I am the health care, insurance and environmental reporter with Crain's Detroit Business. I was born in Sarasota, Florida, and graduated from the University of Florida. I have worked for Crain's a total of 12 years, including 10 years at CDB's sister publication, Modern Healthcare in Chicago.
04/20/12 Some 117 scientists and researchers from 11 universities and colleges in Michigan have penned a letter to the state's 17-member congressional delegation urging them to prevent proposed legislation that could reverse tough new regulations on mercury emissions and other air toxins adopted last December by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will help "protect and clean the air we breathe, assure that local fish are safer to eat, and protect and preserve the wildlife and natural ...more »
03/23/12 In an ironic timing of events, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is celebrating its 2nd birthday today, three days ahead of when the U.S. Supreme Court begins to hear oral arguments to constitutional challenges to the bill.
By end of June, PPACA could be history or on its way toward a 3rd birthday, unless President Obama is defeated in November by one of his Republican challengers, all who have pledged to do what they can to repeal or gut the health reform bill.
To me, most of the ...more »
03/16/12 Physicians often have their pulse on emerging social issues because they talk with and treat people for a variety of health and psychological reasons.
As small businessmen, physicians are also very sensitive to changing regulations, rising practice expenses and revenue fluctuations, primarily from commercial health insurers and such public payers as Medicare and Medicaid.
At the Wayne County Medical Society meeting last Wednesday, several resolutions were approved by the medical society's House of ...more »
03/09/12 Who opposes two key cost containment provisions – an independent physician payment board and limits on what insurance companies pay out for administrative costs – in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010?
Physicians and insurance agents in Michigan and nationally are two groups taking the lead in asking Congress to nix these two provisions in the health care reform bill that were soley designed to restrain rising health care costs.
Why? On the ...more »
 02/24/12 The long-rumored sale of financially struggling Garden City Hospital, a 323-bed osteopathic hospital, may be finally out of the closet.
I have been hearing rumors that Garden City has been considering a sale or merger since the summer of 2010. I heard it again last year (see below for quotes).
While CEO Gary Ley has denied Garden City is up for sale in previous exchanges with me, The Detroit News recently reported that the 25-year-old independent hospital is up for sale – quoting Ley himself. ...more »
02/17/12 The half dozen insurance agents in Southeast Michigan I have interviewed the past year pretty much all have said that just few of their clients have taken advantage of a 35 percent maximum tax credit for purchasing health insurance that is part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
But new data released Thursday in a telephone press conference with officials of the White House and Small Business Administration shows otherwise.
PS. I listened to the White House and Small Business Administration press ...more »
 02/03/12 The guy representing Michigan in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was at the Crain's Detroit office the other day to talk about health care reform and the urgency, as he sees it, that Michigan move forward with a bill to authorize a state health insurance exchange.
Kenneth Munson is the HHS regional director based in Chicago of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
On a side note, Munson lives in Milwaukee where he takes a 90-minute commute each day on Amtrak ...more »
01/27/12 It is amazing what a little health care reform – or talk of health care reform – can do to stem the trend of out-of-control rising health care costs.
Since April 2010, when Congress approved and President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, national spending on health care has slowed to a 3.9 percent increase in 2010 compared with a 6.2 percent increase in 2007, the year before the 2008 presidential elections, when health care reform was hotly debated.
These medical ...more »
 01/24/12 Everybody loves clowns, right?
Well, when my daughter, Casey, was four, she did not like Bozo the Clown one bit.
More on that story later because this blog is supposed to be about Patch Adams the Clown.
Last week, you see, the real Hunter "Patch" Adams was in town. He made an appearance last Thursday and Friday in Dearborn where he entertained children and seniors at the Oakwood Adult and Child Day Care Center as part of the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Martin ...more »
01/20/12 The University of Michigan Health System will open a new primary and specialty health center in Northville Township sometime in 2014, according to a plan approved Thursday by the U-M Board of Regents.
The $39 million outpatient facility, which will include 100,000 square feet of clinical and diagnostic services for adults and children, is near UM's Livonia Center for Specialty Care at 7 Mile Road and Haggerty Road.
"The care provided by the University of Michigan Health System is consistently ranked among ...more »
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