Crain's Detroit Business, June 1, 2020 issue by Crain's Detroit Business

THE CONVERSATION Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones on life with COVID-19. PAGE 22 CRAINSDETROIT.COM I JUNE 1, 2020

INSURANCE

No-fault redo has agents scrambling

PAGES 10-15

COPING WITH COVID-19

CAN’T STOP THIS Business doesn’t stop for startup execs during crisis. But it sure changes.

In a month, coverage will look very different BY CHAD LIVENGOOD

Auto insurance carriers and agents in Michigan have staked out a new line of business selling motorists extra liability coverage in case they are sued by an injured driver who opts out of unlimited medical coverage under the new no-fault law that takes effect next month. Insurance agents are selling socalled “umbrella” policies for bodily injury claims, an added layer of protection once Michigan’s law no longer requires all motorists to carry the same limitless Personal Injury Protection, starting July 2. “We’re seeing a huge increase in umbrellas,” said Milene Plisko, a Livonia-based district manager for Farmers Insurance Co. “We’re going to have a lot of people who are woefully underinsured, and they’re going to have no recourse but to sue to recover what’s not covered.” The emerging trend of motorists buying an additional layer of insurance may eat away at the savings on Personal Injury Protection they were promised by lawmakers a year ago when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a sweeping overhaul of Michigan’s 47-year-old auto insurance law. The cornerstone of the new law seeks to rein in Michigan’s highest-inthe-nation auto insurance rates by imposing a fee schedule on medical providers who care for injured drivers and then allowing motorists to choose different levels of PIP coverage. Those coverage levels include $50,000, $250,000 and $500,000 of PIP, resulting in average mandatory rate reductions on the PIP portion of a driver’s premiums of 45 percent, 35 percent and 20 percent, respectively. See INSURANCE on Page 20

From left: Jasnik Parmar, Seth Killian, Sassa Akervall, Jessica Willis and Michael Healander | CONTRIBUTED

BY NICK MANES

s the economic uncertainty from the coronavirus pandemic lingers, founders of Southeast Michigan startup companies are, like everyone else, wondering what’s next. Late May data from research firm Global Data shows that venture capital funding, the lifeblood of most any growing startup, has slowed down significantly in recent weeks,

` SASSA AKERVALL, CEO OF AKERVALL TECHNOLOGIES There was only about a week of downtime for Akervall Technologies Inc. before a major shift in production took place. For nearly a dozen years, the Saline-based company has manufactured mouth guards for athletic and medical uses. See STARTUPS on Page 21

HEALTH CARE

Hospitals help employers with testing, screening Henry Ford, Beaumont among systems guiding firms on safe work environments BY JAY GREENE

Henry Ford Health System and Beaumont Health are two of several health care organizations helping companies safely return to work by testing workers for COVID-19 on a voluntary basis.

NEWSPAPER

dropping 5.5 percent in March from the previous month. Higher-value deals of $10 million and above have taken the biggest hit, according to the report. That tends to ring true to executives at five early-to-middle stage companies in Southeast Michigan, many of whom have ongoing talks with the venture capital community. For them, business life hasn’t stopped — it’s just gotten very different.

As more Michigan employers begin to ramp up operations after shutdowns ordered by the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, creating safe work environments for employees has been a major priority. While mandated COVID-19 testing of employees is not recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of a return-to-work plan, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in late April said employers can require employees to be tested before they are allowed to enter the workplace, even if they do not exhibit symptoms of the virus, and not run afoul of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. See HOSPITALS on Page 17

A Henry Ford health care worker tests a DTE employee at Fermi II nuclear power plant for COVID-19. DTE began working with Henry Ford Health System in mid-April to test work groups critical to energy production and delivery. | MARK HOUSTON

NEED TO KNOW

SHARING THE PAIN

THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT of COVID-19 of nursing home residents. This was about 23 percent of total COVID-19 deaths in Michigan.

`BEAUMONT CALLS OFF DEAL WITH OHIO SYSTEM THE NEWS: Beaumont Health has called off a merger with four-hospital Summa Health, an Akron, Ohio-based system, executives announced in a statement Friday. Last month, Beaumont said it would delay the merger. Beaumont officials said the delay was to allow both hospital systems to navigate the coronavirus pandemic and its financial fallout. WHY IT MATTERS: The coronavirus crisis has brought havoc to hospital finances. Pulling off a complicated merger deal at a time when hospitals are financially and operationally stretched has proven difficult.

`NEARLY A FOURTH OF COVID DEATHS FROM NURSING HOMES THE NEWS: Nearly one-quarter of all COVID-19 deaths in Michigan involve cases from nursing homes, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported in preliminary data released Wednesday to a Senate committee. The preliminary DHHS data showed that between Jan. 1 through Tuesday, there have been 1,216 deaths

WHY IT MATTERS: Questions have swirled for weeks about COVID-19 statistics at the state’s nursing homes as DHHS continued to say it was working to compile and verify the data.

`UM MAKES $130M DEAL TO COMMERCIALIZE DRUG THE NEWS: Under a new partnership with a New York City health care investment firm, the University of Michigan seeks to ramp up its drug commercialization efforts. The Ann Arbor-based university announced Wednesday morning that it will partner with Deerfield Management Company LP. The health care investment firm said it will commit up to $130 million toward the commercialization of drug discovery at UM, according to a news release. As part of the partnership, the university and Deerfield said they will launch Great Lakes Discoveries LLC to serve as the vehicle for pre-clinical stages of drug discovery and development. WHY IT MATTERS: For officials at UM, the new venture with Deerfield comes as a recognition of sorts of the “worldclass” infrastructure the university has built over the years in therapeutic drug discovery and broader focus on spinning out technology developed inhouse.

`MARROCCO CHARGED IN CORRUPTION SCHEME THE NEWS: A Macomb County official who had broad authority over sewer lines, water and infrastructure was charged Wednesday with extorting money from developers and contractors and cutting off work with those who didn’t comply. Anthony Marrocco used the cash for travel, expensive meals in Florida, spa visits and yacht club expenses, according to an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors. WHY IT MATTERS: Marrocco was unseated in 2016 by former U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, who went from the U.S. Capitol to the Macomb public works department with promises to root out longstanding corruption.

Bedrock pitches tenants on rent-relief deal ` Some of Dan Gilbert’s restaurant and retail tenants will be able to modify their rent structure through the end of the year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. His Detroit-based Bedrock LLC real estate company said Thursday that small restaurants and retail tenants can amend their lease to pay only 7 percent of their gross sales, and that security deposits can be applied toward reopening costs and space modifications. In March, Bedrock said it would absorb the costs of dozens of businesses to not pay rent, common area maintenance and security and parking fees in April, May and June. In an interview last week, CEO Matt Cullen said the company’s new Bedrock Relaunch program is an attempt to avert business closures, which he called “permanent decisions to a temporary problem.”

`GRAND RAPIDS FIRM’S SALE COULD TOTAL $500M THE NEWS: Grand Rapids biopharmaceutical company Tetra Therapeutics Inc. announced it has a definitive agreement to sell to a Japanese firm in a deal that could reach $500 million. Tetra Therapeutics, which develops drugs for people suffering from Fragile X syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury and other brain disorders, has finalized a 2018 agreement with the Japanese company. WHY IT MATTERS: The deal offers big-company muscle for drug development and marketing.

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RETAIL

FINANCE

Q&A

Some retailers reopen with caution, while others wait

Now comes the hard part: PPP loan forgiveness

Businesses look at risk, new processes

Banks, borrowers enter new ‘daunting’ phase

BY ANNALISE FRANK AND SHERRI WELCH

BY NICK MANES

Nearly three months after he opened his sneaker shop Fahrenheit 313, Frederick Paul II was preparing to do it again. After a hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic and some online and curbside sales, Paul is targeting a Monday reopening for the Detroit store on the Livernois Avenue of Fashion near Eight Mile Road. But this time around, instead of sneakerheads crowding around the Nikes and Air Jordans, it will be one customer at a time. On May 21, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an order allowing Michigan retail stores to reopen for customers, by appointment only, starting May 26. While some shops are choosing to take the governor up on that offer, others have chosen to wait — either until next week, or even later. Paul, who started his business in 2016 doing online sales and pop-ups, isn’t throwing the doors open yet. But he plans to do so next week. He’s gotten some sales from online and pickup, he said. But Fahrenheit 313 was envisioned as customer experience-focused, and while that goal remains, it has to look different now. Seventy percent of the shop’s sneakers are lightly used — it buys, cleans, authenticates and appraises, and then resells them. Paul will still buy sneakers, and is thinking about putting a video on social media showing its five-step cleaning process. When Fahrenheit 313 reopens, customers will need to make appointments and be required to wear face masks. The shop uses the Wix online platform for its website and will use it for bookings, as well. Paul said it’s pretty easy to use, but the hard part is he has to manually adjust inventory because Wix isn’t integrated with his point-of-sale system, Clover. Shoppers can look at the sneakers on display — they’re already shrinkwrapped to protect the leather, and will now be sanitized after being touched. See RETAILERS on Page 19

Fahrenheit 313, a sneaker shop at 20114 Livernois Ave. in Detroit, is preparing to reopen Monday by appointment only.| KIRK PINHO/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

` What types of cleanings does Belfor do? There’s three different levels of cleaning — proactive, where no exposure but a precautionary level; then expected exposure; and confirmed exposure. It’s all up to the client, but when we do a deep clean, our people are in full PPE. We use a designated electrostatic spray application.

Lenders and borrowers may well be in the most “daunting” phase yet of the ever-complex Paycheck Protection Program. While available funds continue to linger and demand for the potentially forgivable loans has mostly slowed to a trickle, businesses and lenders now turn their focus toward meeting numerous requirements for getting the advances forgiven. Therein lies many challenges, say commercial lenders and other advisers who note that borrowers are likely to be in for surprises. “To be honest with you, the forgiveness portion seems to be more complex than the application portion, at least at this point,” said Andrea Mosher, Mosher senior vice president of lending solutions for Lake Trust Credit Union in Brighton. As existing rules and guidance stand now, Mosher said banks and other advisers essentially need to work with each individual borrower as they go through the process of applying for forgiveness. For many owners, that creates major challenges, Mosher said. “Small business owners tend to work; they’re not in the everyday minutiae of the finance side, so it stresses them,” she said. To put the amount of work likely to be needed to achieve even just some forgiveness into perspective, Lake Trust Credit Union has handled 225 PPP loans totaling about $13 million, according to Mosher. Comparatively, Oxford Bank, another fairly small, community bank in northern Oakland County, did 1,300 loans totaling $242 million, President and CEO Dave Lamb said. The bank has a large hill to climb, he said. “That is a daunting task. It will take a lot more work to process the forgiveness than it was to originate the loans,” Lamb said.“And originating the loans was no slam dunk task. But this is going to be a lot worse from a time spent (perspective). For customers, there will be a lot more hand-holding. It is confusing.” At the same time, lenders have strong incentive to ensure their clients maximize their potential forgiveness. Beyond maintaining a happy base of clients, banks won’t want to see these loans remain on their books and will work hard to ensure that doesn’t happen, said Michael Tierney, president and CEO of the Community Bankers of Michigan, an East Lansing-based trade group.

See BELFOR on Page 19

See PPP on Page 20

Belfor has performed 7,100 COVID-19 related cleaning jobs since February, including the now infamous Diamond Princess cruise ship. | BELFOR

CLEANING UP AFTER COVID-19 Belfor CEO Sheldon Yellen on firm’s specialty BY DUSTIN WALSH

From a mobile command enter, Birmingham-based Belfor is responding to the historic flooding in Midland following the Edenville Dam failure earlier this month. Workers from eight of its offices in Michigan are performing restoration and mitigation from the flood damage. But it’s COVID-19 that has the property restoration firm, which generated $1.8 billion in revenue last year, working overtime. The firm flew hundreds of employees to Japan to disinfect the Diamond Princess cruise ship after it docked and unboarded more than 3,700 passengers following a nearly six-week quarantine in the Port of Yokohama. More than 700 were infected with the virus and 14 died. Most of the company’s 180,000 jobs per year are done on insurance claims, such as kitchen fires or weather-related damage, but disinfecting and cleaning has been a growing part of the business and now has become vital as companies return employees back to work around the state and the nation.

the PPE because we do this stuff all day every day. We sent over 240 people from our Canadian and American operations to Japan. We actually had 26 countries represented as far as workforce. We sprayed the whole ship down. All the high-touch surfaces. We did a good job at what we do every day.

Sheldon Yellen

Crain’s reporter Dustin Walsh interviewed CEO Sheldon Yellen about Belfor’s business in the age of COVID-19. ` Tell me about your work on the Diamond Princess. We were right there in the beginning stages. That was right after everyone got off (on March 2). That was at the beginning stages of the virus, before we really had any statistics. But, for Belfor, this is what we do. We had over a half-million N95 masks in inventory. Gloves, respirators, suits. We already had

` Has Belfor been busy? If my math is right, in North America, Europe and Asia, we’ve done 7,100 COVID-19 cleanings. A lot of those are proactive cleaning, where no known exposure has occurred, but just to keep people safe. We have 9,200 employees in 31 countries at 350 offices. They’re all working on this.

JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 3

REAL ESTATE INSIDER

The Lodges of East Lansing, a privately owned student housing apartment complex with a commercial mortgage-backed securities loan of $27.73 million, has one of the largest notes maturing in the next year or so, according to DBRS Morningstar. | COSTAR GROUP INC.

