Tag: state budget

Hospital Nurses Ensure Healthcare Stays Top of Mind for State Legislators

Member News

The Michigan Organization for Nursing Leadership (MONL) and the American Nurses Association of Michigan (ANA-MI) hosted more than 75 nurses from across the state for an advocacy day at the Michigan State Capitol on Sept. 17.

Nurses from across the state, including many from MHA member hospitals, attended the advocacy day and spoke with lawmakers about protecting healthcare workers from violence, investing in hospitals and healthcare, and nurses’ voices are included when decisions are being made at the state legislative level.

The day featured presentations on healthcare priorities from both Senate Health Policy Chair Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) and House Health Policy Chair Curt VanderWall (R-Ludington). In addition, MONL and ANA-MI members heard from Representatives Natalie Price (D-Berkley) and Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar) on addressing workplace safety for healthcare workers. Throughout the day, MONL and ANA-MI leaders met with nearly 45 lawmakers and staff to share legislative and budget priorities.

The MHA recognizes the nurses from member hospitals, as well as lawmakers and legislative staff, who participated in discussions, emphasizing the essential role of hospitals and the urgent need to pass a state budget that prioritizes healthcare before the Sept. 30 deadline.

Members with any questions related to legislation and advocacy efforts may contact the advocacy team at the MHA.

Media Recap: State Budget & Vaccines

Member News, MHA In The News

The MHA received media coverage the week of Sept. 1 on the state budget and COVID-19 vaccines.

Several news outlets published stories related to the harmful impacts to healthcare found in the state budget bill passed by the Michigan House of Representatives.

Adam Carlson9&10 News aired a story Sept. 2 that includes an interview with Adam Carlson, senior vice president, advocacy, MHA, explaining the cuts found in the bill.

“It includes billions of dollars in cuts that impact things like maternal health care payments to physicians and all sorts of other healthcare related cuts that are completely unnecessary,” said Carlson.

The MHA issued a press release Sept. 3 sharing the House version of the budget endangers 20,000 hospital jobs and a $4.9 billion economic loss to the state. This led to a critical reaction from the House Speaker, resulting in stories from The Detroit News and Gongwer. A MHA media statement shared responding to the Speaker’s criticism was released that evening.

“We will not be bullied away from defending our patients. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting healthcare access throughout Michigan,” said Peters in the statement, that was included in the Gongwer story.

Lastly, Bridge published an article Sept. 4 providing information on how to access the COVID-19 vaccine. The MHA provided a comment for the story from Gary Roth, DO, chief medical officer, MHA.

“Our role is to support hospitals in their efforts to increase overall vaccination uptake and avoid the spread of vaccine preventable diseases, as the evidence is indisputable that vaccines are the best tool available to prevent severe illness and save lives,” said Roth.

Members with any questions regarding media requests should contact John Karasinski at the MHA.

House Budget Endangers 20,000 Hospital Jobs and $4.9 Billion Economic Loss

News Releases, Issues in Healthcare, Top Issues - Healthcare

An estimated 20,000 hospital jobs could be lost in Michigan and lead to a $4.9 billion loss to the state’s economy if the House version of the state budget ultimately is signed into law, according to new estimates from the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA).

The estimates consider the more than $2.5 billion in potential hospital funding cuts included in House Bill 4706. The impact on jobs would be particularly profound, as on average, 60% of a hospital’s budget is due to labor. Such a cut could have an additional estimated induced and indirect economic loss of $2.4 billion on the economy. More than one million jobs are directly, indirectly or induced by healthcare in the state.

“Healthcare is the largest private-sector employer in the state, with hospitals employing the most direct jobs within the sector with approximately 222,000 employees,” said MHA CEO Brian Peters. “Our calculations show the House version of the state budget could ultimately lead to a 9% reduction in the direct hospital workforce. Hospitals are one of the largest employers in each of their communities, meaning job losses to this magnitude would be felt in every corner of Michigan.”

Provisions of the budget bill that would lead to losses include:

  • New language that places $2.5 billion of hospital provider-tax funded payments in contingency line, requiring unnecessary administrative and legislative actions that could jeopardize timely hospital payments.
  • Elimination of at least $100 million of funding from the Specialty Network Access Fee (SNAF), which provides reimbursement to physicians caring for patients with Medicaid coverage.
  • Elimination of $10 million to support the Maternal Levels of Care verification and MI-AIM safety program for birthing hospitals.

Hospitals depend on stable funding, predictable reimbursements and policies that reflect the real costs of care. This is necessary from all healthcare payors, including the state. Eroding established funding levels and risking both the certainty and the timeliness of payments prevents hospitals from making needed investments in the hospital workforce, patient care and capital improvements.

