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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

U.S. House panel explores tragic clashes with private insurance bureaucracy

By Mike Lillis | 09.17.09 | 12:25 pm
(Creative Commons photo by ECPark via Flickr)

(Creative Commons photo by ECPark via Flickr)

WASHINGTON — For Erinn Ackley, it was her father’s insurance company denying claim after claim for a bone marrow transplant to treat the leukemia that eventually killed him. For Mark Gendernalik, it was his insurer’s agent refusing referrals for diagnostic tests for his three-month-old daughter, who was suffering seizures. And for pediatrician Mel Stern, it’s been a decades-long scuffle with insurers over claims payments — a battle that’s forced him to stock his office with folks dedicated solely to the task of paperwork-shuffling and claims-haggling.

As conservatives continue to warn that the Democrats’ health reform plans would stick government bureaucrats between doctors and patients, a number of consumers, physicians and former insurance industry employees told lawmakers Wednesday that such bureaucrats are already in place: they’re called private insurance companies. And, bound to shareholders above patients, the witnesses said, these companies are playing a sometimes-deadly game of withholding payments for doctor-prescribed services simply to inflate profits.

“The status quo for most Americans is that health insurance bureaucrats stand between them and their doctors right now, and maximizing profit is the mandate that has simply overtaken this industry,” Wendell Potter, former head of communications at insurance giant CIGNA, said during a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on domestic policy, led by U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). “The bureaucracy of private health insurance is a labyrinth of deliberately misleading terms of art designed to help companies minimize the coverage provided and maximize profits to appease Wall Street and investors.”

Read more at Michigan Messenger’s sister site, The Washington Independent.

Comments

  • cotycat

    With a Health Care Plan This Insane, Who Needs Wingnuts?

    Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/with-a-…

  • Irish_Wake

    Every single one of us has a similar story. It may not be as horrifying, but how many times have you been denied treatment (or payment for treatment already performed) when the insurance company is contractually obligated to pay for the service? Death panels, denial of care, bureaucratic bungling and ineptitude. These are what we are receiving now, not 'the finest health care in the world.'

  • cotycat

    CQ HEALTHBEAT NEWS
    Sept. 21, 2009 – 5:23 p.m.
    Developing Story
    Sen. Max Baucus’ health bill will come under attack from both the right and left in a committee debate set to begin Tuesday, but the Finance Chairman may be able to largely hold the legislation together — for now — by exploiting political and policy divisions between those who would see it dramatically reshaped

  • kathylebaron

    Been in the healthcare bis for 30 years as a nurse. I could tell you many hoops doctors, nurses administrators have to jump through only to get a denial. Any excuse will do wrong coding number, wrong diagnosis code, did not submitt within certain timeframe. Patient coverage all of a sudden canceled because they didn't make payment which they did and had proff. I could go on and on. Of course if all else fails pre-existing condition will work. Bill excessive so all coverage denied that was a weird one! Read the fine print at the bottom. Doctor is all of a sudden out of network after the surgery was approved intially but the MD office fell out of grace for a week and that was the week of the surgery. That one happened to step-daughter.

  • kathylebaron

    Been in the healthcare bis for 30 years as a nurse. I could tell you many hoops doctors, nurses administrators have to jump through only to get a denial. Any excuse will do wrong coding number, wrong diagnosis code, did not submitt within certain timeframe. Patient coverage all of a sudden canceled because they didn't make payment which they did and had proff. I could go on and on. Of course if all else fails pre-existing condition will work. Bill excessive so all coverage denied that was a weird one! Read the fine print at the bottom. Doctor is all of a sudden out of network after the surgery was approved intially but the MD office fell out of grace for a week and that was the week of the surgery. That one happened to step-daughter.

  • kathylebaron

    Been in the healthcare bis for 30 years as a nurse. I could tell you many hoops doctors, nurses administrators have to jump through only to get a denial. Any excuse will do wrong coding number, wrong diagnosis code, did not submitt within certain timeframe. Patient coverage all of a sudden canceled because they didn't make payment which they did and had proff. I could go on and on. Of course if all else fails pre-existing condition will work. Bill excessive so all coverage denied that was a weird one! Read the fine print at the bottom. Doctor is all of a sudden out of network after the surgery was approved intially but the MD office fell out of grace for a week and that was the week of the surgery. That one happened to step-daughter.

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