(Editor’s Note: The following is a statement issued by the Genesee County Medical Society, June 4)
The Genesee County Medical Society has reviewed the position taken by the Medical Staff of the Hurley Medical Center regarding the term “lead poisoned.” It’s very important to recognize there are no strict guidelines that would allow us to state that using the term “exposed” is different than using the term “poisoned” in regard to physiologic disruption caused by the toxic metal lead. It is vital to emphasize that there is no safe amount of lead when ingested by children, pregnant women, or any person daily for 15 months without any risk to health and/or [Read More]

By KEVIN R. MISEREZ, ESQ.
Wachler & Associates, P.C.
On May 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published its 60-day notice to allow interested stakeholders the opportunity to comment on CMS’s proposed Review Choice Demonstration for Home Health Services (revised demonstration). The Review Choice Demonstration is a revised version of the CMS’s previous Pre-Claim Review Demonstration for Home Health Services, which was paused by CMS on April 1, 2017. According to CMS, the revised demonstration will “offer more flexibility and choice for providers.”

Under the revised demonstration, home health agency providers subject to the demonstration have the choice of participating in either a 100 percent pre-claim review or 100 percent [Read More]

By ALLAN DOBZYNIAK, MD
The solution to healthcare’s costs and access problems is quite obvious. It has been repeatedly suggested that what is needed is a plethora of doctors. Of course this would lower cost and increase access. “Overpayment” of U.S. doctors would disappear as the market becomes oversaturated. Access to care would no longer be an issue as doctors compete for patients.

Only a few minor adjustments would be needed. Time and cost as barriers to manufacturing legions of new doctors could be rectified by eliminating the non-essential four years of college and the extraneous liberal arts courses. A year or so of several science courses in the local community college [Read More]

By: KERRY B. HARVEY & ANDREW L. SPARKS
Michigan, like the rest of the country, suffers from an opioid epidemic. Every day, more than 100 Americans die from an opioid overdose. Some economists estimate that the opioid crisis has cost the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion since 2001 and is on pace to cost an additional $500 billion through 2020.

The profligate use of opioid pain relievers has contributed mightily to the epidemic. A few data points tell the story:

• About a quarter of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain do not use them as directed.

• Roughly 4 out of 5 heroin users first abused prescription opioids.

• United States [Read More]

Legalized Pot Goes To Ballot, House Opts Not To Vote
Not only did the House Republican caucus not have the votes to legislatively adopt and amend a citizen initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana, House Speaker Tom Leonard (R-DeWitt) said June 5 he’s not convinced the state Senate really did either.

Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive), presented with polling showing recreational marijuana passing this fall, said he had 20 votes in the Senate to pass the marijuana legalization citizens initiative.

Had the House passed it June 5, the last day of the 40-day constitutional deadline, Meekhof pledged he would have, too, giving Republican lawmakers an easier shot at amending the [Read More]

A Flint doctor whose research helped expose the lead contamination crisis in Flint’s drinking water said it was the chief medical executive’s work that moved state officials “to change course” in the water crisis.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician with Hurley Medical Center and Michigan State University, said Dr. Eden Wells’ phone call to her in October 2015 got the state to relook at its results—which contradicted the doctor’s research—of lead blood levels in Flint’s children.

“It was her phone call and I think what she did at the state level to re-look at the data . . . that really got them to change course,” the doctor testified April 24 at [Read More]

By JAY HANCOCK 
The Maryland Proton Treatment Center chose “Survivor” as the theme for its grand opening in 2016, invoking the reality-TV show’s tropical sets with its own Tiki torches, palm trees and thatched booths piled with pineapples and bananas.

It was the perfect motif for a facility dedicated to fighting cancer. Jeff Probst, host of CBS’ “Survivor,” greeted guests via video from a Fiji beach.

But behind the scenes, the $200 million center’s own survival was less than certain. Insurers were hesitating to cover procedures at the Baltimore facility, affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical Center. The private investors who developed the machine had badly overestimated the number of patients it [Read More]

Budget Only Pays DHHS Officials’ Wages If Feds Approve Medicaid Waiver

Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and his fellow unclassified employees would only be paid next year if the feds approve Michigan’s Medicaid expansion waiver as Republican lawmakers argue it was written, according to a Senate subcommittee spending plan approved April 17.

Sen. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) and DHHS Subcommittee Chair Peter MacGregor (R-Rockford) argue the “Healthy Michigan” waivers the federal government approved do not reflect 2013 law that requires beneficiaries to pay more in co-pays and annual premiums after four years on the program.

SB 0856 puts a firm four-year cap on the Healthy Michigan program and withholds unclassified [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
I’m still not done talking about the Social Determinants of Health (#SDOH). On the contrary, I’m fired up even further after the April 18 gathering at Oakland University for the conference MedNetOne Health Solutions co-presented with the Oakland University School of Health Sciences: Better Upstream Health for Better Downstream Care.

Approximately 170 kindred spirits and current and future upstreamists gathered for a full day of discussing how Michiganders can take aim at some of the key drivers of poor health by supporting (and funding) activities that mitigate negative social realities earlier in the game. An example I like to use is an individual with Type 2 diabetes whose social [Read More]

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

Hospitals have long been required to file a National Practitioner Data Bank (Data Bank) report on any health care provider’s voluntary surrender of clinical privileges if an investigation is underway or to avoid an investigation. In practice, the number of such cases that were reported was limited by the uncertainty and lack of sufficient guidance regarding which specific activities qualify as an “investigation” and when such an investigation officially commenced. However, the new adoption by the revised Data Bank Guidebook of an expanded description of what qualifies as a reportable investigation has resulted in increased reporting.

By way of background, the Data Bank [Read More]