Analysts say student housing debt poses challenges in months ahead I’ve noted that the commercial mortgage-backed securities outlook for the hotel industry is troubled given the COVID-19 pandemic, with Kirk about $86 billion PINHO in debt threatened due to canceled trips and conventions, stay-athome orders and general fears of the coronavirus. That’s based on data from Trepp LLC, a New York City-based firm that tracks the CMBS market. But we also need to pay attention to the private student housing market, according to a new report from DBRS Morningstar, a division of Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., which says that $13.33 billion in CMBS loans nationwide are at risk. (Trepp has also noted its concerns about the market recently.) That’s because as colleges and universities shuttered in favor of online learning in the spring due to the pandemic and many remain in limbo on their plans for the fall semester, that leaves private off-campus student apartment operators in the lurch, waiting to see what that means for their core tenant base: young college students. Fewer students paying for amenity-rich off-campus housing means fewer leases and rent collections for their owners, straining cash flow for debt servicing. “Should full-time online learning continue into the Fall 2020 semester for most higher-education institutions, student housing properties may not fully recover until Fall 2022, which supports the sentiment that full economic recovery will take years rather than months and could affect more than $13.33 billion (in 667 nondefeased) student housing loans packaged in commercial mortgage-backed securities,” Morningstar wrote in its analysis, which was released Tuesday morning. Private off-campus housing has increased in the last 20 or so years as the large millennial generation headed off to college, putting pressure on the existing dorm stock on campuses, Morningstar says. 4 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

Couple that with decreased state funding for universities nationwide to build new student housing, and that has led to a rise in off-campus housing investment by private companies betting on a virtually built-in corps of young tenants, even during down periods. The Morningstar report says the National Center for Education Statistics notes a 27 percent increase in full-time undergraduate students from 2000 to 2017, rising from 13.2 million to 16.8 million. That has translated into more than 400,000 new student housing beds since 2010, the Morningstar report says, citing the National Multifamily Housing Council. But there were problems looming,

“WITHOUT ON-CAMPUS CLASSES AND SHARPLY REDUCED EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES, STUDENTS HAVE FEW INCENTIVES TO STAY NEAR CAMPUS DURING THE PANDEMIC.” — Morningstar

the company says. Increased student housing competition, more requirements that students live on-campus and a decline in international students in the U.S. have caused a decline in CMBS performance in private student housing. Loan delinquency rates were 3.8 percent in that sector in April, compared to just 1.6 percent for all CMBS loans. In January 2018, the sector was 0.2 percent delinquent, compared to 3.5 percent for all loans. But then this month, student housing loans were 9.5 percent delinquent as vacancies and broken leases and rent collection issues took their toll, according to Morningstar. Michigan has $346.6 million in private student housing CMBS debt, placing it in the top 20 percent for overall debt load nationally, Morningstar says. However, it’s in the top five ($263.1 million) when stripped of its Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, which are subject to forbearance provisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michigan trails only Texas ($413.8 million) and New York ($304.6 million) in nonagency CMBS debt for student housing, per Morningstar’s analysis. Trepp notes that short-term effects of the pandemic include a hike to 4.72 percent in April from 1.25 percent in March of loans that are either in a grace period or late beyond the grace period but less than 30 days late, which gives an indication of loans that may become delinquent. Of course, not just borrowers are feeling the pain. “Without on-campus classes and sharply reduced employment opportunities, students have few incentives to stay near campus during the pandemic,” Morningstar says. “However, while most students have moved out early, most properties still require students to pay rent for the remainder of their lease.” The company says that The Lodges of East Lansing, with a CMBS loan of $27.73 million, has one of the largest notes maturing in the next year or so. The property has a debt service coverage ratio of 2.73 and is 93 percent occupied, according to Morningstar. It is owned by American Campus Communities, the largest operator of private college housing in the U.S., which Morningstar says reported in the first quarter preleasing at 60 percent of its normal levels for next semester. Data from Morningstar says there are three loans of current concern in Michigan student housing: ` The Forum Apartments in Mount Pleasant, home to Central Michigan University, which has a $5.3 million note with a current balance of about $2.96 million. It is on a watchlist. ` An Eastern Michigan University student housing portfolio attached to a $3.33 million loan with a $2.02 million balance. It is also on a watchlist. ` University Parke in Big Rapids, home to Ferris State University, which has a $24.4 million loan with a $17.61 million balance. It is delinquent and has been sent for special servicing. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

COVID-19 HEROES

Detroit funeral home adapts to surge of deaths Livestreaming, viewings with no funeral among new ways of grieving BY DUSTIN WALSH

Detroit’s James H. Cole Home for Funerals Inc. hosts roughly 1,800 funerals during a normal year. This is not a normal year. The family-run funeral home has toiled through the COVID-19 outbreak that has ravaged the city of Detroit — enduring a surge of new deaths that has pushed the 101-year old company and its workforce near the breaking point. “We’ve really had to reinvent the wheel for ourselves,” said Antonio Green, the fourth-generation co-owner and funeral director. “We’re trying to keep up, provide families with different options and still have a dignified remembrance ... while still focusing on keeping everyone safe.” Green said two-thirds of its funeral services since the outbreak began have been for COVID-19 victims. Green didn’t know how many funerals the home has convened since the disease claimed the first life in Detroit in late February. But James H. Cole handles funerals for more than 25 percent of the average 7,100 Detroit deaths annually. The city has suffered 1,329 deaths from COVID-19 as of May 27. Buried in new business, James H. Cole is working around the clock to appease regulators and offer quality service, and it’s a struggle.

“WE’VE REALLY HAD TO REINVENT THE WHEEL FOR OURSELVES ... WE’RE TRYING TO KEEP UP, PROVIDE FAMILIES WITH DIFFERENT OPTIONS AND STILL HAVE A DIGNIFIED REMEMBRANCE ... WHILE STILL FOCUSING ON KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE.” — Antonio Green, co-owner and funeral director. “

James H. Cole is limiting services to only 10 people at a time and offering viewings with no funeral, a first for the company. It also provides a livestream option. Green believes the changes his funeral home is making today will become more permanent staples in the industry. “The funeral industry as a whole has been slow to evolve, but as people’s misconceptions about livestreaming change, we’re seeing it welcomed,” Green said. “We’ve offered it for 10 years, but now that we can’t have a lot of people present together, the opinion has changed. People no longer think about it as right or wrong, that you have to attend a funeral in person, but now it’s essential.” Green said 95 percent of the funerals at its Northwest Chapel on Schaefer Highway have used the livestream option. Adapting to grieving under a pandemic has put additional pressure on the family as well as James H. Cole employees, some of whom have battled or are battling COVID-19 themselves. This, Green fears, will also have a lasting impact. “A lot of our people who have recovered, it’s not the physical recovery that’s the problem, but the mental aspect of it,” Green said. “Some are uncomfortable leaving their house or

being around other people. That mental aspect is a big part of the recovery as well. That’s going to be a piece we have to tackle for longer, I think.” James H. Cole has upward of 40 full-time employees and several contractors, Green said, and is allowing any sick workers or fearful workers to return when they feel comfortable. Several employees refused to work during the initial throes of the pandemic out of fear, Green said. The work shortages and adaptations leave Green and his mother, Karla Cole, working 13-hour days — balancing family without sacrificing quality. Green worries about both. His wife is an administrator at Detroit Public Schools and working from home with three children, he said. “Trying to provide support for her, making sure home is OK, while I’m at work has been challenging,” Green said. “There is a certain level of service we provide, but when it’s this busy it’s hard to meet that level of quality service,” Green said. “So we work harder to make sure things go off as they always have. I’d rather not be this busy, not just because of what it means for the community, but because it also puts a strain on us and the staff.” Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh

NONPROFITS

Crain’s May Days of Giving nears $50,000 raised Crain’s May Days of Giving, a crowdfunding effort to help nonprofits in a time of heightened need, has raised nearly $50,000 for participating charities with about three weeks left to go. The event seeks to provide needed funding for nonprofits participating in Crain’s annual Giving Guide, which will be published next week. The charities with the top donation totals among the $45,835 raised through last Friday are: `The Michigan Hispanic Collaborative, $10,045 `Detroit Goodfellows, $6,490 `New Day Foundation for Families, $5,630 `Hegira Health, $4,025 `Build Institute, $2,550 More than 30 nonprofits are taking part in the crowdfunding event. To donate or view the nonprofits’ profiles, go to maydaysofgiving. crainsdetroit.com. The event runs through June 20.

SPONSORED CONTENT

THOUGHT LEADER FORUM HEALTH CARE

ARE HIGH-COST CLAIMS THREATENING TO SWAMP YOUR COMPANY? COVID-19 aside, what employee benefits issue is most likely to keep company leaders up at night? High-cost claims. Two factors have created a perfect storm in employee benefits: Rapid advancements in healthcare and the removal of lifetime and annual maximums by the Affordable Care Act.

Dr. Christine Hale is vice president of clinical consulting at Lockton and specializes in high-cost complex claims.

Conditions that used to be fatal, like cancer, can often be managed for years using specialty medications that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Premature babies and those with complex hereditary conditions can be hospitalized for the better part of a year, costing millions of dollars. While these advances are good news for patients, they can spell financial disaster for a company. Even worse, these “lightning strike” cases are hard to see coming and aren’t necessarily well-suited to population health and disease management techniques used to address chronic disease. Improving quality of life and saving money: A case study One half of one percent of a health plan’s claimants can drive 30% of total costs. Here is an example. Sheila, an employee at ABC Solutions,* suffered from severe, chronic anemia that led to nine hospitalizations in one year. She also had other chronic conditions that required care from 10 specialists. Her symptoms meant she had poor quality of life and often missed work. Her employer was

affected by her high-cost claims and absenteeism. The company’s benefits consultant assessed the situation and realized the cause of the anemia had not been appropriately identified. The consultant referred Sheila to the Mayo Clinic, where the source of her bleeding was quickly identified and addressed. In the next year, Sheila was hospitalized only once. In addition, the team optimized her many medications. The result? ABC Solutions saved more than $500,000 a year—and Sheila got her life back. (*Names have been changed to protect privacy.)

It takes a village

Taking an individualized approach Disease management and population health are important tools, but the most complex cases require a highly individualized approach. Find a broker-partner that can dig deep into clinical and financial details to create a full picture of the situation. The broker should be willing to partner with all available service providers—health plan administrators, pharmacy benefit managers, employee assistance programs, patient navigation services, and so on. Finally, the broker should help identify triggers that will flag complex cases faster, making early intervention possible. To learn more about how you can shelter your company against the perfect storm of high-cost claims, contact the Lockton Michigan team at Lockton.com.

When it comes to keeping our community healthy and safe, Lockton understands it takes a village. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank all of the healthcare professionals on the front lines protecting Michigan.

lockton.com

JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 5

CRAIN'S LIST: MICHIG MICHIGAN AN HO HOSPIT SPITAL AL C COMP OMPANIE ANIES S Ranked by 2019 net patient revenue Company Address Phone; website

Top executive(s)

Net patient revenue ($000,000) 2019/2018

Total Revenue 2019/2018

Uncompensated care ($000,000) 2019

Licensedbed capacity/ occupancy

Number of employed physicians Jan. 2020

Number of hospital/ ambulatory facilities

Major facilities

Beaumont Health

John Fox president and CEO

$4,435.1

$4,908.3 $4,566.3

$117

3,429 64.7%

1,234

8 145

Beaumont hospitals in Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Taylor, Trenton, Troy and Wayne

Henry Ford Health System

Wright Lassiter III president and CEO

3,912.2

6,287.3 5,800

2,495 NA%

1,900

1 Ford Place, Detroit 48202 800-436-7936; www.henryford.com

NA NA

Henry Ford Hospital; Henry Ford Macomb Hospital; Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital; Henry Ford Kingswood Hospital; Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital; Henry Ford Allegiance Health; Health Alliance Plan.

Ascension Michigan

Kenneth Berkovitz SVP and ministry market executive

3,792.2

4,011.3 3,861.5

283

3,678 53.3%

920

15 NA

St. John Hospital, Ascension River District Hospital, Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Ascension Providence Hospital, Ascension St. Mary's Hospital, Ascension St. Joseph Hospital, Ascension Genesys Hospital and medical Centers, others

Trinity Health

Robert Casalou president and CEO, Mercy Health and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System; Mike Slubowski president and CEO

3,501.9

NA 3,891.5

2,289 NA%

8 NA

St. Joseph's Mercy of Macomb, St. Joseph's Mercy of Oakland, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, St. Mary Mercy Hospital, others

Michigan Medicine (formerly University of Michigan Health System)

Marschall Runge EVP for medical affairs

3,501.5

NA 3,576.9

192.6

1,043 NA%

1 40

University Hospital, Mott Children's Hospital, Women's Hospital, A. Alfred Taubman Health Care Center, UM Comprehensive Cancer Center, UM Cardiovascular Center, UM Depression Center, Kellogg Eye Center

Spectrum Health System

Tina Freese Decker president and CEO

3,197.9

NA 6,109

6.6

1,884 71.7%

956

14 230

Spectrum Health hospitals: Butterworth, Blodgett, Reed City, United, Kelsey, Special Care, Gerber Memorial, Zeeland Community, Helen DeVos Children's, Big Rapids, Ludington, Pennock, LemmenHolton Cancer Pavilion, Meijer Heart Center, Tamarac Medical Wellness and Fitness Center, Wheatlake Cancer Center. Also Spectrum Health Lakeland

McLaren Health Care Corp.

Philip Incarnati president and CEO

2,622

5,125.5 4,780

3,189 NA%

14 350

Bay Region, Bay Special Care, Central Michigan, Greater Lansing, Orthopedic Hospital, Lapeer Region, Clarkston, Flint, Macomb, Oakland, Northern Michigan, Northern Michigan Cheboygan, Proton Therapy Center, Port Huron, Karmanos Cancer Institute, McLaren Home Care, McLaren Medical Group

1,062.9

1,340.6 1,281.7

23.5

820 60.0%

370

5 80

Sparrow Hospital, Sparrow Carson Hospital, Sparrow Ionia Hospital, Sparrow Clinton Hospital, Sparrow Specialty Hospital, Sparrow Eaton Hospital

3 4 5

26901 Beaumont Blvd., Southfield 48033 248-898-5000; www.beaumont.org

28000 Dequindre Road, Warren 48092 www.ascension.org/michigan

20555 Victor Parkway, Livonia 48152 734-343-1000; www.trinity-health.org

1500 E. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor 48109 734-936-4000; www.med.umich.edu

100 Michigan St. NE, Grand Rapids 49503 616-391-1774; www.spectrumhealth.org

$4,425.1

3,581.7

3,760.8

3,361.1

3,267.5

2,370.5

One McLaren Parkway, Grand Blanc 48439 810-342-1100; www.mclaren.org

2,791.0

1215 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing 48912 517-364-1000; www.sparrow.org

Sparrow Health System

James Dover president and CEO

MidMichigan Health

Diane Postler-Slattery, president and CEO

928.2

NA 831.4

721 NA%

6 27

MidMichigan Medical Centers in Alpena, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Midland, Mt. Pleasant and West Branch

Covenant HealthCare

Ed Bruff president and CEO

632.6

NA 618.7

NA NA%

NA NA

Covenant HealthCare

Spectrum Health Lakeland

Loren Hamel, M.D. president and CEO

560.3

NA NA

31.2

NA NA%

390

NA NA

Metro Health - University of Michigan Health 4

Peter Hahn president and CEO

440.6

NA NA

NA NA%

NA NA

Metro Health Southwest; Rockford; Cascade; Community Clinic; Sports Medicine; Internal Medicine; MidTowne Ambulatory Surgery Center; Metro Health Park East; and The Cancer Center at Metro Health Village

Hurley Medical Center

Melany Gavulic president and CEO

415.3

1,429 1,415

22.1

443 71.1%

1 11

Hurley Medical Center 1 Hurley Plaza Flint, MI 48503

Memorial Healthcare

Brian Long president and CEO

185.9

198.9 176.7

10.2

161 50.0%

NA NA

Memorial Hospital

Garden City Hospital

Saju George CEO

150.8

152.4 157.8

167 43.0%

NA NA

Garden City Hospital

ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital

Dawn Buskey president

128.5

NA 380.8

NA NA%

NA NA

ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital

ProMedica Bixby Hospital/Emma L. Bixby Medical Center

Julie Yaroch president

90.7

NA 475.7

NA NA%

NA NA

Bixby Hospital, Adrian; Herrick Hospital, Tecumseh

ProMedica Coldwater Regional Hospital

Randy DeGroot president

71.8

NA 195.5

6.9

NA NA%

NA NA

ProMedica Coldwater Regional Hospital

Lake Huron Medical Center

Jose Kottor CEO

67.5

68.2 68.8

5.9

144 26.9%

NA NA

Port Huron, Michigan

Herrick Memorial Hospital

Julie Yaroch president

24.3

NA NA

NA NA%

NA NA

ProMedica Herrick Memorial Hospital

16 17

4611 Campus Ridge Drive, Midland 48640 989-839-3000; www.midmichigan.org 1447 N. Harrison, Saginaw 48602 989-583-0000; www.covenanthealthcare.com 3

1234 Napier Ave., St. Joseph 49085 269-983-8300; www.lakelandhealth.org

5900 Byron Center Ave. SW, Wyoming 49519 616-252-7200; www.metrohealth.net

1 Hurley Plaza, Flint 48503 810-262-9000; www.hurleymc.com 826 W. King St., Owosso 48867 989-723-5211; www.memorialhealthcare.org 6245 Inkster Road, Garden City 48135 734-458-3300; www.gch.org 718 N. Macomb St., Monroe 48162 734-240-8400; www.promedica.org/monroe

818 Riverside Ave., Adrian 49221 517-265-0900; www.promedica.org

274 East Chicago St., Coldwater 49036 517-279-5400

2601 Electric , Port Huron 48060 810-216-1500; www.mylakehuron.com 500 E. Pottawatamie St., Tecumseh 49286 517-265-0297; www.promedica.org

1,002.5

806.6

631.3

401.1

394.6

172.6

156.6

121.7

106.1

64.2

69.1

25.3

Want the full Excel version of this list â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

This listing is an approximate compilation of the leading hospital companies based in Michigan. Net patient revenue listed is operating revenue, excluding bad debt. Total revenue is net patient revenue, investment income, non-operating or other revenue. Uncompensated care is charity care plus bad debt at costs. These are medical services for which no payment is received or expected. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies directly or from state and federal filings. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Michigan office. NA = not available. 1 Crain's estimate. 2 From Medicare report ending in Sept. 30, 2019. 3 Spectrum Health System and Lakeland Health merged Oct. 1, 2018. 4 Merged with University of Michigan Health System in 2016. Under the merger, Metro Health became a subsidiary of University of Michigan System. 6 | CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

Detroit, we’re committed to helping you through this At Bank of America, we recognize this health and humanitarian crisis has impacted everyone in different ways. Across our company, we’re focused on supporting the well-being of our teammates, providing the essential financial services our clients need, and helping communities across the country move forward. We know small businesses have been especially impacted. We feel a deep sense of responsibility for helping them navigate the current environment, and to secure vital funding to stay operational and be able to pay their employees. This includes our around-the-clock efforts to support clients through the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Our teammates are also focused on helping customers access additional resources. Through our Client Assistance Program, we’ve provided more than 1.6 million deferrals of mortgage, credit card and auto loan payments. I am inspired and proud of the way all of us in Detroit have come together during this difficult time. Please stay safe.

