Medical Liability

In December, 2024, MCEP is actively working to oppose HBs 6085 and 6086, as well as SBs 1158 and 1159, which have been introduced in the current lame duck session and with inadequate debate and no input from physicians. By raising non-economic caps on medical liability and applying caps to each defendant independently, these bills, if passed, would be anticipated to increase defensive medicine, exacerbate systems inefficiencies, increase costs to patients, and decrease access to care.

Emergency Department Assaults

MCEP successfully advocated for the passage of HBs 4520 and 4521, which increased the penalties for assault of healthcare workers. These bills were signed into law by Governor Whitmer on December 6, 2023 as Public Acts 271 and 272 of 2023.

Michigan No Surprises Act

Since the passage of HB 4459 (2020) we have seen private insurers use this legislation to unfairly negotiate contracts with EM groups down to the 150% of Medicare rate. MCEP has been working with DIFS, legislatures, and MSMS to pursue changes in this legislation to reset the market for renegotiating contracts that better reflect the fair market value of the work that emergency medicine physicians provide.

Medicaid Pay Increase

MCEP has been meeting regularly with MDHHS to advocate for increases in the two tier Medicaid reimbursement amount. We were successful in obtaining a 7% increase in both discharge and admission reimbursement rates in late 2023. We will continue to push for increases until we reach the goal of full payor parity between Medicaid and Medicare.

Responsive

Reimbursement, liability issues, violence in the ED, as well as other issues can be brought to the attention of policy makers to support Emergency Medicine and its practitioners in the State of Michigan. Your dollars will have a real impact.

OON Billing/Surprise Billing

MCEP supports protecting patients from high cost surprise medical bills and keeping them out of the middle of reimbursement disputes between clinicians and insurance companies.