House Budget Guts Hospital Funding

News Releases

The following statement can be attributed to Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

The proposed state budget from the Michigan House of Representatives guts hospital funding and would be disastrous if even a semblance of the cuts eventually makes it into the state budget. Michigan hospitals already stand to lose more than $6 billion over the next ten years due to federal budget cuts. Slashing more funding that supports delivering healthcare services and the nurses, physicians and other staff employed by hospitals harms Michigan and our more than 10 million residents.

Hospitals are already bracing for busier emergency departments, sicker patients and higher rates of uncompensated care. We are extremely disappointed in the message being sent to healthcare providers to do more with less. Hospitals can only stretch resources so far before it impacts their ability to provide the care our communities need.

Hospitals need a real budget by Sept. 30 that supports healthcare and those who show up to work every day to care for Michiganders. It is time to stop playing political games and get to the table with real solutions that give our state the basic support that it needs.

MHA CEO Report — A Year of Progress and Purpose

MHA Rounds, Member News
MHA Rounds image of Brian Peters

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” — Margaret J. WheatleyMHA Rounds graphic of Brian Peters

With another program year behind us, the MHA Annual Meeting served as a powerful reminder of our shared mission to advance the health and well-being of Michigan’s patients and communities. Despite an evolving political landscape, we’ve made meaningful progress and are moving ahead with clear purpose.

As you can imagine, the 2024-2025 MHA program year was marked by busy periods of state legislative activity and various developments at the federal level. We can attribute a tremendous amount of our success to Dr. Julie Yaroch, president of ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital, who served as board chair. Dr. Yaroch’s leadership, clinical expertise and passion for public health had significant impact across countless areas of work.

It’ll come as no surprise that ensuring access to quality healthcare for all Michiganders continued – and continues – to be a priority. This program year, the MHA successfully prevented proposed government mandated nurse staffing ratio legislation from receiving a committee vote. Advocacy efforts also continued around 340B to maintain access to community-based care and prevent drug manufacturer overreach. This resulted in strong bipartisan support for legislation that passed the Michigan Senate and collaboration at the federal level with Senator Debbie Stabenow on the SUSTAIN 340B Act.

I’d be remiss not to mention our response to proposed federal cuts to Medicaid. The MHA, alongside urban and rural members, has prioritized congressional meetings, grassroots communications, coalition efforts and collaboration with state executive leadership to send a strong, clear message: Michigan needs Medicaid.

All that said, playing defense didn’t define our program year. In an effort to grow and develop our healthcare workforce, the MHA successfully hosted the inaugural Healthcare Careers Conversation and led changes to the Michigan Reconnect Program. This resulted in 4,300 students enrolling in short-term healthcare programs, a complement to our ongoing MI Hospital Careers campaign work. Additionally, we pursued state legislation to address provider credentialing delays, secured key amendments to the Earned Sick Time Act and had a hand in proposed changes to the state’s unemployment compensation benefits, among many other employer-related policies.

I’m also incredibly proud to share that we worked with state legislators to design, draft and introduce legislation that makes assaulting a healthcare worker a felony, while tying it to appropriate criminal justice system diversions. Our MHA Keystone Center collaborated to offer active shooter trainings and workplace violence gap analyses to our members while serving as a founding partner of Lawrence Technological University’s Healthcare Violence Reduction Center (HVAC).

We were fortunate to see several MHA priorities included within the FY 2024 state budget, notably a large sum put toward mental and behavioral health. The MHA team successfully secured $8.3 million to launch a competitive grant program for hospital-based peer recovery coach (PRC) programs while leading the charge on a series of impactful prevention and data-driven efforts. Understanding that gaps in behavioral health continue to effect urban and rural hospitals alike, these successes lay the groundwork for what’s ahead.

Emerging technologies and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) reinforced our commitment to addressing cybercrime and strengthening cybersecurity policy. With this in mind, the MHA worked directly with the Michigan Attorney General and state policy leaders to ensure hospitals are reflected as victims of cybersecurity events. Simultaneously, we engaged our MHA Service Corporation, MHA AI Task Force, CFO Council and industry experts to deploy a series of cybersecurity events and resources to members.

I’d like to applaud our teams for handling a handful of unforeseen challenges, including working over the course of many months to address critical supply chain needs following the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene. We also saw impressive engagement across annual member events, from our MHA Human Resources Conference and MHA Keystone Safety & Quality Symposium to the Healthcare Leadership Academy and Excellence in Governance Fellowship.