Matt Elliott Detroit Market President

For more information, please visit bankofamerica.com/community.

Data as of May 15, 2020 Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender

Over 300,000 of our small business clients have received PPP funding for more than $25 billion in relief. Of the funded PPP loans to date, • 98% are for companies with fewer than 100 employees. • 81% are for companies with 10 or fewer employees. • 23% are from low- to moderateincome neighborhoods. In Michigan, this includes funding for 4,707 of our small business clients totaling $480 million.

COMMENTARY

DANIEL SAAD

Whitmer’s disjointed strategy undermining her success

EDITORIAL

Dam disaster requires independent probe G ov. Gretchen Whitmer says she needs the “experts” at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to investigate how the breach of a privately owned dam in mid-Michigan caused widespread property damage downstream in Midland. That would normally make sense — except the government agency charged with regulatory oversight of Boyce Hydro Power’s Edenville dam is the same agency the governor has tasked with investigating the Tittabawassee River disaster. This is problematic on so many levels in an era when trust in government couldn’t possibly be any lower. The first glaring problem is EGLE itself — along with the Department of Natural Resources and Attorney General Dana Nessel — had taken the dam’s owner to court three weeks prior the flood. The Whitmer administration didn’t sue Boyce Hydro over the safety of the dam. They sued over unauthorized releases of water that they contend caused “the death of thousands if not millions of freshwater mussels,” according to court records. The governor should reconsider and empanel an independent task force to examine the decision-making inside EGLE as well as the federal agency that struggled for years to get Boyce Hydro to improve the Edenville dam’s spillway in order to handle the kind of big flood that broke the earthen dam on May 19. On Thursday, Whitmer dismissed a reporter’s question about why she hasn’t formed an independent task force similar to former Gov. Rick Snyder’s Flint Water Advisory Task Force. She suggested the origins of the two disasters couldn’t be compared. “The decisions that were made require a cer-

tain level of expertise to really dig in and understand all of the different machinations here,” Whitmer said. “And because of that, we need the experts to be the ones to begin the investigation.” The Flint water task force included a respected expert in environmental policy, Chris Kolb, who is now Whitmer’s budget director. Snyder’s “after action” task force was empaneled in the fall of 2015 after his Department of Environmental Quality — which Whitmer renamed — finally acknowledged toxic lead had leached into the city’s water supply. The task force, which included an out-ofstate environmental consultant and Flint physician Lawrence Reynolds, interviewed 60 individuals and established much of the timeline of facts that criminal investigators have since followed. They came down hard on DEQ Director Dan Wyant’s management failings, forcing Wyant and his communications director to resign. The task force’s scrutiny also resulted in the only firing of a state employee in the entire Flint disaster — the DEQ’s water office chief, Liane Shekter Smith, who has since gotten her job back after criminal charges were dropped. The failings of the Snyder administration in Flint are now well-documented thanks, in part, to that task force. Whitmer needs to allow the same type of probe of her environmental agency. No matter how many conflict firewalls EGLE tries to erect in investigating itself, there will be open questions about the legitimacy of the outcome. The thousands of residents and businesses that sustained flood damage as a result of this dam failure deserve answers from a trusted source. It can’t be the same government agency that was minding the store prior to the flood.

Eight minutes after 5 p.m. on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office issued a press release declaring another two-week extension of her stay-athome order until June 12 for Michigan’s 10 million residents. This is what we in the news business call a news dump — a strategic drop of significant news when fewer people may be paying attention. “We are not out of the woods yet,” Whitmer said in a statement. But that’s exactly where many Michiganians were headed — the woods. By the time the news hit, Michigan’s northsouth freeways were already filling up with trucks pulling boats north to towns along Lakes Michigan and Huron or their inland lake retreats — far from where the novel coronavirus has been found lingering in nursing homes and more densely populated areas downstate. After a precipitous drop in the COVID-19 infection curve, there’s a growing sense here that most residents are over the governor’s stay-at-home orders, even if they supported her original actions nine weeks ago to protect public health. That’s largely a reflection of Michigan’s DNA. This is the state that invented mobility. The middle-class lifestyle was built here around having a cottage Up North, where you could spend the day in an office or factory in metro Detroit and be sitting around a campfire — nursing a Labatt’s — on a Lake Huron beach by nightfall. Whitmer knows this. That urge to get Up North crept into her own household last week when her husband, Marc Mallory, ventured north to the family cottage on Birch Lake near Elk Rapids. The governor says her husband was only there to rake some leaves. But Mallory’s now infamous phone call to a local boat dock service company asking whether his marriage to the state’s chief executive could get him special treatment only served to undermine his spouse’s lockdown message. Whitmer said Tuesday her husband was only joking. A Dad Joke gone bad, we’re to believe.

LIVENGOOD

But if that small business owner, who said he was three weeks behind schedule because of Whitmer’s extended shutdown order, had rushed over to Birch Lake to service a special customer, would the First Gentleman have turned away the service? Probably not. The governor’s critics had been actively looking for a slip-up like this because they can’t argue the science behind Whitmer’s unprecedented action this spring to AFTER A mitigate spread of the PRECIPITOUS virus. Whitmer’s stay-at- DROP IN THE home strategy COVID-19 worked. It’s indisputable INFECTION that sheltering in place saved lives and CURVE, THERE’S prevented Southeast A GROWING Michigan’s hospitals from being overrun SENSE HERE like the health care THAT MOST systems in New York City and Italy experi- RESIDENTS ARE enced at the height of OVER THE the late winter outGOVERNOR’S breaks. But as deaths, inSTAY-AT-HOME fection rates, hospitalizations and venti- ORDERS. lator use have plummeted, Whitmer has continued to extend her lockdown order and provided a disjointed reopening strategy. In late April, the Democratic governor said she would consider a regional approach to reopening the state’s economy. That was based on a regional map drawn by the leaders of major Michigan corporations, health care systems and universities. See STRATEGY on Page 9

A sign on the front window of Robertson’s Hair Center in downtown Traverse City tells customers “your guess is as good as ours” as to when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will let the barbershop reopen. | CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESSDETROIT BUSINESS

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited for length or clarity. Send letters to Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207, or email crainsdetroit@crain.com. Please include your complete name, city from which you are writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes. 8 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

Chad

Sound off: Crain’s considers longer opinion pieces from guest writers on issues of interest to business readers. Email ideas to Managing Editor Michael Lee at malee@crain.com.

STRATEGY

From Page 8

Then she started loosening restrictions on a statewide level — first with construction and real estate industries, then manufacturing. Then the governor came out with a six-phase reopening plan and declared the entire state in phase three of “flattening” the curve. The plan called for bars and restaurants to reopen in phase five, seemingly a month or two away. Eleven days later, Whitmer signed an order allowing bars, restaurants and retail stores in 32 counties of northern Michigan to reopen on the Friday before Memorial Day, skipping the phased-in approach altogether. On Monday, Whitmer’s office published a new dashboard showing the two northern Michigan regions still in phase four, even though reopening bars and restaurants wasn’t supposed to happen until phase five when the disease is deemed “contained.” This goalpost-moving strategy is what’s motivating some Michiganians to venture away from home and get on with their summer routines, while still donning face masks in public places. They’re not taking the governor seriously anymore about the threat of COVID-19 that still looms across the state because there have been no clear benchmarks for restoring livelihoods and no real penalty for going where one pleases. In the beginning, the goal was to flatten the curve. Now the goal seems to be to get out of the woods, whatever that means. Whitmer’s evolving strategy for emerging from the woods has been clashing with Republicans who control the Legislature from the outset. GOP leaders initially supported the lockdown and still have acknowledged a public health crisis exists. But they want some control over the governor’s management, executive authority she has refused to concede, and which has been validated in court. Though they will deny it, misogyny runs deep in the protests of Whitmer’s actions throughout the crisis, as displayed by one recent Capitol protester who carried around a Barbie doll hanging from a noose — an effigy that the governor says her own teenage daughters saw images of. When the defiant 77-year-old Owosso barber Karl Manke says the “governor is not my mother,” he really means that he doesn’t need a woman in power to tell him how to go about earning a buck. This only serves to embolden Whitmer’s allies to back her strategy for reopening the economy, no matter how inconsistent it might be. Adding to this stew is the real threat of long-lasting damage to Michigan’s economy, which thrives on the Detroit Three’s sale of new vehicles, agricultural exports and tourism along the Great Lakes. Devastating floods from dam failures in the Midland area have only compounded the crises Whit-

mer is confronting as her lockdown continues to lumber into summer. And while the visible resistance to Whitmer’s stay-home order has centered on gun-toting protesters at the Capitol and Manke’s Owosso barbershop, the quiet lockdown rebellion was playing out over the Memorial Day weekend in northern Michigan tourist towns such as Traverse City, Charlevoix and Mackinaw City. It wasn’t just locals filling up bars, restaurants and cafes. Northern Michigan’s regional reopening did not come with explicit authorization from the governor for hotels to accept downstate guests. But they were anyway, no questions asked. Contact: clivengood@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at a coronavirus update earlier this spring. | MICHIGAN GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

SUPER. HEROES. Thank you to all of the Wayne State University heroes putting their Warrior spirit into action at a time of crisis to improve the lives of others — and at times, even risking their safety to serve communities around our city and around the world. Your acts are beyond heroic.

MORE ON WJR ` Listen to Crain’s Group Publisher Mary Kramer and Managing Editor Michael Lee talk about the week’s stories every Monday morning at 6:15 a.m. Mondays on WJR 760 AM’s Paul W. Smith Show.

wayne.edu

JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 9

WINNER, LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

WIN

David Collon, M.D.

“ O H T H H P E A

Physician and Former President, Michigan Orthopaedic Surgeons BY JAY GREENE

avid Collon capped his 50-year career as an orthopedic surgeon and medical group administrator in metro Detroit in 2017 with the merger of five competing orthopedic groups. “We attempted to merge the groups for many years,” said Collon, who was the founding president of Michigan Orthopaedic Surgeons PLLC, a 45-physician group based in Southfield with seven locations in Oakland County. “Dr. (Harry) Herkowitz (former chair of orthopedic surgery at Beaumont) had a great vision of what it could become. He passed away (in 2013) before we finally got it done,” said Collon, who has since been succeeded at MOS by Paul Fortin, M.D., a foot and ankle specialist. Before becoming a Beaumont surgeon 16 years ago, Collon was chair of the orthopedic surgery department at Henry Ford Health System from 1995 to 2004. “It was very exciting at Henry Ford Hospital when I was chair,” said Collon, who graduated from the Wayne State University medical school in 1968. “We did a lot to bring the department up. We had a tremendous involvement of physicians.” During his long career, Collon also served as the team physician for the Detroit Lions, Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings. “I got to know all the people who owned and ran the teams,” he said.

“IT WAS VERY EXCITING AT HENRY FORD HOSPITAL WHEN I WAS CHAIR. WE DID A LOT TO BRING THE DEPARTMENT UP. WE HAD A TREMENDOUS INVOLVEMENT OF PHYSICIANS.” — David Collon

At Henry Ford, Collon helped enlarge the Center for Athletic Medicine in Midtown and also created Henry Ford’s sports medicine department with former CEO Gail Warden. “Gail was fun to work with. When we started out he had his office in the hospital and you could just walk in and see him, talk with him. And when you’re done, you would have accomplished something,” said Collon, who added that those days are nearly over as health systems have become more corporate-oriented to diversify their services. “As Beaumont and Henry Ford became bigger, they both have built big corporate headquarters (away from their hospitals) and moved further and further away from patient care,” Collon said. “That is one of the reasons we developed MOS, to try and get more doctors involved in decisions that impact patient care.” Collon now lives in Ketchum, Idaho, at the Sun Valley ski resort, where there are about 2,700 permanent residents and 22,000 in Blaine County. Idaho is closer to his two sons, one who is an ophthalmology resident in Salt Lake City and another who is a orthopedic resident in Los Angeles. “For a fair while, we have a per capita number of (COVID-19) cases that was as bad as New York,” he said. “This was something that happened in a number of ski resorts in Colorado and Utah. It was due to the all the people coming in from California in New York.”

WINNER, INNOVATION

Patrick Hines, M.D. Associate Professor of Physiology and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine BY JAY GREENE

ealthy red blood cells are important to maintain oxygen levels in the body, but until Patrick Hines, M.D., associate professor of physiology and pediatric critical care medicine at Wayne State University in Detroit, created a special laboratory testing platform, nobody had a way to assess how healthy a patient’s red blood cells are. “This is something that’s really important because there’s been a lot of investment in therapy (of red blood cells), but there weren’t any diagnostic tests that can tell a drug developer, a physician or researchers anything about the health of one’s red blood cells,” said Hines, who also is a pediatric critical care doctor at DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Hines’ idea was to create a testing platform that could measure the health of red blood cells by evaluating properties such as stickiness or membrane stability. By identifying patients at risk for blood flow abnormalities, doctors could use the information to choose the best medication for individual patients. “We first started using the test and looking at the drugs that have been developed to treat sickle cell disease patients. It’s a big deal in metro Detroit because we have one of the highest sickle cell patient population in the U.S.,” Hines said.

