanyl, morphine and methadone, Purdue internal documents reveal.

Purdue’s 1996-2002 marketing plans for OxyContin, which Kaiser Health News made public this year for the first time, offer an unprecedented look at how that company spent millions of dollars to push opioids for growing legions of pain sufferers. A wave of lawsuits demanding reimbursement and accountability for the opioid crisis now ravaging communities has heightened awareness about how and when drug makers realized the potential dangers of their products.

The Purdue documents [Read More]

The state still doesn’t have an exact figure on the number of Healthy Michigan recipients who could lose health coverage because of the work requirements recently enacted by the Legislature.

However, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said it doesn’t expect more than 400,000 of the roughly 680,000 Healthy Michigan recipients to be affected by the 80 hours-per-month requirement that came with Sen. Mike Shirkey’s (R-Clarklake) SB 0897, signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder in June.

That 400,000 number is based on subtracting from the total program population the number of people who are already meeting those hours, or are exempt from other work requirements posed by food assistance [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
In the waning days of summer, I allow myself to meander at bit, including in my columns.

First off is an issue that has a bit of a back to school connection, and that is that primary care physician practices and their teams should be incubators for future physicians. While training in an ambulatory setting is preferable to a hospital setting, such an environment generally doesn’t reflect the value of the ongoing relationship that is developed between the PCP and patient—a relationship that can reinforce healthy behaviors and provide health strategies that help prevent or manage chronic conditions and co-morbidities.

When residents are trained day in and day out in [Read More]

By REESA N. BENKOFF & DUSTIN WACHLER
Michigan healthcare providers contemplating a relationship with private equity investors must be aware of various legal considerations relative to such arrangements. Increasingly, private equity investors are becoming more interested in investing in healthcare entities. Such investments often present lucrative opportunities for healthcare providers, yet these arrangements implicate a myriad of legal issues. This article will focus on health law issues, however other legal issues including, without limitation, corporate, tax and real estate matters, must be considered when evaluating private equity investment in healthcare entities.

Michigan laws include a legal doctrine commonly referred to as the corporate practice of medicine (CPOM) doctrine. CPOM laws [Read More]

By KIMBERLY J. RUPPEL
With the ever-growing opioid crisis and the president’s call to action to address that crisis, primary care, pain management and behavioral health providers in particular may be faced with privacy issues dealing with a patient’s family, friends or others in relation to treatment for opioid abuse. What can a provider disclose to others in the aftermath of an overdose in order to assist a patient’s recovery efforts and prevent future incidents? What information can a provider share about a patient’s condition and treatment in such a situation?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits disclosure of a person’s protected health information (PHI) to family members, [Read More]

Health Org: Prosecuting Lyon Could Cause ‘Threat’ Nationwide
A non-profit organization representing health agencies and public health professionals says holding state Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon criminally responsible for actions done in his professional responsibility could “cause a threat to public health nationwide.”

A second nonprofit organization disagreed with criticism of criminal accountability for the Flint water crisis.

The two statements came in amicus curiae briefs filed by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and Community Based Organizing Partners (CBOP), respectively, just two days before Lyon learns if he will head to trial on felony criminal charges for decisions he made during Flint’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks [Read More]

By ALLAN DOBZYNIAK, MD
Is there any life remaining in the longstanding and cherished method of healthcare delivery by staunchly independent, patient-centric physician entrepreneurs? Do those physicians relishing the autonomy of small businesses aligned around patient care still exist? Are the market and political forces evolving in ways not permitting independence for such physicians, and is their demise inevitable?

When examining the history of healthcare in the United States, at some point predicting that the private practice of medicine would be in peril now seems inevitable. Tax-exempt policy toward employer-based health insurance, the expensive cost-plus Medicare and Medicaid payment policy at the outset of those programs in the 1960s and first-dollar (no [Read More]

By JULIE APPLEBY
Insurers will again be able to sell short-term health insurance good for up to 12 months under final rules released Aug. 1 by the Trump administration.

This action overturns an Obama administration directive that limited such plans to 90 days. It also adds a new twist: If they wish, insurers can make the short-term plans renewable for up to three years.

The rule will “help increase choices for Americans faced with escalating premiums and dwindling options in the individual market, said James Parker, a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

But the plans could also raise premiums for those who remain in the Affordable Care Act marketplace [Read More]