Three huge and influential employers, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase, announced Jan. 30 they were partnering to create an independent company aimed at reining in health-care costs for their U.S. employees.

There were almost no details available about what the company would do or how it would use technology to disrupt and simplify the complicated fabric of American health care. But there’s no doubt that the companies, which collectively employ more than 1 million workers worldwide, have a real interest in ratcheting down their spending on health care. Health-care premiums are split between employers and employees and have been growing much faster than wages.

Major health company stock prices tumbled [Read More]

By EWA MATUSZEWSKI
According to the CDC website, many health plans and employer groups offer diabetes prevention programs (DPP) because scientific research shows that they work. The federal government must read its own webpages (eventually) because effective April 1, 2018, Medicare and Medicare Advantage programs will begin reimbursing for DPP services as well. It’s long overdue, but now that it’s on the horizon, we need to take action as a healthcare community and encourage the full use of these programs to raise awareness of the high incidence of Type 2 diabetes and halt its devastating impact on overall health and quality of life. Some quick facts:

Eighty-six million adults in the United [Read More]

By DUSTIN WACHLER-WACHLER & ASSOCIATES, P.C.
Physicians increasingly seek to provide comprehensive care and increase revenue by offering clinical laboratory services to their existing patients. While many laboratory arrangements are permissible, Michigan healthcare providers must be aware of federal and state authorities governing their ability to derive revenue from orders for clinical laboratory services.

Physician practices may provide testing for their own patients through a physician-office laboratory, or refer laboratory tests to an independent clinical laboratory. The federal Stark law prohibits a physician from referring Medicare or Medicaid patients for clinical laboratory services to an entity with which the physician or an immediate family member has a financial relationship. Michigan licensure [Read More]

By ROSE WILLIS-DICKINSON WRIGHT
The phrase “healthcare compliance program” is commonly used to describe those processes and procedures implemented by a healthcare provider to prevent submission of erroneous claims and combat fraudulent conduct. The expectation is that providers using internal controls will more efficiently monitor adherence to legal and regulatory requirements than providers without such controls in place. However, confusion remains over whether a healthcare compliance program is legally required for many healthcare providers, particularly those in clinical practice.

Some healthcare providers may believe a formal compliance program is not necessary until a clear, legal requirement is established involving detailed parameters and penalties. This perspective primarily comes from those who don’t [Read More]

By GERALD NATZKE, JR. DO
President
Genesee County Medical Society

As we enter the holiday season and ponder how 2017 has quickly flown past, many of us wonder if there is anything more we could medically do to assist the Flint residents who drank leaded water. We could easily argue that more should have been done to prevent this disaster by those responsible for monitoring the quality of the city’s water. Fortunately, a lot of good, caring people in this world have stepped up to provide aid. Several foundations, as well as the state and the federal government have granted monies for services to improve education, research, epidemiological needs and water line repair. [Read More]

By ALLAN DOBZYNIAK, MD
Blaming physicians for the “opioid crisis” is so far off the mark as to be potentially harmful. Then throw in pharmaceutical companies, and politics has definitely been substituted for truth. On “Face the Nation” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christi, chair of the president’s opioid commission, blamed overprescribing doctors. He said, “This crisis started not on a street corner somewhere. This crisis started in the doctors’ offices and hospitals of America.” In the following discussion I will not even mention the significant contribution to the crisis related to the obsession with pain management by JCAHO, Medicare, Medicaid and finally by private insurance companies. But remember it was [Read More]

The state is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming the Department of Technology, Management and Budget showed “blatant favoritism” in awarding a $657 million contract for the Healthy Kids Dental Program.

The state says MCNA Insurance Company’s suit filed in Ingham County should be dismissed “because disappointed bidders lack standing to challenge a public bid process,” according to court documents.

The state further alleges the court doesn’t have jurisdiction over MCNA’s appeal because DTMB’s award recommendation was not a final decision by a judicial agency.

“The state’s attempt to dismiss the case, on a technicality, sends a clear message: It believes DTMB’s procurement decisions are immune from judicial review and it [Read More]

The Genesee County Medical Society presents a Dinner Business Meeting and Medical Community Town Hall

Mindfulness: its Importance to the Medical Community and Patients
February 1, 2018
Flint Golf Club
3100 Lakewood Drive
Flint, MI 48507

Physicians, Practice Managers, and Health Care Professionals Welcome!
$40.00 – GCMS Members, Spouses, Practice Managers, & Staff
$40.00 – Genesee County Osteopathic Association Physician Members & Spouses
$25.00 – Residents & Students
$75.00 – All Non-Member Guests

Evening Schedule:
6 pm, Registration & Social Hour
6:30 pm, Dinner
7 pm, Meeting
7:15 pm, Presentations

Space is limited!
Please register by January 25, 2018
Please mail your reservation payment to:
Genesee County Medical Society
4438 Oak Bridge Drive, Suite B
Flint, MI 48532
Email Sherry at [Read More]

(FLINT) – A Wayne State University professor testified that Michigan’s chief medical executive consistently tried to blame Genesee County hospitals for the 2014 and 2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks in Flint.

Shawn McElmurry, who led a team of researchers trying to identify the source of the outbreak that is attributed to 12 deaths, also testified Dec. 20 at the preliminary exam for Dr. Eden Wells that he told Gov. Rick Snyder that the team’s study “wasn’t going well” and he could use his help to carry out much-needed testing.

“It was made clear to me I don’t (report) directly to the governor,” McElmurry testified. ” . . . It was made clear to [Read More]

By JOHN DALEY
Colorado Public Radio

Seven years ago, Robert Kerley, who makes his living as a truck driver, was loading drywall when a gust of wind knocked him off the trailer. Kerley fell 14 feet and hurt his back.

For pain, a series of doctors prescribed him a variety of opioids: Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin.

In less than a year, the 45-year-old from Federal Heights, Colo., said he was hooked. “I spent most of my time high, laying on the couch, not doing nothing, falling asleep everywhere,” he said.

Kerley lost weight. He lost his job. His relationships with his wife and kids suffered. He remembers when he hit rock bottom: One night hanging [Read More]