10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

“WE’VE BEEN ABLE TO DO A LOT OF WORK IN HELPING DETERMINE WHAT PATIENT GETS WHAT DRUG AT THE RIGHT TIME.” — Patrick Hines

“We’ve been able to do a lot of work in helping determine what patient gets what drug at the right time. This is going to allow much better application of (three new sickle cell) medications for these patients.” After two years of research, Hines founded Functional Fluidics LLC in 2014 with permission to license his research as a startup company from Wayne State’s board of governors. Located on the fifth floor of the WSU-affiliated incubator TechTown Detroit in Midtown, the company now has 12 employees and three testing labs. Initially, Functional Fluidics signed a research contract with San Diego-based Mast Therapeutics Inc. It has since contracted with other pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Pfizer and Global Blood Therapeutics. Earlier this year, Functional Fluidics began testing blood at six of the largest sickle cell centers in the nation. The company now is focused on raising $1.5 million to expand the labs, hiring more technicians who will help increase testing at hospitals all over the country, Hines said. Hines and his team are collaborating with Wayne State and ER physician Phillip Levy on a study to assess the health of red blood cells and measure antibodies in patients with COVID-19.

—

his year marks the 19th year Crain’s Detroit Business has honored Michigan’s Health Care Heroes. This year, something is different. Very different. As the state (and the country, and the world) mobilized to fight a deadly once-in-a-century pandemic, our ideas about heroism in health care shifted. Nurses and doctors, pharmacists and lab technicians were on the front lines. Health care workers self-isolated away from their families; some deployed across state lines to serve in hot zones. Lawn signs, food drives and fly-overs celebrated the everyday heroism of health care workers — salutes from a grateful community. In some ways, you will find the same kinds of stories in this year’s Health Care Heroes that we have told for nearly two decades: stories of health care leaders who have gone above and beyond to change the lives of their patients, their institutions and the communities they serve for the better. The problems they are working to solve — addiction, traumatic brain injuries, pediatric palliative care, sickle cell anemia and LGBTQ inclusion in health care among them — have not gone away because of coronavirus. Many of these winners are also first responders to COVID-19, administering front-line care in hospitals as part of their day-to-day responsibilities. But we also want to recognize that this year, every health care worker is a hero. We hope these honorees serve as representatives for everyone who has put their life on the line to save lives and keep our communities safe during the pandemic. Winners were nominated by peers and patients. Nominations were judged and selected by a panel that included: ` Lenora Hardy-Foster, president and CEO, Judson Center; 2019 Health Care Hero ` Michael Lee, Managing Editor, Crain’s Detroit Business ` Amy Elliott Bragg, Special Projects Editor, Crain’s Detroit Business Crain’s Senior Health Care Reporter Jay Greene and Executive Editor Kelley Root also contributed to our decision-making process. We also highlight everyday heroism in response to the coronavirus in our weekly COVID-19 Heroes series. HEALTH CARE HEROES WINNERS

Lifetime Achievement

Innovation

` David Collon, M.D., Page 10

` Patrick Hines, M.D., Page 10

` Steven Grant, M.D., Page 11

` Randall Benson, M.D., Page 14

Corporate Achievement

Administrator/Exec

` Gina Buccalo, M.D., Page 12

` Gerold Bepler, M.D., Page 14

Physician

` Kimberly Hurst, P.A., Page 14

`Latonya Riddle-Jones, M.D., Page 12

Allied Health

` Andrew King, M.D., Page 12

` Tiffany Morelli, R.N., Page 15

` Nadia Tremonti, M.D., Page 13

` Jan Stokosa, Page 15

Ch Gr

BY J

t t Cou cha inte al p G cian orga gan pres also the cian 201 of th “I ing cian sees ham that jobs GDA wer my in l scho S inso his f Her W gan plem hea sicia outs den imp well mun G ing onli man Mic insi of p “W lic r repo tion but pare said G sign vide ven para and use “W is w

WINNER, LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

CONGRATULATIONS,

â&#x20AC;&#x153;WE ARE A CONVENER. OUR STRENGTH IS WE HAVE MANY AT THE TABLE, PHYSICIANS, HEALTH PLANS, HOSPITALS, PURCHASERS, EVERYBODY IS AT THE TABLE.â&#x20AC;?

DR. BUCCALO, OUR CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HEALTH CARE HERO

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Steven Grant

d s t r t d s

n y e r . â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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Steven Grant, M.D. Chairman of the Board, Greater Detroit Area Health Council BY JAY GREENE

teven Grant, M.D., chairman of the Greater Detroit Area Health Council, has witnessed a lot of change over 40 years as a practicing internist and administrator of several physician organizations. Grant co-founded United Physicians, one of the largest physician organizations in Southeast Michigan with 2,000 doctors, and was its president from 2000-2010. He was also the first executive director of the Detroit Medical Center Physician Hospital Organization from 2010-2013 and is current president of the IPA Association of America. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was not always easyâ&#x20AC;? practicing medicine and heading up physician organizations, said Grant, who sees patients at his practice in Bingham Farms. â&#x20AC;&#x153;People would ask me that a lot. I always had two full-time jobs between my private practice or GDAHC, DMC or UP. The hours were long. Fortunately, for me and my kids, as things started to ramp up in late 1990s, they were into high school.â&#x20AC;? Son Adam, an attorney with Dickinson Wright in Detroit, nominated his father for the Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Care Hero award. When he headed up physician organizations, Grant led efforts to implement modular and full electronic health records in independent physician offices. He also has been an outspoken advocate for independent physicians along with efforts to improve the health and economic well-being of individuals and communities in metro Detroit. Grant was instrumental in helping GDAHC launch in 2007 the first online multipayer provider performance report (MyCareCompare) in Michigan. The report gives patients insights into quality and outcomes of physician organizations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We early on felt we needed public reporting of quality metrics. We report out at the physician organization level, not individual doctors, but people can go online and compare physician organizations,â&#x20AC;? Grant said. GDAHC has other initiatives designed to inform patients and providers in such areas as diabetes prevention, expanding community paramedicine, addressing obesity and the opioid crisis, reducing ER use and health care costs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are a convener. Our strength is we have many at the table, physi-

cians, health plans, hospitals, purchasers, everybody is at the table. We have very good networking and over the years have done a lot of good projects,â&#x20AC;? Grant said. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, Grant said, many projects were put on hold. One project on hold now is a pilot in Washtenaw County on community paramedicine, an offshoot of GDAHCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s project to reduce unnecessary ER use and health care costs. Community paramedicine allows paramedics or emergency medical technicians to evaluate patients outside of the hospital ER setting in consultation with emergency medicine doctors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Payers are at the table and are interested. They would pay for (telemedicine) communications between paramedics and ER doctorsâ&#x20AC;? at the site of care, Grant said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were trying to figure out (payment) codes for it.â&#x20AC;? In 2004, Grant became involved with IPA Association of America, a membership organization of about 677 independent physician associations in 39 states with more than 300,000 affiliated doctors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The relationships between the IPAs and hospitals (nationally) are difficult,â&#x20AC;? said Grant, who has been chair of the IPA Association since 2012. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The hospitals have an attitude, and they have for years, that things revolve around them.â&#x20AC;? Grant said most IPAs support and complement hospitals in managed care and patient quality care projects. However, as hospitals have moved to sign more exclusive â&#x20AC;&#x153;narrow provider networkâ&#x20AC;? contracts with payers, the deals sometimes put hospitals in competition with the IPAs, he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;(Hospitals believe) they should be at the center of whatever is going on. It is very hard at times to cooperate,â&#x20AC;? Grant said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We always tried to cooperate because it is somewhat of a symbiotic relationship. The physicians need the hospital beds in the hospital, and the hospitals need physician referrals.â&#x20AC;? Grant, who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972 and received his medical degree from UM in 1976, has been an assistant clinical professor with the Wayne State University School of Medicine for decades. He also serves as chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills.

GINA BUCCALO, M.D., CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

THANK YOU FOR YOUR DEDICATION TO IMPROVING THE HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF OUR MEMBERS.

CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

@crainsdetroit

CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS

CONGRATULATIONS DR. RANDALL BENSON

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CENTER FOR NEUROLOGICAL STUDIES neurologicstudies.com | 313-228-0930

JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DETROIT BUSINESS | 11

WINNER, PHYSICIAN

Latonya Riddle-Jones, M.D.

Nadia Tremonti, M.D.

Physician, Wayne State University Physician Group; Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Wayne State University; Medical Director, Corktown Health Center BY DOUG HENZE | SPECIAL TO CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS

“ONE OF THE REASONS I WANTED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS POPULATION IS BECAUSE OF THE DISPARITIES. ”

t’s not the fear of needles or medical tests that keeps some of Latonya Riddle-Jones’ patients away from traditional doctors. They’re more concerned about discrimination and mistreatment. Some have avoided doctor visits for 15 years. Those patients, who are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community, perceive that medical professionals don’t treat them with respect. “They are coming in with uncontrolled hypertension (and) uncontrolled diabetes,” said Riddle-Jones, an Inkster native who is medical director for Corktown Health Center in Detroit. “They open up to us and we’re able to give them good, quality medical care.” The nonprofit center, which is open to everyone, is a safe space for LGBTQ people, Riddle-Jones said. Patients, some from Ohio and northern Michigan, are greeted by artwork and magazines featuring same-sex couples, lapel pins with preferred pronouns and medical professionals trained to understand diverse needs. “One of the reasons I wanted to learn more about this population is

— Latonya Riddle-Jones

because of the disparities,” said Riddle-Jones, a 2008 Wayne State University School of Medicine graduate who is certified in caring for transgender people. “About 50 percent of trans people have attempted suicide at some time in their life.” Riddle-Jones’ patients tell stories of clinicians — perhaps well-intentioned in learning about an unfamiliar type of patient — treating them like guinea pigs, she said. Others report more offensive behavior. “They’ve been told they have a

disease because they are gay or they were refused treatment because of gender identity,” Riddle-Jones said. “They feel like they have not had their dignity respected.” The Corktown center contracts with Riddle-Jones’ employer, the Wayne State University Physician Group, for her services. At the center, Riddle-Jones, also an assistant professor at Wayne State, trains some of her students how to care for LGBTQ patients. Lessons students learn can be ap-

plied beyond the LGBTQ community — things such as requesting permission before performing a physical exam or asking whether diabetes may be linked to lack of access to fresh fruit and vegetables. The COVID-19 crisis, which has prevented students from working at Corktown and other clinics, has created an unexpected positive outcome. Use of telemedicine to check in on patients is leading to better compliance. “Patients who are shy about coming into the office or (who are) high-anxiety are a lot more comfortable with telemedicine,” Riddle-Jones said. “We’re thinking we’re going to continue using (it) as a tool.” Riddle-Jones is also associate director for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s Tri-County Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program. Part of a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services effort, the program is aimed at improving health for low-income women. Besides being uninsured or underinsured, patients may be afraid to go to the doctor because of immigrant status, for example, Riddle-Jones said. Free, mobile mammogram units are welcomed by patients.

WINNER, PHYSICIAN

Attending Physician, Detroit Medical Center; Medical Toxicology Fellowship Director, Wayne State University

t’s sometimes called “treat ’em and street ’em” — an emergency department strategy to take care of and then quickly discharge patients from the ER. But it doesn’t serve opioid addicts well, said Andrew King, M.D., an associate professor at Wayne State University and an emergency physician and medical toxicologist for the Detroit Medical Center. King is helping to change the practice by transporting substance abusers directly to outpatient treatment centers. “(Often) we tell them, ‘Quit heroin — go figure it out and good luck to you,’” King said. “What are the chances of people following up in a day or so? One of the dangerous things you can do with patients with poor health literacy is to discharge them from the hospital. At the same time, you can’t admit everybody.” King, who works at Detroit Receiving and Sinai Grace hospitals, often encounters patients who are low-income, minority and underin12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

sured. In addition to fighting addiction, they also may have transportation issues, he said. So, King, in partnership with rehabilitation provider Team Wellness Center, created the Crisis Addiction Response Transportation program for the DMC. The voluntary program gives addicts a ride from the hospital to treatment facilities, where care can begin. Patients who come in after normal business hours begin their stay with a clean bed. “A lot of them feel exhausted and need to sleep,” King said. In the morning, they can meet with a psychiatrist and get started on medicines to help wean them from addiction and to treat other ailments. After a stay of a day or two, patients go home with a packet of resources and return to meet with professionals as needed. “We’ve had some really good retention rates and success rates, even after overdose,” King said. “About half of the people (who) get transported over there will stay in therapy for 20 weeks. One in 10 will stay for a year.”

BY DOUG HENZE | SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

hen Nadia Tremonti checks in to work each day, she’s greeted by children with cancer, those with brain injuries and families who are trying to pick up the emotional pieces. “A lot of people would consider my role extremely depressing, and that’s the furthest from the truth,” said Tremonti, medical director of the pediatric palliative care team at Children’s Hospital of Michigan at the Detroit Medical Center. “I see a lot of unconditional love and people showing remarkable strength in difficult times.” Tremonti’s medical specialty is improving the quality of life for children who may never get better, through treatment that includes pain management and the lifting of spirits. Her work is the subject of the film “Palliative,” shot by Denver-based Triage Films LLC in November and December of 2018 at the hospital and re-

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WINNER, CORPORATE ACHIEVEMENT

Andrew King, M.D. BY DOUG HENZE | SPECIAL TO CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS

Medical Director, Pediatric Palliative Care, Children’s Hospital of Michigan

“PART OF THE ISSUE I’VE RUN INTO IS RESISTANCE BY OTHER (HEALTH CARE) PROVIDERS TO TREAT THIS AS A DISEASE.” — Andrew King

The DMC also works with a substance abuse treatment facility, the Faith, Hope & Love Outreach Center. The CART program is aimed at reducing a disparity in the way opioid addicts are treated, versus people with other serious health conditions. “After somebody comes in after an overdose, their mortality rate is 5 percent to 8 percent after one year,” said King, who joined Wayne State and the DMC in 2013. “That’s similar to what you see with a heart attack. My idea is we have to treat opioid addiction the same way we would a heart attack.” But addiction carries a stigma that a heart attack doesn’t. “Part of the issue I’ve run into is resistance by other (health care) providers to treat this as a disease,” King said. They may believe that, “Nothing we do really matters” or “They’ll get better when they choose to get better,” King said. “It needs to be thought of as a disease, instead of a moral failing or something wrong with their soul,” he said.

Gina Buccalo, M.D. Chief Medical Officer, UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust BY DOUG HENZE | SPECIAL TO CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS

W P U T A G I T R

—

or Gina Buccalo, M.D., getting and keeping United Auto Workers retirees healthy is all about an information exchange. That means setting up home visits with health care workers, connecting members with medical counselors and directing them to online resources, said Buccalo, chief medical officer of the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. “The trust has rich sources of data,” said Buccalo, who joined the trust in 2017. “Our members are with us from the point of retirement until the end of their lives. We always keep that goal of trying to improve their lives throughout retirement.” The trust, created in 2010 as an entity independent from the union and

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brain injuries from car accidents, near drownings or other trauma and may be on ventilators at home or in the hospital. “A large percentage of patients we take care of are dealing with a chronic condition,” she said. “We do take care of a very large percentage of neurologically devastated children.” About half of the 1,200 patients Tremonti has seen since hiring on at Children’s in 2007 have died, she said. Few of those who have recovered have reached a normal life expectancy. Navigating that type of work environment involves “a lot of creativity,” Tremonti said. “Every day, you don’t know what to expect,” she said. “The first step is

just trying to understand where (the) parents are.” Tremonti tries to understand their motivations and goals, she said. Are they trying to preserve life, ease pain or do they simply seek to know what God wants of them? “I sometimes help people understand that death is not the worst thing,” she said. “I think we should start talking about the quality of someone’s life rather than the minuscule chance of fighting off death.” The slow nature of a chronic disease can give pause for reflection, she said, contrasting her work atmosphere with the sometimes-frantic environment of an emergency room after, for example, a car accident. Palliative care, of course, brings its challenges. “My biggest role is just helping people understand the situation,” she said. “Parents are exposed to a lot of complex medical talk.” A child’s sickness also can be isolating for both parents and offspring, who no longer socialize with friends in the same way. Coronavirus has created an additional struggle, as masked doctors try to comfort masked parents. “It’s hard to bring in the humanity,” Tremonti said. It also required cancellation of this year’s Princess and Superhero Party. Tremonti described it as a “day of joy,” where actors dressed as Batman and Cinderella danced with excited children. “We kind of faced death and looked it in the eye and said, ‘You know what? We’re going to be happy anyway,’” she said.

