At the beginning of this year, several mental health clinicians in Michigan started noticing a significant reduction in reimbursement rates from Meridian of Michigan without notice. There have been numerous reasons given as to why this happened, including: providers were being paid from the wrong fee schedule, increased rates were from a grant issued due to the COVID outbreak, and that MDHHS is forcing Meridian to drop their rates (which MDHHS confirmed is not true).
Meridian has been renegotiating contracts that are still at least a 10% decrease from previous rates.
Although Meridian was the only plan to do this originally, other Medicaid plans have started to follow in their tracks.
As we continue to follow local clinicians in Michigan, it is evident that the impact of Meridian’s decreases is not only affecting the clinicians, but also the ability for Meridian Medicaid clients to find needed mental health services. To a population that already has several barriers and disadvantages, this is devastating.
Governor Whitmer Repeals Michigan’s Extreme 1931 Abortion Ban
On Wednesday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan legislation repealing the state’s 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs. Last year, Michiganders turned out in record numbers to get Proposal 3 on the ballot and enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution. The new laws remove the unconstitutional 1931 law from the books and ensure that Michiganders can make their own decisions about their own bodies.
With Wednesday’s signing, Michigan joins 10 other states who have moved to protect reproductive freedoms and access to safe, legal abortion in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson. The decision to become a parent or grow a family is one of the biggest economic decisions a person
will make in their lifetime. Over 2/3rds of Michiganders support Roe v. Wade and want to repeal our 1931 law banning abortion. 77% of Michiganders believe that abortion should be a woman’s decision to make with a medical professional.
Implicit Bias Training Updates for Michigan Social Workers
Last summer, NASW-Michigan, on behalf of our membership, submitted suggested changes to the Public Health Code, specifically in regards to the implicit bias training requirements.
We requested that the language be updated to reflect that if a licensee takes a continuing education (CE) course on implicit bias AND that training also satisfies the implicit bias training requirements, the licensee could use that one training to satisfy both the CE and implicit bias licensure requirements. Additionally, we requested the asynchronous (non-live) trainings also be accepted formats.
The previous wording created new standards and did not follow the other continuing education requirements in the state.
On March 23, 2023, we were excited to see that our proposed changes to the Michigan Public Health Code General Rules were promulgated and officially went into effect!
The significant changes to the rules include:
Permitting a licensee to use the training to satisfy other CE requirements
Allowing implicit bias trainings to be completed in a asynchronous format (non-live teleconference or webinar)
Print Page
Email to a Friend
