By AMANDA SEITZ & JULIE APPLEBY

One family in Virginia Beach, Virginia, just found out their health plan’s deductible will jump from $800 to $20,000 next year. About 200 miles north, in Maryland, another household learned they’ll pay $500 more monthly to insure their brood in 2026. And thousands of people in Idaho were greeted with insurance rates that’ll cost, on average, $100 more every month.

As shopping season opens for Affordable Care Act plans in some states, customers are confronting staggering costs for their health insurance next year. The extra federal subsidies put in place in 2021 that made coverage more affordable for millions of people will expire at the end of [Read More]

By KAITLYN DELBENE
Wachler & Associates, PC

This year has seen a continued emphasis within the federal administration on identifying fraud within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Increasingly, audit findings, as well as other investigatory efforts by CMS and federal partners, are leading to healthcare fraud investigations. This trend has picked up steam in recent months, and CMS has made various announcements telegraphing its efforts to combat fraud and abuse in federal healthcare programs. Providers should be aware of enforcement trends and consider seeking a legal or compliance review of their documentation and billing practices.

In June 2025, the Justice Department and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced the results of an [Read More]

By KIMBERLY J. RUPPEL
Dickinson Wright

It has been a busy year for the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) enforcement efforts against non-compete restrictive covenants in employment agreements.  During President Biden’s administration in 2024, the FTC issued a rule banning non-compete provisions in employment agreements with certain exceptions (the “Rule”).  That led to immediate litigation challenging the FTC’s authority.  Appeals were pending in two federal Circuits until early September of this year, at which time the FTC voluntarily withdrew both appeals, acknowledging the over-breadth of the Rule.  In doing so, the Trump administration’s FTC Chairman, Andrew Ferguson, indicated that the FTC would continue its enforcement actions on a case-by-case basis.

This statement was emphasized [Read More]

Lansing Lines is presented in cooperation with MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

Implicit Bias Training Removed From Health License Requirements Under Bill

The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) couldn’t require a health professional to complete an implicit bias training to obtain or renew a license under Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford)’s HB 4915 .

“Picture this, every state is like a large swimming pool. Some states have warm water, clear water, like Florida, some states like New York and California have murky water, cold water. And every state has to attract people and businesses, right? So everyone wants to jump into a nice, warm swimming pool with clear water. Unfortunately, Michigan has [Read More]

By PAUL NATINSKY

In the dizzying storm of deregulation and preposterous policy there is so much to sort that some small, but significant developments get only footnote treatment.

Far behind wholesale healthcare coverage cuts, fringe vaccine policy and a baseless assault on acetaminophen during pregnancy, lies Michigan Medicine and Corewell Health’s sudden discontinuance of gender-affirming care for transgender minors, reported by Crain’s Detroit Business Sept. 15.

Seems like just another liability-avoidant preemptive move by a company responding to pernicious and unpredictable federal policy. But it’s not. It’s worse.

Public pressure can work to limit—or reverse—coverage cuts, pediatricians and primary care docs can join together and press ahead with science-based vaccine schedules and push back [Read More]

By ANNA CLARK

This story first appeared in ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Just 15 months after receiving an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for excellence in community water fluoridation, the city of Grayling, Michigan, changed course.

With little notice or fanfare, council members voted unanimously in May to end Grayling’s decadeslong treatment program. The city shut down the equipment used to deliver the drinking water additive less than two weeks later.

Although it already paid for them, the town returned six unopened barrels of the fluoride treatment to the supplier.

Personal choice was the issue, [Read More]

By NOAM N. LEVEY, KATHERYN HOUGHTON & ARIELLE ZIONTS

With the Trump administration scaling back federal efforts to protect Americans from medical bills they can’t pay, advocates for patients and consumers have shifted their work to contain the nation’s medical debt problem to state Capitols.

Despite progress in some mostly blue states this year, however, recent setbacks in more conservative legislatures underscore the persistent challenges in strengthening patient protections.

Bills to shield patients from medical debt failed this year in Indiana, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming in the face of industry opposition. And advocates warn that states need to step up as millions of Americans are expected to lose insurance coverage because of [Read More]

By DANIEL AYYASH, ESQ.
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid  released the calendar year (CY) 2026 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule, introducing sweeping changes to Medicare Part B payment policy. Among the most significant updates are those addressing Medicare telehealth policy and a restructuring of how Medicare pays for skin substitute products commonly used by wound care providers.

Medicare Telehealth Policy Proposed Changes

Changes to the Medicare Telehealth Services List

In the Proposed Rule, CMS proposes simplifying the current five-step process to determine if a service qualifies for the Medicare Telehealth Services List. Under the new process, CMS would only keep three criteria: the service must be separately [Read More]

By ERICA ERMAN
Dickinson Wright

Growing up, my family played an unusual game around the dinner table. After sharing about our days, my dad (also a health care attorney) would ask my sisters and me to argue. He’d pick a topic, such as why my younger sister should have a later bedtime than me, or what movie we should rent at Blockbuster, and then we’d each be given roughly three minutes to present our arguments and another minute for rebuttal. The most challenging (and fun) part of the game was that we always had to argue the side other than what we naturally would have wanted. As it turns out, my dad [Read More]

Lansing Lines is presented in cooperation with MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

Study Shows Opioid Harm Reduction Reduces Deaths, Hep C, Hospitalizations

A new Department of Health and Human Services study showed 37 harm reduction agencies and programs have reduced overdose deaths, hepatitis C infections, and hospitalizations of addicted people.

The study indicated that more than 550 people were saved through the use of naloxone in 2024 and that there has been a 36 percent reduction in overdose deaths between 2023 and 2024. Michigan has given out more than 1.3 million naloxone kits and nearly 34,000 overdoses have been reversed since the launch of the Naloxone Direct Portal.

“These are not [Read More]