Program, begins shortly after a worker’s retirement. A health care worker calls on them at home, looking for barriers to good health. “We’re able to visit them in their home and see how they interact with their family,” said Buccalo, a physician since 1987. “If we identify somebody who is high risk, we’re able to quickly connect them to a

care team. That’s what health care is all about.” To improve ongoing care by making it more convenient for members, the trust, in recent years, has begun offering online and telephone coaching. “Members have really embraced it,” Buccalo said. One of Buccalo’s major targets now is eliminating disparities in health care outcomes between members of different races, genders, ages or economic statuses. The trust began its Health Care Disparities Initiative in 2019 collecting data about those differences.This year, the trust has its sights set on closing the gap. “We measure how often a member is going to the emergency room,” Buccalo said. “What can we do to make sure there’s better access to primary care or telemedicine, so people don’t have to go to the emergency room unnecessarily?” Buccalo’s efforts for the trust follow similar work as chief medical officer of Ascension Michigan’s St. John Providence Partners in Care. There, Buccalo developed a model to deliver in-home care to Medicare patients. The work at both Ascension and the UAW retiree trust is patient-centered, she said. “Helping them achieve the best quality of life — that’s really what gets me excited,” Buccalo said.

“A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD CONSIDER MY ROLE EXTREMELY DEPRESSING, AND THAT’S THE FURTHEST FROM THE TRUTH.”

— Nadia Tremonti

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leased in 2019. The 37-minute documentary won several awards, including the 2019 People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film at the Denver Film Festival. The film’s director, John Beder, moved to Detroit for eight weeks to go “on call” with Tremonti. “They were able to follow the trajectories of a few different stories and lives,” Tremonti said. “The overarching picture was the humanity of the people who are facing this.” Tremonti, whose treatment ranges from prenatal care to adult medicine — provided an illness has been present since childhood — estimates about 20 percent of her patient are afflicted with cancer. Others have

“OUR MEMBERS ARE WITH US FROM THE POINT OF RETIREMENT UNTIL THE END OF THEIR LIVES. WE ALWAYS KEEP THAT GOAL OF TRYING TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES THROUGHOUT RETIREMENT.” — Gina Buccalo

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the automakers, oversees the purchase of medical benefits for about 630,000 members. That includes UAW retirees and their dependents. While the average member age is 72, the trust serves everyone from newborns to those who have passed the century mark. The interaction with members, through the trust’s Home Assistance

JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 13

WINNER, INNOVATION

WINNER, ADMINISTRATOR/EXECUTIVE

“WE SEE BRAIN INJURIES FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE, WHETHER THEY’RE CAR ACCIDENTS OR FALLS. WE ALSO SEE VETERANS FROM THE GULF WARS. ” — Randall Benson

Randall Benson, M.D. Owner, Center for Integrated Neurology; Vice President and Medical Director, Center for Neurological Studies BY DOUG HENZE | SPECIAL TO CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS

andall Benson , M.D., was barely a teenager when he picked up a book about brain injuries that would lead him to his present career. “I’ve always known I was going to study the brain since I was 13,” said Benson, who was hooked when he found a book about aphasia, the loss of speech caused by brain damage, while browsing in a bookstore. Benson later did his residency with one of the authors. Today, Benson helps former NFL players who suffered brain impacts during their playing careers, as well as other patients from across the country. Benson is vice president and medical director for the Dearborn-based Center for Neurological Studies, which he co-founded with John D. Russell, and owner of the Center for Integrated Neurology in Novi. “We see brain injuries from all walks of life, whether they’re car accidents or falls,” Benson said, describing his work at the Dearborn nonprofit. “We also see veterans from the Gulf wars.” Benson also treats patients with brain injuries that aren’t linked to trauma. They may be caused by low blood supply to the brain, perhaps from a heart attack. An M.D. since 1987, Benson served as a research fellow in behavioral neurology and functional magnetic resonance imaging at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston from 1992 to 1996. It was 2005 when Benson, then a researcher at Wayne State University, made a breakthrough that led to the founding of his clinics. He used an ultrasensitive process called diffusion tensor imaging — three to sixplus times more sensitive than a traditional MRI — to study traumatic brain injury. “It could tell us which white matter fibers were damaged,” he said. 14 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

White matter consists of the connections between the brain’s gray matter, which is responsible for muscle control and functions such as memory and hearing. White matter is damaged more often, Benson said. The discovery spurred Benson to open the Dearborn clinic in 2011 and then the Novi center — which focuses on local patients — in 2012. Dearborn patients agree to become part of a database Benson is compiling to help treat clients. “I have been studying and seeing former NFL players,” Benson said. Former Lions quarterback Eric Hipple, now part of the Dearborn center, began referring players to Benson while Benson worked for Wayne State. Benson evaluates players suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an Alzheimer’s disease-like syndrome that results from repetitive head injury. To settle a class action suit brought by 4,500 players who say they suffer from CTE, the NFL agreed to pay $765 million. Benson testified at a congressional hearing on the subject in 2010. “I now believe that CTE is growth hormone deficiency,” he said. When patients suffering from the deficiency come in, they have little motivation and must push themselves every day just to function, he said. “Many of them have an obsession with killing themselves,” Benson said of both ex-NFL players and other patients. “We can halt those thoughts by simply giving them what their brains are supposed to get.” That’s accomplished through injection of human growth hormones once a day. “In two weeks, patients report improvement,” Benson said. “In three months, they are significantly better with their sleep, energy, motivation. It restores vitality. It’s the biggest thing nobody knows about.”

Gerold Bepler, M.D., Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Karmanos Cancer Institute BY DOUG HENZE | SPECIAL TO CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS

e helped create a Michigan cancer treatment network, sought input on community needs and oversaw research that helped cure the previously incurable. It’s been a busy decade for Gerold Bepler. Bepler is president and CEO of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, a post he’s held since 2010. Making excellent care accessible to diverse populations, at all income levels, has been the overriding goal since joining Karmanos from the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Bepler said. At Moffitt, he was department chairman of thoracic oncology, which includes lung and other chest cancers. “I definitely (want) to make sure we continue to be one of the leading cancer institutes in the U.S.,” said Bepler, who has increased Karmanos’ funding from research grants and contracts from $65 million annually to $80 million annually since joining the institute. The author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, Bepler also is chairman of the Department of Oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Bepler counts the creation of the Karmanos Cancer Network as one of the institute’s biggest accomplish-

ments during his time at the helm. That happened when Grand Blancbased McLaren Health Care Corp. acquired Karmanos in 2014, creating a cancer treatment network with 16 locations. “Us joining McLaren was probably the greatest thing we’ve done,” Bepler said. “We now have the ability to bring advanced cancer treatments to rural populations. The quality of care at those cancer sites has definitely improved.” McLaren hospitals in Bay City, Port Huron, Mount Pleasant, Petoskey and other locations now have access to many experimental cancer drugs that aren’t available elsewhere, Bepler said. That’s because Karmanos is one of two National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in Michigan. The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center in Ann Arbor is the other. The NCI designation, which requires recertification every five years, gives cancer centers access to new drugs that aren’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The centers then participate in clinical trials to prove efficacy of those drugs. “Our cancer patients have access to cancer drugs often 10 years ahead of (other hospitals),” Bepler said. In addition to drug trials, Karmanos is contributing to an immune system therapy that uses patients’ T-cells to

“US JOINING MCLAREN WAS PROBABLY THE GREATEST THING WE’VE DONE. WE NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO BRING ADVANCED CANCER TREATMENTS TO RURAL POPULATIONS. ” — Gerold Bepler

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WINNER, ADMINISTRATOR/EXECUTIVE

Kimberly Hurst, P.A. Executive Director, Wayne County SAFE (Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners) Program BY JAY GREENE

imberly Hurst works as a physician assistant in hospital ERs and saw on a daily basis the lack of specialized services for people victimized by sexual assaults. “My first experience with a patient of sexual assault was as a student” at Wayne State University, Hurst said. “My attending (physician) handed me a (medical forensic rape) kit and said, ‘This is your next patient.’ There wasn’t really any training. I just used my best judgment. It was a learning experience. I did her a real injustice. I just knew that this is not how this should be going.” After graduating in 2001 from Wayne State and working as a P.A. at St. John Hospital in Detroit, Hurst decided to learn more about sexual violence. She took a basic sexual assault forensic examiner course. “I became a forensic examiner out of an absolute respect for the profession of nursing and also the acknowledgment that people other than nurses can do this work,” Hurst said. She soon began working as an independent contractor for sexual assault nurse examiner programs in Oakland and Macomb counties

while working full time at St. John Hospital in the early 2000s. “When I was working in Oakland County, people from Detroit would call to have an exam done,” she said. “I realized there was nothing like this in Wayne County. It has the highest rates of sexual violence in the state and there is a huge need.” After two years of planning, Hurst created WC SAFE in 2006 to offer sexual assault services in Wayne County. The nonprofit agency began in a small clinic in northeast Detroit staffed with several nurses. During the first year, WC SAFE cared for 180 sexual assault survivors. Now in its 14th year, WC SAFE serves more than 1,500 survivors a year, a number that has steadily grown as hospitals refer patients. Some 80 percent of sexual assault calls come from hospitals. The agency now employs 25 fulltime staff, including sexual assault forensic examiners and 10 independently contracted nurses and also has 20 to 30 volunteers. Over 14 years, Hurst said, WC SAFE has provided services to more than 16,000 survivors of sexual assault. “Our three highest volume centers

“WE’VE JUST REALLY GROWN OUT OF NECESSITY AND THE GAPS THAT EXISTED IN THE COMMUNITY.” — Kimberly Hurst

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WINNER, ALLIED HEALTH fight off previously incurable cancer. After harvesting the cells from a patient’s blood and adding a receptor that will bind to cancer cells, researchers grow large number of the altered cells in a laboratory and then inject them into the body. Bepler calls therapy using the chimeric antigen receptor cells — called CAR T-cells — the biggest development in which Karmanos has participated in his time there. The treatment, approved by the FDA in 2018, destroys non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells in patients who didn’t respond to other treatments and who may be months from death. “That has been an absolutely stunning breakthrough,” Bepler said. “We cure two out of three patients. The cancer goes away and it looks like it never comes back.” The drawback to the treatment is it’s labor-intensive and costly, since cells made from one patient’s blood won’t work on another individual. Karmanos now is hoping to expand the treatment to other types of cancers. Research performed at the institute needs to be relevant to the community at large, Bepler said. That’s why Karmanos has formed Cancer Action Councils — focus groups consisting of community leaders, including those from faith-based organizations and social groups. “We are putting a lot of effort into engaging the communities, so we are not like these ivory towers nobody has access to and nobody listens to,” Bepler said.

Tiffany Morelli, R.N. Clinical Nurse and Substance Use Community Program Coordinator, Emergency Center, Beaumont Hospital, Troy BY JAY GREENE

R nurse Tiffany Morelli thought long and hard one day in 2016 when someone asked her the question: “What happens when patients overdose and they are discharged from the hospital?” Morelli, a staff nurse in the emergency center at Beaumont Hospital Troy, knew hospital staff usually recommend patients seek outpatient care for substance use problems when they are discharged, but rarely make sure patients follow through. Her concern for those patients led her to volunteer in 2016 for Families Against Narcotics, a Clinton Township-based program that helps people overcome addiction. “I felt we could be providing patients with more resources than we were,” said Morelli, who received clearance from hospital management to spend more time with opioid and other substance users in the ER. “I would talk with people and see if they wanted help.” If they did, Morelli would connect them with FAN. Over the next year, Morelli talked with many people in her ER shifts at Beaumont Troy who presented with overdoses or substance use issues. Then, in 2018, substance use prob-

“I AM SEEING AN INCREASE IN PATIENTS COMING IN FOR SUBSTANCE USE ISSUES NOT ONLY WITH DRUGS, BUT A HUGE INCREASE IN ALCOHOLISM.” — Tiffany Morelli

lems hit home. Her only sibling and older brother, Damion, died of an accidental overdose. “He was a good person and developed a prescription medication addiction following knee surgery,” Morelli said. “I’ve seen and lived through how addiction affects a person and his family, which motivates my desire to help. Addiction is a disease of the brain and is not an easy life.” In 2017, Morelli helped Beaumont Troy create the hospital’s substance use community program while she was on the hospital’s pain council. Last year, Morelli’s role at Beaumont Troy was expanded when she was named substance use community program coordinator. Morelli often speaks at events throughout the Beaumont Health eight-hospital system, educating patients, family members, staff and the community about substance use, stigma reduction and FAN’s free resources. She also teaches Naloxone (Narcan) classes for staff and the community several times a month. “Every morning when I come in I get a list of all the patients who ... have declined (substance use) services with a social worker, for whatever reason,” Morelli said. “When I talk with them it is like they are a

completely different person.” Morelli said she has had only two people refuse to listen to her talk about resources and receive outpatient care. “I feel like people are more receptive because I do talk about my brother and I talk about me and (they realize) they can make a change and there are people out there who are willing to help them,” she said. With the COVID-19 pandemic, Morelli said she has noticed an increase in the number of people coming into the ER with alcohol problems. “It is definitely a lot busier right now with the stay-at-home order due to COVID. I am seeing an increase in patients coming in for substance use issues not only with drugs, but a huge increase in alcoholism,” Morelli said. She described seeing people who are separated from their family and friends and start drinking to cope with the isolation. “We are still working to place people into rehabilitation facilities but there are many more steps because of COVID. Also, a lot of facilities are almost at full capacity. People with substance use disorder and mental health issues are suffering.”

WINNER, ALLIED HEALTH are in Detroit at DMC Receiving Hospital and DMC Sinai Grace Hospital, and St. John Hospital,” Hurst said. “We have clinic locations within those hospitals because the majority of our patients come to us from there.” Hurst realized WC SAFE needed to provide more than counseling and emotional support for sexual assault. The agency also provides crisis intervention, advocacy and counseling services — all on a 24/7 basis at no charge to survivors. “We’ve just really grown out of necessity and the gaps that existed in the community,” she said. “Our goal is always to fill those gaps and to provide services that are trauma informed and empowering and are available to anyone who’s experienced any type of sexual violence at any point in time in their life.” While Michigan and the rest of the world has been dealing with the impact of coronavirus and stay-at-home orders, Hurst said sexual assaults have picked up in the past month. “Our volume dipped a little bit in the beginning, but we’re still seeing sexual assaults and it is increasing again,” said Hurst. “We’re still having to go out and respond even with the stay-at-home orders and everything else.” Hurst said sexual assaults for all groups declined somewhat for about six weeks starting in early March, but she believes that was because people were too afraid to come into ERs or call independently for help.