These milestones are just a glimpse into what we accomplished together this program year. I’m deeply grateful to our MHA Board of Trustees, members, sponsors, business partners and dedicated MHA staff – your unity and unwavering dedication to this work continues to have a lasting impact.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

Wellpath Supplemental Testimony Highlights Week of Advocacy Efforts

Member News, Issues in Healthcare

The MHA provided testimony April 30 to the House Appropriations Committee about healthcare services provided to prisoners by Michigan hospitals that have not been reimbursed by Wellpath, a third-party private vendor.

The House Appropriations Committee heard from several key stakeholders, including the MHA, on issues related to Wellpath and their failure to reimburse hospitals and EMS providers for delivering healthcare services to prisoners. Adam Carlson, senior vice president, Advocacy, discussed how hospitals are required by federal EMTALA law to provide healthcare to any person who seeks care, regardless of insurance status or residency – including the prisoner population in the state of Michigan. Further, it was shared that hospitals provided more than $35 million in healthcare services to prisoners from January 2022 through May 2024 that have not been reimbursed from Wellpath, and that the vendor has since filed for bankruptcy.

Adam Carlson, senior vice president, advocacy, MHA provided testimony on a Well Path supplemental appropriation.

Helen Johnson, CEO, Helen Newberry Joy Hospital, followed with her testimony and shared a unique example of how her hospital serves 6,000 residents and 1,100 prisoners in the region, indicating that nearly one-sixth of the hospital’s patient mix are from the nearby correctional facility. As a result, she explained that Helen Newberry Joy Hospital is still owed $800,000 from Wellpath, which represents wages for approximately 25% of the hospital’s nursing staff. This is only one example of several from member hospitals currently experiencing this financial issue with the previously contracted third-party vendor. The MHA will continue efforts to strongly advocate for a state supplemental appropriation of $35 million to offset outstanding payments owed to all member hospitals from Wellpath.

Multiple compact bills supported by the MHA also received a hearing in the new House Rules Committee, which evaluates legislation before it is considered for a full House chamber vote. House Bill 4103, sponsored by Rep. Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo), would add Michigan to the occupational therapist licensure compact agreement. Additionally, House Bill 4309, sponsored by Rep. Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River), would create a licensure compact for physician’s assistants in the state. The MHA will continue to support these bills as they move forward in the legislative process.

Also, the Senate MDHHS Appropriations Subcommittee reported its budget recommendation for fiscal year 25-26. Key MHA priorities were protected, including funding for Medicaid, the rural and obstetrical stabilization pools, peer recovery coaches and maternal health. The MHA will continue to support these funding proposals and advocate for more resources dedicated to behavioral health and access.

Members with questions should contact Elizabeth Kutter at the MHA.

Executive Budget Recommendation News Coverage

Issues in Healthcare, MHA In The News

MHA CEO Brian Peters

A MHA media statement published Feb. 5 was included in stories by Michigan news outlets covering the fiscal year 2026 executive budget recommendation.

The statement, attributed to MHA CEO Brian Peters, was mentioned by WLNS-TV and Gongwer. The WLNS article includes the reactions from numerous leaders, while the Gongwer story focuses specifically on the budget recommendation for the Department of Health and Human Services.

“This budget presented by the Whitmer administration today maintains stability for health care providers across Michigan,” said Peters. “We appreciate the continued protection of funding pools that preserve access to care for Michiganders, whether they require obstetrical services, care at rural and critical access hospitals or coverage from the Healthy Michigan Plan and Michigan’s Medicaid health plans. We are also encouraged to see continued attention towards issues that impact Michigan’s talent pipeline and remove barriers towards pursuing health care careers.”

Members with any questions regarding media requests should contact John Karasinski at the MHA.

Executive Budget Recommendation Maintains Health of Michigan Hospitals

News Releases

The following statement can be attributed to Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

MHA CEO Brian PetersState funding is critical to the health and viability of Michigan hospitals and their patients. This budget presented by the Whitmer administration today maintains stability for healthcare providers across Michigan. We appreciate the continued protection of funding pools that preserve access to care for Michiganders, whether they require obstetrical services, care at rural and critical access hospitals or coverage from the Healthy Michigan Plan and Michigan’s Medicaid health plans. We are also encouraged to see continued attention towards issues that impact Michigan’s talent pipeline and remove barriers towards pursuing healthcare careers.

Healthcare touches us all, regardless of political affiliation, and we look forward to working with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle during the budget process to make sure Michiganders, their communities and healthcare providers receive the funding support they need.

Expanding Peer Recovery Coach Services to Improve Patient Outcomes

Member News, MHA Rounds

The fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget includes critical funding to support the work of peer recovery coaches (PRCs) in Michigan hospitals. Kelsey Ostergren, director of health policy initiatives, MHA, and Michelle Norcross, senior director of safety & quality, MHA Keystone Center, share the impact these resources have on patients and communities. 

What is a peer recovery coach, and what role do they play in improving patient outcomes?

