By BERNARD J. WOLFSON
If you want to create a perfect storm at Covered California and other Affordable Care Act marketplaces, all you have to do is make enrollment more time-consuming, ratchet up the toll on consumers’ pocketbooks, and terminate financial aid for some of the youngest and healthiest enrollees.

And presto: You’ve got people dropping coverage; rising costs; and a smaller, sicker group of enrollees, which translates to higher premiums.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have just checked that achievement off their list.

They have done it with the sprawling tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed on July 4 and a related set of new regulations released by the Centers for Medicare [Read More]

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

Students Refunded $99 Fee That Professor Sent To Planned Parenthood

A federal judge dismissed a 2023 lawsuit alleging a Michigan State University professor forced students to pay fees she bragged on Facebook went “100%” to Planned Parenthood.

The plaintiffs, Nathan Barbieri and Nolan Radomski, alleged then-marketing professor Amy Wisner compelled her 600 students to pay a $99 membership fee to join “The Rebellion Community,” which the judge described as “an online global learning platform” Wisner controlled and operated.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney ruled that Barbieri and Radomski lack standing because they have “not adequately alleged a current or future injury against” Wisner, who was placed on [Read More]

By STEPHEN SHAVER
Wachler & Associates

Hospice care, once viewed as a relatively quiet corner of the Medicare program, is now under a glaring spotlight. A sharp uptick in provider enrollment, especially in specific regions, combined with mounting evidence of fraud, waste, and abuse, has led the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to escalate oversight efforts. From launching new enrollment monitoring protocols to accelerating disenrollment for alleged bad actors, CMS is reshaping the regulatory landscape for hospice care and enforcement trends across the nation may soon come to hospice providers in Michigan.

At the center of this evolving oversight regime is the Provisional Period of Enhanced Oversight (PPEO) a CMS initiative [Read More]

By DUSTIN PLUMADORE
With the rebound of private equity (“PE”) activity in healthcare across the United States, the Corporate Practice of Medicine and Dentistry (“CPOM” or “CPOD”) has likewise experienced renewed focus by state legislatures and enforcement agencies in 2025.[i]  However, despite this rekindled attention, the often-referenced “Friendly PC” model remains the best structural strategy to ensure post-closing compliance with CPOM and CPOD regulations in most jurisdictions. Constructing a compliant “Friendly PC” structure will probably require the support of expert legal counsel to draft and negotiate the series of agreements necessary for its proper implementation. However, the following paragraphs identify some key considerations for three ancillary agreements, outside of [Read More]

A health trade organization’s leader said state lawmakers have the opportunity to create policies and enact legislation to help healthcare and provider communities following the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA) CEO Brian Peters said during a virtual press call this morning that one issue comes from restrictions on a state’s ability to tax healthcare providers to finance the state’s Medicaid costs that aren’t covered by federal dollars.

However, he said one of the steps the state could take is to use state resources and dollars to fund Medicaid to make up for what is lost by the moratorium on new or increased provider taxes.

Peters [Read More]