Jan Stokosa Certified Prosthetics Practitioner and Clinic Director, Stokosa Prosthetic Clinic BY JAY GREENE

hen Angela Zaremba, who had a leg amputated when she was 12 years old, went to see Jan Stokosa, director and certified prosthetics practitioner of the Stokosa Prosthetic Clinic in Okemos, she had heard he would go the extra mile for his patients. Zaremba, who was 46 at the time and had multiple prosthetic devices fitted over the years, was optimistic after her first visit in 1996. “The visit began the same as previous visits to other prosthetic clinics,” Zaremba wrote in her Health Care Hero nomination letter. “He listened to my specific mobility needs, but then he sent me home with homework to do. He gave me specific exercises in applying pressure on the end of my stump before my next visit. This had never happened to me in a prosthetic appointment before.” Zaremba said Stokosa fitted her with a prosthetic leg that, with regular adjustments, has served her well for 26 years. Stokosa, 74, said he has treated thousands of patients such as Zaremba over his 50-year career. He specializes in prosthetics for transtibial (below-the-knee) amputations. “I’ve seen people from every state

“...THERE IS ONE COMMON THEME I HEAR AND IS THE REASON I AM SEEING THEM. ... I TAKE TIME TO LISTEN TO THEM AND WHAT THEY WANT TO ACCOMPLISH IN LIFE.” — Jan Stokosa

in the U.S. and 30 different countries and there is one common theme I hear and is the reason I am seeing them. They say, ‘Practitioners don’t take time to listen to me,’” said Stokosa. “‘They hit me with this prosthesis, I get physical therapy training and that’s it.’ I take time to listen to them and what they want to accomplish in life.” Stokosa said it takes four to 12 weeks to complete the process for a prosthetic fitting and education on use. “It is a very intensive process,” with appointments lasting up to two hours, he said. Prosthetics is both an art and science, Stokosa said, because every person is different. Therefore, he said, every fitting is custom. In 1962, Stokosa’s father, Walter, founded the family’s original prosthetics clinic in Jackson after helping to create the prosthetics and orthotics department at the University of Michigan in the 1950s. Walter pioneered the silicon liner that interfaced with the skin and sockets that joins the residual limb (stump) to the prosthesis, Stokosa said. Starting in his pre-teen years, Stokosa’s father taught him the basics of prosthetics, anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and more. Before going to college at Northwestern

University in Chicago, where he graduated in the school’s first prosthetics practitioner program in the late 1960s, he performed all laboratory fabricating procedures for patients under his father’s supervision. After his father died, Stokosa moved the clinic to Lansing in 1974 and operated it with a partner until 1989, when he decided to slow his practice down, opening a smaller clinic in Okemos. Over the years, Stokosa has contributed to the prosthetic profession in many ways. He wrote a chapter on limb prosthetics in the Merck Manual. He was also recognized by the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame in Ishpeming for establishing handicapped skiing in Michigan. Stokosa taught Alpine skiing for 17 years to kids and adults with amputations, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, polio and blindness at Pine Knob, Mt. Holly in the Detroit area and “every ski area up north,” he said. His patients have been asking when Stokosa will retire, “because (they) want to get (their prosthetic) reset so we can last as long as possible,” he said. But retirement is “not in my vocabulary,” Stokosa said. “I enjoy what I am doing and am successful because (many) people say that I’ve helped them.” JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 15

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Detroit Metropolitan Airport was more deserted last month than it was in September 2001 in the wake of terror attacks that changed air travel, and the country, forever. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been even more devastating for the $10 billion air travel industry in metro Detroit. The number of passengers at the airport in April dropped a staggering 94 percent from a year ago as the coronavirus outbreak and restrictions imposed to try to slow it nearly wiped out air travel. The numbers come from the Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees Detroit Metro and Willow Run airports, as it assesses the financial damage from the pandemic. At the same time last year, there were about 1.5 million passengers at Metro Airport. Just 88,548 people boarded a plane in April at what is usually one of the busiest airports in the nation. Total arrivals were also down 94 percent to 89,500. The number of international passengers dropped 97 percent to just 8,783. Year-to-date, passenger traffic at the airport was down about 37 percent compared to the first four months of 2019. Meanwhile, airport authority CEO Chad Newton is working with other executives to develop a relief package for concessionaires at the airport, spokeswoman Erica Donerson said in an email to Crain’s. Of the airport’s 100 restaurants and shops, 85 are closed. Operations at the airport ground to a near halt in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic began to sweep through the region. March saw half as many domestic passengers as usual and less than half of the typical international travelers. May numbers are also expected to be painfully low after Michigan’s stay home order was extended through June 12. The travel industry is bracing for long-term turbulence after more than two months of home quarantine that has bred a public aversion to crowded, cramped spaces such as airplanes. It has had devastating financial consequences for the metro Detroit air

travel industry, which typically has a $10 billion-per-year economic impact and supports 86,000 jobs. Airlines and restaurants aren’t the only ones reeling. Rental car and taxi services are idled. Parking lots and hotel rooms remain largely empty. “We have one of the best international airports in the world,” said Khalil Rahal, assistant executive for Wayne County. “It’s an economic driver for our region, no doubt about it, so when one of your best assets is not performing or generating as it was previously, it’s going to have a major impact.” A substantial portion of Wayne County’s expected $152 million budget shortfall stems from a fall in airport operations. The county usually collects $22.5 million a year in parking taxes from the airport. Revenue from parking, concessions, hotel, shuttle and utility services make up just more than half of the $400.9 million in total airport revenue projected for fiscal year 2020. Landing and rental fees that airlines pay make up 45 percent of the income, at $182.3 million. The Wayne County Airport Authority finalized its budget after a record year for passenger travel and before the coronavirus outbreak was a business concern. Actual revenues are sure to be much smaller, though the authority has not offered revised projections. “At this time, we do not know the full impact COVID-19 will have on the Wayne County Airport Authority’s revenue,” Lisa Gass, spokeswoman for the authority, said in an earlier email to Crain’s. “… U.S. airlines are continuing to reduce their flight schedules, which affects the revenue that we receive from them. In addition, there are fewer passengers, which impacts revenue ranging from parking to concessions. We are analyzing the data.” Around 16,200 badged employees work at Metro Airport, including airport authority employees, airline employees, concessionaires, contractors, government agencies, tenants and vendors. Hundreds have been laid off, but Gass said she was unable to provide a total. The airport authority itself employs 685 people. Gass said none of them have been laid off. Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl

HOSPITALS

From Page 1

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order (2020-91) on May 18 that requires companies to screen workers for COVID-19. Screening can include temperature checks, symptom checklists and disclosure if the employee is in contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive. Whitmer’s order is part of a broad mandate for businesses to follow strict safety guidelines to protect workers and customers from the novel coronavirus and develop a preparedness plan by June. 1, or within two weeks of resuming in-person activities. To supplement screening and other workplace protections, some employers are offering voluntary testing for the coronavirus and a serology blood test for antibodies. The nasal swab test determines whether the employee has an active COVID-19 case; the serology test gives information on whether they have antibodies to fight the virus. For example, Henry Ford, a six-hospital integrated health system based in Detroit, has begun COVID-19 testing for about 15 companies, including, on a limited basis, DTE Energy Co. in Detroit. Henry Ford is working with 35 corporate clients on broadscale return to work programs. Beaumont Health, an eight-hospital system based in Southfield, has screened workers on a voluntary basis at Lear Corp. in Southfield and at its patient service center in Troy for coronavirus antibodies and it is testing its own employees in a research study, said Donna Saxton, Beaumont’s director of employer services. Ryan Catignani, Beaumont’s vice president of managed care contracting, said the health system is working with “dozens of employers to create” COVID-19 testing as part of their return to work planning. “The specifics of each employer’s program are customized to meet their screening, testing, and reporting needs,” Catignani said. Spectrum Health, a 14-hospital integrated health system in Grand Rapids, also is offering employers advice on how to safely return to work. It is developing a plan to offer companies employee testing plans. Spectrum officials say there is strong interest. “We believe that testing in combination with safe work guidelines such as hand washing protocols, frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces, use

of personal protective equipment and social distancing measures is key to preventing the spread of this disease,” Spectrum said in a statement. Muma “We have been testing employees on a limited basis and are now ramping up to do mass testing (of employers) including COVID-19 swabs and antibody blood tests. We are typically able to provide test results within 24 hours for decisive action.” So far, Michigan health officials say that the state’s overall percentage of positive COVID-19 tests have remained steady at around 14 percent. Positive test results of 10 percent or lower indicates sufficient numbers of tests are being conducted in a country, state or region, said the World Health Organization. As of May 22, Michigan’s total number of coronavirus tests stood at 537,698. This number includes 469,915 viral tests and 67,783 serology blood antibody tests, according to the state’s COVID-19 lab testing website. Diagnostic tests show the number of people who currently have COVID-19 and are helpful in tracking the spread of the virus. Serology blood tests, which are still being studied and whose accuracy has been questioned, December 2, 2019 are present, indishows if antibodies cating a person may have been infectJune June 1, 1,COVID-19 2020 2020 in the past. ed with June 1, 2020 June 1, 2020 June 1, 2020 Epidemiologists do not know yet if the presence of an antibody means someone is immune to COVID-19 or for how long. Officials caution that antibody test results should not change decisions on whether an individual should return to work or if they should quarantine based on exposure to someone with the disease. In18, Michigan, May 2020 serology antibody test results began to be collected on April 13 and about 12 percent of the state’s tests overall have been serology. However, 60 percent of the tests that have been collected over the past two weeks have been antibody tests, indicating antibody tests have been ramping up, said the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

DTE testing Over the past two months, DTE conducted two testing pilots to help decide whether to institute wide-

NEW HIRE? PROMOTION? BOARD APPOINTMENT?

spread employee testing, said Heather Rivard, DTE’s pandemic response team’s deputy incident commander. The first nasal swab test in early April involved 2,000 employees at two company locations. The second test, in late April, was an antibody test on about 3,000 workers. Results of both tests show very low positive COVID-19 and antibody numbers, indicating to DTE that it should continue screening all workers and contractors entering DTE buildings, said Rivard, who also is DTE’s senior vice president of distribution operations. Only about 4,000, or 40 percent, of DTE’s 10,000-employee workforce are working in the field or at a power plant or other support location. Most of DTE’s corporate headquarters or office workers are doing their jobs from home. “We have a person (mostly security personnel) at the gate or entrance. Every vehicle or person stops, answers questions and goes through the temperature taking process,” Rivard said. Fever is considered to be temperature of 100.4 degrees or more. If an employee or a contractor fails the screening test, Rivard said they are instructed to call the Henry Ford medical help line, where they could be recommended to go to their primary care physician for viral testing. “We are not planning to do testing on a widespread basis at this time. We’re in the process right now of trying to finalize what our policy is going to be moving forward,” Rivard said. Based on available data, Rivard said DTE most likely will move to voluntary testing with certain exceptions. “Where maybe if we had a subset of one of our workgroups come forward with a handful of positives, then we could consider testing the rest of the group,” said Rivard, who added she can’t envision a scenario at this time where DTE would move to mandated employee testing. Like other companies, DTE also regularly consults broadly with Henry

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Henry Ford testing program Henry Ford’s At Work occupational health program offers a multifaceted approach to companies seeking advice on how to safely return to work, said Paula Miller, Henry Ford At Work’s business development executive. It starts out with a coronavirus screening tool for all employees that satisfies Whitmer’s executive order. Companies also might want to use a nurse help line for symptomatic employees to receive information on possible COVID-19 testing or a final work clearance evaluation, said Bruce Muma, M.D., president and CEO of Henry Ford Physician Network, a 2,100-member physician organization. “A screening tool is important because we’re in the allergy season and a lot of people are sneezing,” Muma said. “They might have a sore throat or their asthma is flaring up, so you need a screening tool, or otherwise you’re going to test everybody all the time.” A questionnaire could include a nurse asking a symptomatic employee ’S DETROIT “to BUSINESS five orCRAIN six questions decide who should or shouldn’t get tested,” Muma RAIN RAIN ETROIT ETROITB BB USINESS USINESS RAIN CCC ’S’’SSDDD ETROIT USINESS said. “We advise them on that because CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS CRAIN ’S Dthem ETROITtoBwaste USINESS we don’t want money on strategies that really don’t have a lot of return on that investment.” Miller said Henry Ford has 35 corporate clients in its occupational health program and 50 percent of those have requested nasal swab viral testing. “We are reaching out to corporate clients and potential corporate clinics for testing giving Bguidance CRAINand ’S DETROIT USINESS on starting back to work,” Miller said.

“Whether it is two to 10,000 employees, we are customizing things depending on their needs.” Most companies Henry Ford contracts with have their own return-towork policy. “If they don’t, we offer them advice,” Muma said. “The CDC has two pathways to clear employees for return. One is symptom based and one is test based. Most are using symptom-based protocols” because the CDC testbased protocol requires two negative COVID-19 tests in a 24-hour period. Muma said companies want to offer employees opportunities to be tested for a variety of reasons. “Some companies are taking Gov. Whitmer and (Detroit) Mayor Mike Duggan’s recommendations that you should test people when they come back into the workplace,” Muma said. “So they are following that (advice).” Muma said other companies may have employees who have tested positive and they want to understand the full extent of the problem. Finally, many companies want employees to go through a clearance exam if they have tested positive or gone through quarantine if they showed COVID-19 symptoms. For example, some companies might send an employee home because they were symptomatic or tested positive. “Now they’ve tested negative (and a company) may want a final evaluation done by one of our back to work” occupational health nurses, said Miller. While Henry Ford has daily COVID-19 testing capacity in its own lab for 1,500 per day, Muma said Henry Ford currently isn’t doing antibody testing for employers. “We’re about a week away (early June) from having a high sensitivity, high specificity test internally,” Muma said. “If business customers request it, we will provide it.” Contact: jgreene@crain.com; (313) 446-0325; @jaybgreene

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CARING FOR KIDS SPONSORED CONTENT

Advocating for the health and wellness of children and families Host Larry Burns, President and CEO The Children’s Foundation

Advocating for the health & wellness of children and families

About this report: On this monthly radio program, The Children’s Foundation President and CEO Larry Burns talks to community, government and business leaders about issues related to children’s health and wellness. The hour-long show typically airs at 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month on WJR 760AM. Here’s a summary of the show that aired May 26th; listen to the entire episode, and archived episodes, at yourchildrensfoundation.org/caring-for-kids.

Dr. Robert Shaner, Superintendent, Rochester Community School District

Larry Burns: Are you seeing more mental health and behavioral health issues with students? Dr. Robert Shaner: We certainly are and some of them are severe. We’ve not been immune to tragedy. We have lost middle school and high school students to suicide as well as addiction. Depression, anxiety, addiction and suicidal ideation are all on the rise. It is a crisis. Burns: What have you seen as leading us to this crisis? Shaner: I think the true cause remains to be seen. Some say it’s social media or what’s going on in movies and entertainment in general. There are likely factors in many areas that contribute. Burns: Are districts trying to educate teachers on how to handle behavioral issues in the classroom? Shaner: We have a team of behaviorists who work together with our teachers to help them with behavior management. We’re also working with our PTA on things like mindfulness and teaching kids how to handle their stress and anxiety before it becomes unmanageable. We’re working on removing the stigma to make sure that kids know they can ask for help when they need it. Burns: Are you seeing kids more willing to talk about

what’s going on in their lives? Shaner: I do see more openness around that. I still think there’s a stigma attached to mental health issues, particularly with addiction, and that’s something we’re working on. When I think about the future, I don’t despair. When I visit schools, I have a tremendous amount of hope. I see a lot of love and cooperation. The challenge I see is that we adults have to figure out how to channel that and get them in the right place if they do need intervention. That’s something that we’re working diligently to make sure that we can accomplish. Burns: If a parent thinks their child is having issues, what’s your advice? Shaner: The most important thing when a child appears to be struggling is that we don’t panic, that we assure them that things are going to be okay and then get them some assistance. The challenge is people asking for help or identifying that there is a problem. If we see the need for an intervention, let’s go ahead and do it and not act like it’s an uncommon event. Let’s act like it’s just what it is—something we do on a daily basis to make sure that the well-being of our kids is taken care of. If we really believe that mental illness and addiction are diseases and not conditions of poor judgment, we need to put our money where our mouth is and act like that—don’t cast a stigma and reach out a helping hand. Handling it needs to be more routine, just like it would be if a child had a literacy issue— we would offer intervention. The community needs to address it like that.

