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.

MCEP is excited to express our strong support of HB4532-4535, introduced in the Michigan House (June 2025) by Representative Natalie Price. MCEP worked with Representative Price to provide input on this important bipartisan bill package that will enact enhanced penalties for anyone who commits an act of violence against a healthcare worker or medical volunteer, with important guardrails for those suffering from acute mental health crises. With the passage of these bills, anyone who assaults a healthcare worker or medical volunteer, whether patient or visitor or member of the public, will be subject to prosecution with significant felony penalties.

Scope Creep

MCEP is actively working alongside other physician organizations in the state to oppose HB 4399 and SB 268 (2025), which would allow nurse practitioners to practice medicine independently without physician oversight. The 2025 LDP class advocated with legislators for opposition to HB 4399 during their visit to the state capital in May, and former MCEP Board member Dr. Pamela Coffey testified on behalf of MCEP in opposition to HB 4399 at the Michigan House of Representatives Health Policy Committee hearing in May 2025. MCEP supports physician-led patient-centered care teams and opposes the unsupervised practice of medicine by nurse practitioners.

Michigan Surprise Billing Act

Since the passage of HB 4459 (2020), despite significant inflation in the following years, MCEP members have seen insurers use this legislation to pressure EM groups to accept lower in-network contract rates or risk defaulting to out of network rates as low as 150% of the Medicare rate. MCEP has been working with DIFS and legislators to pursue changes in this legislation to allow the negotiation of contracts that better reflect the fair market value for the patient care that emergency physicians provide. 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.

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.

Medical Liability

In December 2024, MCEP worked with other physician organizations to oppose HBs 6085 and 6086 and SBs 1158 and 1159. These bills were introduced in the lame duck session with inadequate debate and no input from physicians. By proposing to raise non-economic caps on medical liability and applying caps to each defendant independently, these bills, if passed, were anticipated to have increased defensive medicine, exacerbated systems inefficiencies, increased costs to patients, and decreased access to care. Physician advocacy was successful, and the bills did not pass.

Other Issues

MCEP continues to monitor other active issues in the state legislature, including introduced legislation to prohibit the use of artificial intelligence to deny, modify, or delay claims, introduced legislation to prohibit non-compete clauses in physician contracts, and introduced legislation to modify licensing and CME requirements. Your dollars have a real impact in allowing us to advocate for emergency physicians and the patients we serve.