(TROY) – Four Democratic lawmakers representing parts of Oakland County spoke to a filled room about the Medicaid reforms recently signed by President Donald Trump. They predicted heightened administrative costs resulting in services and enrollees being dropped unintentionally, as well as the state having to create new revenue to cover funding losses.

The four Democrats included Reps. Sharon MacDonell (D-Troy) and Natalie Price (D-Berkley), as well as Sens. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) and Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), a 2026 candidate for the U.S. Senate.

The event was held in the Troy Community Center, with more than 110 people inside the room.

Also on their panel were Royal Oak Schools Superintendent Mary Beth Fitzpatrick, Chief Operating Officer Jamie Bragg-Lovejoy of the [Read More]

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

The most recent data provided by the Michigan Health Professional Recovery Program (HPRP) for the fiscal year 2024 indicates that a significant percentage of health care providers receiving treatment through HPRP have been subsequently reported by the program to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) for disciplinary action.  Of course, health professionals struggling with substance abuse should immediately seek treatment. However, the data regarding the percentage of referrals to HPRP that result in disciplinary action suggests that this recovery program may not be the right choice for all providers.

Michigan’s HPRP was established to help health care providers struggling with substance abuse [Read More]

DAVID J. DAVIDSON, ESQ.
Dickinson Wright

Much has been written about the healthcare policy changes implemented by the 2025 Trump administration. President Trump has issued numerous Executive Orders that establish new policies and rescind actions taken by previous administrations. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is overhauling and refocusing Health & Human Services. Dr. Mehmet Oz is implementing new policies at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and auditing Medicare Advantage plans (of which he has been a historical proponent). The Food & Drug Administration is revising its Generally Regarded as Safe standards, fast-tracking approvals of new drugs, minimizing animal testing, and increasing its use of Artificial Intelligence. The National Institute of Health [Read More]

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

Report On Psychiatric Bed Shortage To Come

In a House committee’s final hearing on the psychiatric bed shortage, Chair Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar) said the House Oversight Subcommittee on Public Health and Food Security will be compiling a comprehensive report on what they’ve learned and will be recommending legislation based on that.

Bierlein said his office fully intends to continue meeting and collaborating to produce a report based on committee testimony and turn that into legislative recommendations.

One such suggestion would be to invest money in psychiatric beds to reduce the strain on jails, emergency rooms and local law enforcement, which [Read More]

Two Democratic-led Senate committees in June adopted a report projecting that the U.S. House Republicans’ proposed Medicaid reforms will create a $2 billion hole in the state budget and drop more than 500,000 beneficiaries due to new paperwork or eligibility obligations.

The report was adopted by the Senate Health Policy Committee, as well as the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services. For Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores)’s health policy committee, the report was accepted into the panel’s record through an unopposed motion without a roll call vote.

Meanwhile, for Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit)’s appropriations subcommittee, the report was adopted along partisan lines.

While speaking to MIRS, Santana [Read More]

By ARTHUR ALLEN

Within an hour of receiving a COVID vaccination in November 2020, Utah preschool teacher Brianne Dressen felt pins and needles through her arms and legs. In the medical odyssey that followed, she suffered double vision, chronic nausea, brain fog, and profound weakness. Once a rock climber, she became a couch potato.

Although Dressen’s symptoms were rare in that season of hundreds of millions of COVID vaccinations, they were common enough to draw the attention of a National Institutes of Health neuroscientist named Avindra Nath, who examined Dressen and more than 30 other people with a similar syndrome in 2021. He recommended Dressen take steroids and antibodies — treatments that saved [Read More]

By JENNI COLAGIOVANNI & ERIN LIECHTY
Wachler & Associates, P.C.

On May 21, 2025, CMS announced its plan to significantly expand audit efforts of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. CMS’ expanded audit effort is two-fold: (1) audit all eligible MA contracts for all newly initiated audit payment years, and (2) expedite audits from payment years 2018 to 2024. The Trump administration is turning its attention to these plans because it is estimated that MA plans have overbilled the government between $17 billion and $43 billion annually and because despite the vast overpayment suspected there has been no concerted effort to audit these plans since 2007.

CMS’ MA audit expansion plan is comprised of [Read More]

By RALPH LEVY
Dickinson Wright

Although in prior articles in this publication, I addressed tax issues faced by physicians and other practice groups, the purpose of this article is to guide physicians and other medical professionals as they compare the taxes payable by them under completing offers to join practice groups. These tax consequences will vary depending on several factors, including whether the offer includes equity ownership and whether or not the group is organized as a professional corporation.

Suppose the offer is for employment without an ownership interest in the practice group, regardless of whether the employer is organized as a professional corporation (PC) or as a professional limited liability company (PLLC). [Read More]

AG Reaches Agreement To Clean Up PFAS-Contaminated Materials

Attorney General Dana Nessel has reached a settlement agreement with Domtar Industries and E.B. Eddy Paper to address releases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at the Techni-Comp Inc. composting site near Port Huron.

Under the terms of the settlement, Domtar has agreed to remove compost piles containing sludges contaminated with PFAS at the site and dispose of the contaminated material in a licensed landfill. In addition, Domtar will investigate PFAS in sediments in surface waters at the site.

The settlement, entered as an enforceable Consent Decree by the 31st Circuit Court in St. Clair County on June 20, includes a $300,000 payment to the Department of [Read More]

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Health care has proved a vulnerable target for the firehose of cuts and policy changes President Donald Trump ordered in the name of reducing waste and improving efficiency. But most of the impact isn’t as tangible as, say, higher egg prices at the grocery store.

One thing experts from a wide range of fields, from basic science to public health, agree on: The damage will be varied and immense. “It’s exceedingly foolish to cut funding in this way,” said Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and former director of both the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

The blaze of cuts have yielded nonsensical and perhaps unintended [Read More]