Shenadoah Chefalo, Mental Health Advocate, Author of Garbage Bag Suitcase and faculty member, Center for Trauma Resilient Communities

Larry Burns: Tell us about your early childhood and how it shaped your future. Shenadoah Chefalo: I was born in California. We were homeless often and moved over 50 times. Plagued by family members who suffered from severe addictions and mental health issues, I selfreported myself to foster care before I turned 13. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who took interest in me in high school, because I aged out of foster care halfway through my senior year. With the help of that teacher I ended up getting into Michigan State. That became a difficult transition for me. My first year at MSU I was dealing with quite a few things and I attempted suicide for the first time. I was depressed, and playing into that was financial need. I was hired as a part-time receptionist in a law office and eventually worked my way up to office administrator. I hired a law clerk who eventually became my husband and we moved to Traverse City in 1999 to start a law office, with this idea of doing criminal law differently. In that work, I started to realize that our clients’ issues weren’t merely the crime that brought them to us. A lot of our clients had tumultuous childhoods and spent time in foster care. I started researching foster care statistics, trying to understand what was going

on with our clients, and was floored by the statistic that approximately 70 percent of incarcerated inmates spent time in the child welfare system. At that time I hadn’t disclosed my time in the foster care system but I made it my mission to let out this secret. I wrote Garbage Bag Suitcase with the hope that we could reinvent child welfare and heal trauma in order to help people make better decisions. Burns: Tell us about your book. Chefalo: Most of us have a story to tell, and that story affects the way in which we see the entire world, especially for people who have lived through severe trauma. For me, the purpose of sharing my story, after keeping it secret so long, was to get people past the story to where we can talk about solutions in our community. Burns: You’re a faculty member at the Center for Trauma Resilient Communities. Tell us about the center and the “resiliency factor.” Chefalo: The Center started because people involved in trauma-informed implementation theory were interested in how that reaches beyond the walls of foster care and into communities. Why is it that some people, like myself, go against all odds and seem to have great resiliency, while other people don’t? There are some pretty core things we can do to help people; retrain their brains so that they can bounce back better. A lot of those things are based in connections in communities. The Center is focused on training and helping communities develop models that work in their specific group.

Dr. Elizabeth Koschmann, Program Director, TRAILS Program, The University of Michigan

Larry Burns: Tell us about TRAILS. Dr. Elizabeth Koschmann: TRAILS stands for Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students. It was developed after we had started our partnership with high schools in Washtenaw County. Those high schools had come to the Depression Center at U of M to request our help after they had experienced a particularly difficult year. The school staff felt they were not able to respond adequately, both due to the complexity of the students’ needs and the volume of kids. Burns: What do you do as the program director? Koschmann: My role is to help guide the vision and direction of the TRAILS program. I make sure the work we’re doing is grounded in empirically-based treatments and supports kids impacted by mental illness. Burns: Can you tell us about cognitive behavioral therapy and why it’s so effective for treating mental illness? Koschmann: We’re aware that school administrators, principals and superintendents don’t want to be in the business of providing therapy to kids. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), even though it has the word therapy in it, is really a set of skills. When we look at what causes kids difficulty, it’s not the way they think,

and it’s not the way they feel—it’s their behavior. Kids get in trouble when they’re impulsive, reactionary, shut down, when their mood causes them to stay in bed, or when they’re not able to interact with their peers in a way that’s developmentally appropriate. CBT is a set of skills that has kids slow down and examine their cognition, feelings and behaviors, and the relationship between those three components. CBT is really just a set of effective strategies for dealing with everyday stressors and challenges. Burns: Why is TRAILS a school-based program? Koschmann: Every day we have kids who are bringing emotional wellbeing challenges to school professionals. TRAILS is designed to improve care by training the people who kids access already; that’s why we picked the school setting. Burns: Tell us about The Children’s Foundation’s partnership and other partners’ support for the mission of TRAILS. Koschmann: We were fortunate to partner with the Ethel & James Flinn Foundation, where we work to embed the TRAILS program to provide suicide risk identification and reduction programming in our middle and high schools. The Children’s Foundation helped us connect with the Detroit Public Schools Community District and we are in our first year of a partnership to assist with a behavioral healthcare program. TRAILS wants to design a full array of services that would help students arrive at school emotionally and behaviorally ready to benefit from their academic program.

BELFOR

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We’re hand wiping all flat surfaces, walls, etc. All the touch points. Everything you can imagine gets particular attention. Common areas, cafeterias and bathrooms as well as other high traffic areas get really cleaned. We call them super zones. Once those are identified by the client, they are tagged and get a second spray application with our EPA-approved chemicals. Then we get into the duct and mechanical systems. If you’re a business owner, you’ve really got to think about your HVAC and your carpets. A hot zone clean is more than a deep clean in a home setting. ` Do employers need to clean if they haven’t had any employees test positive? It’s paramount. For reoccupancy purposes, whether it’s a factory, or office, you’ve got to clean. You’ve got to provide that level of trust and confidence for your people to come back. It doesn’t have to be Belfor, but

you’ve got to go to a third party and let your people know you’re providing a safe and clean work environment. No one wants to walk into a building that hasn’t been cleaned. And you’ve got to be thinking about this now. We are scheduling out way in advance to keep up with demand. You can’t just say you’re open today. Employees want to know you’ve got a safe environment. ` COVID-19 presents challenges for everyone it seems. What about Belfor? We’re prepared for the virus, but there are other challenges. We’re challenged with logistical issues. Travel around the world is very limited. It’s been tough to get our people where we need them. We’re also limited in some geographies for housing people because of hotel shutdowns. But some parts of the world are carrying on. Mix that with the other crises we deal with around the world and it’s been difficult. Our Canadian operations are still dealing with flooding in Fort McMurray, Canada (when this interview occurred in early May). We’ve got hundreds of people responding

to the flooding. There are restaurants, grocers, etc. These places have to be tended to. ` What about your residential business? More than three-quarters of Belfor’s business is from residential insurance claims. Are those down or up since people are home? There’s definitely been a reduction in insurance-related losses, but not to the extent that they are happening. Cigarette-started fires in homes, toilet overflows are obviously still happening. Weather-related damage is happening. But during this virus, people don’t want strangers in their homes. They are living with the small losses that they can live with until such time they feel more comfortable. We are still doing insurance losses, but people are very cautious. We obviously come in our suits, and we are wearing full PPE in people’s homes and businesses. Some businesses have had to definitely have us inside so they could reopen, though.

• PROMINENT O CLASS C SS A OFFICE OFFICE C SPACE S C • LOCATED IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN LANSING • INCREDIBLE VIEW OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING • WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE TO RESTAURANTS, FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MOST GOVERNMENT OFFICES

Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh

RETAILERS

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At the Gazelle Sports store in Birmingham, customers and staff must wear face masks and maintain 6 feet of distance. | GAZELLE SPORTS

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Some metro Detroit malls are reopening, with individual tenants deciding on whether to open or close, operating by appointment and/or curbside pickups. A Michigan Retail Index survey reported a dive in sales for retailers in April, with many closed that month. The survey, based on a 100-point range with values above 50 typically meaning positive activity, reported a 10.8 for April, a plummet from 57 the same month a year ago. But not all businesses agree it’s time for them to open. Pages Bookshop in Detroit’s northwest Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood announced on social media it will remain closed to shoppers and continue with remote sales for now. “For the past nine weeks, all our energy has gone into adapting,” owner Susan Murphy said in a Facebook post. Pages’ demand is good, Murphy wrote, with online ordering and pickup. But the process is draining for the staff and the store has mostly been converted into a “processing and shipping center.” “This will happen, we simply need more time,” she wrote. Rachel Lutz, owner of women’s apparel shops The Peacock Room, Frida and Yama, is “looking at the possibility of opening by appointment sometime in the latter half of June,” she told Crain’s in a message. “Because information changes so rapidly about the transmission capabilities and status of this novel virus, I’m leaving my plans flexible so I can continue to make decisions that uphold safety as our top priority,” she said.

wear face masks and maintain 6 feet of distance, and there can be no more than 10 customers in the store at a time, in accordance with Whitmer’s order. Seating, equipment and touch points are wiped down after each customer. Staff can’t help measure customers’ feet in the same hands-on way they used to, Lampen-Crowell said. “But we’re helping people with those measuring devices and from a distance looking at that. It’s really trial and error,” he said. Gazelle Sports had been operating online for the past few weeks through virtual consultations with customers, Lampen-Crowell said. Online sales helped the company, which typically posts more than $10 million in annual sales, retain 40 percent-45 percent of its business, he said. Ann Arbor-based State & Liberty Clothing Co. also reopened Tuesday by appointment only, with safety requirements. The custom menswear store notified previous customers by email, co-owner Steven Fisher said, but it’s not pushing its reopening. “I think people are still a little hesitant to come out. Most people are saying you’re probably safer at home at this point,” he said. The company has done some sales through its website by sending customers clothing they order and having them take pictures of themselves in it and send it back if it needs to be altered. A similar process will work in-store, Fisher said. “We don’t have to be all over someone to do a custom fitting … we don’t pin anything because it’s made to measure,” he said. State & Liberty has 10 stores across the country and employs a total of 30. Fisher declined to release sales.

Xochi’s Gift Shop in Mexicantown reopened late Tuesday morning. The more than 30-year-old shop that specializes in Mexican imports has been preparing for weeks, owner Gloria Rosas Baiocco said, stocking up on supplies and installing a sneeze guard at the register and jewelry counter. “We just are doing the best we can right now, one day at a time, seeing how things work and adjusting as needed,” Rosas Baiocco said. Xochi’s is allowing on-the-spot appointments, not booking ahead of time, because the store generally isn’t busy enough to warrant it, she said. “The congregation of people inside is what’s so dangerous and that’s why appointment-only gives us the ability to start to reengage this sector of our economy,” Whitmer said when announcing the appointment-only strategy. Gazelle Sports, which has stores in Birmingham, Northville, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Holland, reopened Tuesday. With the reopenings, the company called back about 80 percent of the 168 employees it had laid off, co-owner Chris Lampen-Crowell said. It’s taking walk-up appointments where people wait to go into a store just as if they were waiting for a table at a restaurant. Once inside the store, they must

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“We’re trying to be a responsible brand, we don’t want to put anyone at risk,” Paul said. In some ways, Paul was prepared. The way the business envisioned sales, customers “on the go” can scan a code on a display sneaker with their phone camera and load up price, size, how many in stock, how many times they’ve been worn. Through that, customers can get a pair brought out from the back and pay with less contact. Paul says he’s also thinking about setting up some sort of pickup locker system. “We had that in mind when we opened the store, as well,” he said. “But those lockers were expensive, so maybe we can get creative.”

SPECIALIZING IN PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS

www.kitch.com

Detroit Lansing Mt. Clemens Upper Michigan Toledo Chicago Honolulu JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 19

INSURANCE

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Senior citizens with Medicare and drivers who have a qualified health insurance plan through their employers can choose to opt out of unlimited personal injury coverage, a 100 percent savings on just the PIP portion of their auto insurance. Motorists who choose to continue carrying unlimited PIP are supposed to see a 10 percent reduction in that part of their premiums. Multiple insurance agents and executives contacted by Crain’s said they’re advising customers who decide to stick with an unlimited PIP coverage plan to still buy additional bodily injury protection. Bodily injury insurance provides coverage for pain and suffering lawsuits from injured motorists against the at-fault driver. “You don’t have the security blanket of knowing everybody has it anymore,” said Daniel Schrock, a senior vice president at the Dearborn-based Auto Club Group, Michigan’s AAA insurance carrier. “We know that liability — BI — risk is going to go up.” The new law will likely increase basic Bodily Injury costs for an unknown number of motorists, agents say. Under the old law, motorists could carry as little as $20,000 for claims involving one injured motorist and $40,000 for multiple motorists. Unlimited medical benefits meant there was little incentive to sue for coverage by that portion of the policy, and the coverage was little-used. The new law taking effect next month requires BI coverage of $250,000/$500,000 unless a motorist signs a form acknowledging the risks and chooses to carry $50,000/$100,000 of liability coverage in the event they hurt someone in an auto accident. Under the current law, third-party pain and suffering lawsuits were sometimes limited based on how much BI coverage the at-fault driver had. But the higher dollar limits and umbrella policies could open up a new front in auto accident lawsuits. “If the other party has a lower PIP limit, then when they run out of that PIP (coverage), they’re going to come to your Bodily Injury (coverage),” said Patrick Green, co-owner of First Independent-Descamps Insurance Agency in Sterling Heights. The additional bodily injury umbrella policies range in value from $100,000 to $3 million of additional coverage, Plisko said. “Most of our drivers truly don’t understand they’re at risk” if they hit another motorist under the new law, she said.

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A new world July 2 is the first day motorists can start insurance plans under the new law and pricing. Insurance carriers were authorized to begin marketing those plans to motorists on May 15, prompting a stream of phone calls in recent weeks, agents say. Insurance agents say the changes

PPP

From Page 3

“The bank is not going to turn you down for loan forgiveness. They want that loan forgiveness just as bad as you do,” Tierney said, noting that time is of the essence for borrowers who may get turned down on forgiveness. “They’re going to do everything they can to try to get you your loan forgiveness, but if they have to decline or 20 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

Michigan motorists are expected to see substantial savings in the Personal Injury Protection (PIP) portion of their no-fault auto insurance when a new reform law goes into effect on July 2. But insurance agents are advising motorists to purchase more liability coverage in the event they’re in an accident with a motorist who reduced their PIP coverage to save money. | CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

to bodily injury coverage coupled with the new levels of PIP coverage have changed the way they sell plans. There’s a lot more time now required to educate and advise customers and explain the potential implications of decreasing PIP or increasing bodily injury coverages, said Scott Hulverson, a 35-year veteran AAA insurance agent and owner of the Hulverson Insurance Agency LLC in Northville. “I described to my wife that we’re going to do a year’s worth of policy reviews in a month,” Hulverson said. “It’s a fairly daunting task we have in front of ourselves. We try to talk to every customer as frequently as we can, but we need to talk to every customer in this transition.” Hulverson is advising longtime customers to stick with unlimited PIP coverage for now. “Let’s make sure we’re not making rash decisions — and that’s what I’m telling my customers,” he said. “Don’t be slashing your coverage just to save a minimal amount,” Green, whose brokerage sells auto insurance for carriers such as Nationwide, Progressive, Pioneer State Mutual and Frankenmuth, said he’s (regulators) decline it, the borrower has 30 days to appeal ... They can’t wait if they get turned down for forgiveness.”