Ostergren: Peer recovery coaches (PRCs) are individuals who combine lived experience with technical knowledge to assist individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery. In addition to offering patients lifesaving support and resources, PRCs provide an individualized approach to long-term management of SUD.

Peer recovery coaches play a unique role in the hospital setting, engaging with individuals during a time when peer-support is vital. PRCs not only serve as a mentor and role model in recovery, but remove barriers to care by connecting individuals to resources and community.

There is mounting evidence to support the role of PRCs in the recovery process including increased patient retention in treatment programs, sustained reduction in substance use, increased access to social support, decrease criminal justice involvement and decreased use of emergency department services.

Norcross: The MHA and MHA Keystone Center convened member hospitals using PRCs to better understand how these services have been operationalized and what impact they have on Michigan patients. In these discussions, we learned:

  • Hospitals who offer PRC services indicate 87% – 89% of eligible patients accept PRC support and share strong positive feedback about the experience.
  • Patients who work with PRCs are less likely to be readmitted within 30 days compared to their peers who are eligible but don’t accept PRC services.
  • Hospitals with a fully integrated PRC model engage more than 1,000 patients per year across the ED and inpatient settings.
  • PRCs connect 65% – 75% of patients with outpatient treatment and support services upon discharge. This is in stark contrast to a 2022 study revealing that only 11% of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) patients presenting to the ED were referred for outpatient treatment.

By expanding the use of PRC-delivered support services, Michigan hospitals can improve health outcomes and sustain recovery for at-risk patients and communities.

What is the biggest barrier when it comes to supporting peer recovery services in hospitals?

Ostergren: Many hospitals participating in the MHA Keystone Center Emergency Department Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (ED MOUD) program have highlighted the importance of peer recovery coaches for connecting SUD patients to treatment. Unfortunately, one of the most significant barriers is that these services cannot be reimbursed. Hospitals who want to offer PRCs are often required to fill these roles using temporary funding (i.e. grant dollars) or by contracting community mental health (CMH) agencies. While CMH resources have been critical, hospitals and health systems offer a unique touchpoint for patients with SUD.

How has collaboration helped secure critical funding to maintain PRC services in hospitals?

Ostergren: Beyond the work of the MHA and MHA Keystone Center teams, there have been numerous partnerships that were instrumental in advocating for funding to support PRCs in our hospitals and health systems. Our members participating in the ED MOUD program and those that employ PRCs were critical when it came to understanding this care model and identifying ways to support it. Additional stakeholders who provided insight, direction, guidance and support, include:

  • The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan (CFSEM)
  • Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS)
  • Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI)
  • Face Addiction Now (FAN, formerly Families Against Narcotics)
  • Michigan Association of Counties (MAC)
  • Opioid Advisory Committee (OAC)
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Where can Michigan hospitals interested in learning more about peer recovery services and reimbursement opportunities go to learn more?

Norcross: The MHA Keystone Center is partnering with CFSEM to offer two virtual learning collaboratives in September for hospitals interested in learning more about peer recovery services and reimbursement. Members will have the opportunity to learn from and engage with peers who have successfully implemented peer recovery services.

Upcoming Peer Recovery Learning Collaboratives:

Register for peer recovery learning collaboratives here. 

Media Recap: State of Healthcare, State Budget & Public Health Partnerships

Member News, MHA In The News
MHA CEO Brian Peters
MHA CEO Brian Peters

The MHA received media coverage the week of July 15 on healthcare priorities in Michigan, the state budget and the intersection between public health and healthcare.

Hillsdale Hospital published an episode of the Rural Health Rising podcast July 18 featuring an interview with MHA CEO Brian Peters discussing the state of healthcare in Michigan and efforts underway to support rural hospitals.

“We have to really focus on the right strategies – the right tactics – to make sure we can continue providing access to care for all rural Michiganders,” said Peters. “It’s really an honor to be a part of that journey.”

Laura Appel, Executive Vice President, Government Relations and Public Policy, MHA, was also featured as a guest on Hillsdale’s podcast July 11 discussing the fiscal year 2025 state budget.

“The passage [of the state budget] is a culmination of many months,” said Appel. “The big thing we got is direct funding for hospitals to have peer recovery coaches to help people who have substance use issues that come to the ED or into the hospital for any reason.”

Lauren LaPine, Senior Director, Legislative and Public Policy, MHA, was featured July 16 in a story from Model D and Flintside exploring how collaboration between hospitals and public health partners benefits Michigan communities.

“Public health and hospitals working in tandem really protects and promotes community health,” said LaPine. “Public health focuses on prevention while hospitals focus on health intervention.”

Members with any questions regarding media requests should contact John Karasinski at the MHA.