Robin Erb

Michigan families say the state’s behavioral health system is overwhelmed and understaffed. A new first-of-its-kind Detroit clinic offers mental health support — sometimes just days after birth.

The new guidelines align COVID with other respiratory infections: Stay home if you have a fever and feel sick; return from isolation after 24 fever-free hours.

Amid conflicting reports about CDC guidelines and loosening standards in other states, Michigan’s recommendation remains to stay home for five days with positive tests.

The state spent $148,000 on a racial equity group to offer advice on how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds. But after issuing recommendations, the group said it was ‘silenced.’

Community health workers focus on people who, due to low incomes or other inequities, tend to have poorer health outcomes. The state is now expanding Medicaid to cover more of this work.

Too many people in a mental health crisis end up in a hospital ER, where they rarely get the one-on-one or follow-up care they need. New mobile vans are designed to bring better care to people in distress before they spiral further.

Michigan is six months into a one-year Medicaid eligibility review. Roughly 1-in-3 cases reviewed have resulted in residents being dropped from the medical insurance program for low-income people.

Michigan is in the middle of a one year review of Medicaid cases after enrollment grew to 3.2 million during pandemic. About a third of the 992,000 people reviewed so far have lost coverage.