Making changes The U.S. House on Thursday took action on legislation that would lower to 60 percent the current requirement that 75 percent of a loan be used on payroll. Restaurants and other small businesses have said they want flexi-

Insurance agents say they’re already seeing potential problems with the new law that the Legislature may want to reconsider. Plisko said the verbiage in some of the consumer forms approved by the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services is confusing for motorists unfamiliar with the machinations of different types of insurance coverages. “The next year is definitely the most treacherous,” said Plisko, who trains Farmers Insurance agents in metro Detroit. The new auto no-fault law changes the so-called “order of priority” in

which an insurance carrier pays for medical treatment from injuries sustained in an accident. Under the old law, there were six different payees that could be responsible for those costs, starting with the individual driver’s insurer and moving down the line to their spouse’s insurer, a relative they live with, the other vehicle owner’s insurer, the operator of the other vehicle and the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort. The new law cuts that order down to four potential payees: Your policy, your spouse’s policy, the insurer of a relative who lives with you or the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan, a safety-net entity that assigns uninsured claims to carriers. Green noted there’s a wrinkle in the law for families with teenage or young adult children on their multi-vehicle auto insurance plan. If the child does not live at home — such as living at college or on their own in an apartment — the family’s insurance plan won’t cover their medical expenses, Green said. They would have to fall back to the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan, which has a new $250,000 cap for

personal injury expenses, he said. “If a kid moves out with a vehicle titled to the parent, they don’t have PIP coverage,” Green said. “That’s the most dangerous one in there and I don’t know why it was done.” A parent providing their adult child auto insurance will have to buy a separate policy, losing one of their discounts for bundling multiple vehicles under one policy, Green said. “Once those kids moved out, they’re going to have to get their own policy now,” he said. Hulverson, the veteran AAA agent, said one “excessive” requirement in the new law is that motorists re-affirm in writing every six months that they’re choosing not to purchase unlimited PIP coverage. Each renewal will require motorists to sign the opt-out form the state insurance department created, Hulverson said. “That’s probably going to be determined to be a little excessive over time,” he said. “We’ll make it work, though. It’s just going to be an interesting run.” Contact: clivengood@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood

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bility to spend more on overhead expenses, especially in highrent areas. The measure would change documentation requirements for employers who Tierney say they’ve been unable to rehire laid-off employees. Under the program, the amount of

loan forgiveness is reduced if companies don’t maintain head count and salaries. The bill also clarifies that a borrower doesn’t have to start repaying a loan until the SBA determines whether it can be forgiven. Also, employers would be required to comply with coronavirus safety standards. The legislation reportedly has the support of the Trump administration. The Senate is expected to take it up this week.

Accountants applauded the governmental measure, as the initial eight-week period and limited ability to spend funds as businesses need now were seen as too restrictive. “They’re going to have huge changes because it’s going to allow businesses to figure out what they can get forgiven and not have to race to use the money when it’s not the most impactful,” said James Lopiccolo, a managing member at Lake Orion-based accounting firm Capocore Profes-

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advising customers to retain unlimited PIP coverage “and see what happens” to the marketplace and new accident claims. “I can’t recommend anyone taking a lower limit,” Green said. “But if you want to, OK, here’s the signoff to opt out.” “I’m keeping my unlimited PIP for a couple of years until I see how this shakes out,” the veteran insurance agent added.

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But demand quickly plummeted in March as all sports were canceled amid the massive outbreak of COVID-19. Now the company is making masks and face shields by hand — using some existing distribution channels, CEO Sassa Akervall said. What was 20 employees pre-pandemic has grown to around 100, a combination of full-time and parttime employees, Akervall said. “It was quite a shock. We put everything into this business ... and we really love this business,” Akervall said of that first week when the country was thrown into upheaval as the pandemic took hold. “It was quite depressing there for a week or so where I didn’t know what to do. I’m really grateful for the people around me,” he said. “But I will say, when you’re an entrepreneur, you’re really used to thinking outside the box and once the cat was out of the bag, it was just easy to go with it. It takes (being) flexible and nimble. If I had a really huge organization, I’m not sure this would be as easy. But since it was just not even 20 of us, we could do it.” At this point, the company expects to maintain its current headcount through at least August and finds itself slightly ahead of its 2020 budget projections. While Akervall’s company stands as a rare example of finding success during a time of crisis, the executive largely credits her employees with making the transition to manufacturing personal protective equipment. “When you create a business with your team, you’ve got to make sure they like what they’re doing,” Akervall said. “It’s not easy ... I think I have a great team and I think they like what they’re doing. That makes it easier to get them on board with what you’re doing.”

` MICHAEL HEALANDER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, AIRSPACE LINK “In neutral” is perhaps the best way to describe the current goings-on with Airspace Link Inc., a Detroit-based drone software company. The company closed on a $4 million fundraising round in January, which gives it about two years of runway in a down economy, President and CEO Michael Healander said. It’s a vastly different feeling than how things were going just eight weeks ago. “We were on a rocket ship in March. It was conference after conference, launch after launch, media after media,” Healander said. “It was taking off and it just shut down. That momentum didn’t go to zero. It went to a trickle, so we have a little bit to go off from all of that.” In the relatively short time that the coronavirus has been wreaking havoc, the company has been through a whirlwind, Healander said. The comsional Advisors. “It puts a little more control back into the businesses.” Ultimately, despite the changes Congress is making and the U.S. Small Business Administration continuing to update guidance that should make for an easier time for many businesses, most are still likely to find that they will not achieve full forgiveness, Lopiccolo said. While acknowledging that it’s likely not politically feasible, Lopiccolo’s preferred solution would be for the

Employees at Akervall Technologies in Saline, which normally makes mouth guards, pivoted to assemble faces shields during the coronavirus crisis. | AKERVALL TECHNOLOGIES

pany received — and then opted to give back — a potentially forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan after determining that it was likely unneeded. He declined to disclose the size of the loan volume, citing concerns from investors. Still, the company has had to adjust its staffing plans, Healander said. Rather than hire full-time, full-stack developers, the company turned to Invest Detroit Ventures’ Hacker Fellows program, which provides fellowship opportunities for developing tech talent. Healander said that Airspace Link hired only one developer instead of a planned five, and had to let go of one contract employee and a full-time salesperson. And there was a degree of intentionality behind letting go of a salesperson, he said. In general, the company that usually counts municipal governments among its main clients now finds itself with somewhere between a diminished to nonexistent marketplace for its products. Still, Healander said he felt lucky to get the capital infusion in January before uncertainty struck investors. Other startup founders with whom he’s had recent conversations are in far worse situations, he said. “When this hit, we threw our company into neutral and we assessed for a few weeks to understand what impact this had and to come up with a new strategy to take us to the long term,” Healander said. “We went into neutral and now we have it in a gear with a very different strategy.”

distance has opened a door for a whole new period of growth for the Lansing-based language learning software. Without COVID-19 hitting when it did, the company’s growth would “have been a lot more stable, more predictable,” co-founder and CEO Seth Killian said. “I think this basically was a catalyst for what we were already doing, it just moved it up quicker.” Killian was a computer science major at Michigan State University who wanted to study abroad in France. The challenge: He had struggled to learn French in high school and apps like DuoLingo weren’t helping. So like any entrepreneur, he built something himself. Now, the product is seeing demand from closed school districts all over the country and internationally. The company has closed on a $500,000 round of investment, which led to the recent hiring of a senior software developer and veteran education industry salesperson. Now, with demand for the product continuing to ramp up, Killian said his priority is making the distanced learning of the software far easier for new users. “We’ve had to get really efficient with onboarding because there’s just so many people and not enough of us,” Killian said. “So we’ve gotten more efficient with doing group calls, as opposed to one-on-ones and recording more tutorial videos.”

` SETH KILLIAN, CEO, LINGCO LANGUAGE LABS

Like many other companies, LawnGuru had to take a brief hiatus as part of the COVID-19 shutdown orders. The Ann Arbor-based company matches up homeowners with people to perform yard work. Yard work services were temporarily shut down in Michigan last month, per orders from Gov. Gretchen Whit-

The lingering financial uncertainty caused by the pandemic creates a unique opportunity for Pocketnest LLC. The Ann Arbor-based software-as-a-

than $15.7 billion. Banks headquartered in-state have punched far above their weight class, at least in the earlier parts of the PPP, as Crain’s previously reported. While demand for the program was red-hot in the early stages, a second tranche of funds of $310 billion has lingered, and as of May 23 some $137 billion remained available, according to the SBA. Banking sources said rules such as having only eight weeks to use the

funds, which appears headed for change, had been keeping away many potential users, particularly seasonal users in resort towns such as Grand Haven, which remains largely shuttered by state mandate. Despite the copious amounts of bureaucratic red tape, uncertainty and confusion with PPP, accountant Lopiccolo said he’s trying to present a handful of simple options to his clients. Essentially, they should look at the loans as either cheap money loaned

Just a few months ago, Lingco Language Labs LLC was on a path of slow but steady growth. However, as COVID-19 has taken hold, so too has the need for distance learning. The need for social and physical government to simply deem that all loans under $250,000 were taken in good faith and be deemed forgiven.

Decision time As of May 23 there had been more than 4.4 million total PPP loans approved totaling $511.2 billion, according to the most recent data available from the SBA. Michigan companies had been the beneficiaries of 113,067 loans totaling more

` JASNIK PARMAR, CFO, LAWNGURU

mer. But with those lifted May 7, the company has resumed relatively normal operations. CFO Jasnik Parmar said the company has seen no immediate drop in demand and remains primarily focused on its customer acquisition strategy, something Parmar said has gotten somewhat less costly and easier during the pandemic, citing the online bidding system the company uses for advertising. The biggest downside Parmar said he sees is the inability to continue hiring for jobs crucial to LawnGuru’s growth. “We can’t hire more sales and support agents. We could hire them and they could figure it out, but there’s a culture when you work with us, you have the ability to answer questions in real time,” he said. “We lose all of that and there’s just no way we could boot someone up and have them be useful during this season. It would take three times as long to get an employee to really get it.” The company was in the midst of a debt financing deal with a group of private investors when the pandemic hit, causing a delay in closing the deal, but everything eventually got “back to business as normal,” Parmar said. “(The pandemic) tempered our top-line best results projection, but in terms of what we realistically expect to achieve this year, that’s unchanged,” Parmar said of the overall impact. “I think the magic factor we might have found vanished, but there’s a lot of people having much worse times in their business.”

` JESSICA WILLIS, FOUNDER AND CEO, POCKETNEST

service company works directly with banks, credit unions and financial planners to help consumers better plan their finances. Given everything that’s happening, there’s a market for that presently, said Jessica Willis, the company’s founder and CEO. “From a company standpoint, this is the environment we are built for,” Willis said. “To help people get their finances in order and to help these financial institutions engage with their consumers, their members, through technology and not in person.” Those circumstances have allowed the company continue on with a $1 million capital raise that has brought in four checks over the last two months, Willis said. But even with capital consistently coming in, the conversations with investors have changed, she said. Things went particularly quiet in the early weeks of the coronavirus spreading across the U.S. During that time, Willis said she worked closely with advisers on how to ensure the company has nearly two years of runway, which it now does. Still, she said she’s seen signs that the venture capital community will be cautious, but hasn’t gone to the sidelines completely. “The conversations with the VCs we haven’t taken capital from before are now back to, ‘We’re ready. What’s next?’” Willis said of the discussions in recent weeks. “I would say they’re re-engaging. I would say they’re being cautious about who they’re engaging with, and I think they’re using this opportunity to see deeper into who the teams are, who the nimble ones are,” she said. “How well the product is responding to an emergency situation. I think they’re using this as an opportunity to dig a little deeper into who they’re talking to.” Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes at 1 percent over two years, plan to repay the loans to the government, or stick with the law as it was named and continue paying their employees so they don’t have to go on unemployment. “Why give the money to the government when you can give it to help your employees?” he said. “That was really the spirit of the law is to get money into your employee’s hands.” — Bloomberg contributed to the report JUNE 1, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 21

THE CONVERSATION

Brenda Jones zeros in on masks and Detroit’s financial health Detroit City Council: Brenda Jones, president of the Detroit legislative body since 2014, has presided over council meetings through Zoom during the coronavirus outbreak. The lawmakers have led dozens of online community meetings and recently worked through a budget slashed due to pandemic-era revenue shortfalls. Jones, a former union leader who was first elected to City Council in 2005, contracted the virus and recovered. Jones also recently announced she was running again for Congress, challenging U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, after winning a 2018 special election but losing the general to Tlaib. | BY ANNALISE FRANK ` So, you’re talking right now to residents and others about a deadly virus that you yourself contracted. Can you talk a bit about what that was like? Yeah, I can talk about how my symptoms were, and again, they were relatively mild. I started off having shortness of breath. I never had a temperature, to my knowledge. My shortness of breath actually took me to Beaumont Hospital and because I have asthma and bronchitis and had a pulmonary embolism before, I was not really sure what my shortness of breath was from. So I waited in line at Beaumont Hospital, which was a drive-thru, for roughly two hours. And they took my vitals and they said that I’m fine ... it could possibly be from the (existing conditions). Probably about four or five days later, I was experiencing the same shortness of breath. And so I again attempted to take the test and this time was successful ... and that’s when they called to tell me that I did test positive. At times the shortness of breath was worse than others. And when I think back, I probably had a little pain in my body one time. I remember going to bed saying it was probably that I was tired. From the time I took the test, I isolated myself and quarantined. I continued to work throughout the whole time, we were working from home. Sometimes I was not able to have conversations and talk to people due to the severeness of the shortness of breath. And other people could hear the shortness of breath. ` Do you feel that the first time you went to Beaumont it should have been caught then? Well, you know, of course I’m going to say yes because I’m the actual person

who had it. But, you know, I don’t know ... I never had severe coughing, I mean I coughed a couple of times but it was never severe coughing, and I never had severe sneezing, and so if that’s what they were looking at, the vitals ... I know they are still learning about the virus and each day it seems as though, as I continue to study the virus myself, different things come out. ` I heard you say on a call the other day that you personally carry masks around and give them to people? I have masks that I received and I carry them in my car, I carry them in my purse, and if I see someone who do not have a mask on, I stop and I ask them, “Would you like a mask?” ` How often do people accept? People always accept. I’ve only had one time where someone said to me, “My mask is in the car.” ` Something you advocate for is spending city contract dollars with Detroit-headquartered businesses and those that employ Detroiters. Can you talk about the current state of affairs and what needs to be changed? I have been talking about Detroit-based and Detroit-headquartered businesses for quite some time now. And looking at the unemployment rate in the city of Detroit, I’m trying to get as many Detroit residents employed that is humanly possible. Especially if you are spending Detroit taxpayers’ dollars. And so, in doing so, I have written an ordinance as well as partnered with the procurement department ... and along with my colleague, (Council Member Janeé Ayers), we have been hosting small business (empowerment) fairs, and ... through those fairs what we are doing is helping business owners who

are looking to expand their operations and locate funding. ` And just to be clear, would you say that the city does not contract enough with these businesses? So, the city has improved. It is a priority. My office asks the question on every contract, how many Detroit residents are employed with the company? Whether or not the company, if they are not a Detroit-based or -headquartered company, whether they attempted to do a joint-venture with a Detroit business. ` What are your concerns when it comes to the city’s long-term financial health? Because I am a member of the police and fire pension retirement system, I am a board trustee for the system, I have a concern and continue to have a concern regarding the city being able to continue to make the required payments to the pension system. Of course with this budget, money that we were setting aside to help with the (projected pension shortfall), we were not able to set that money aside in this budget, so again, that brings a

big concern to me, when we have to continue to meet the obligations of the retirement system. ` What’s your reaction to what happened the last couple of weeks, with some reports coming out that (former Detroit Mayor) Kwame Kilpatrick was to be released early, and then confirmation last week that he will not be? I just will say that I do believe that the time that was given to him when he was sentenced was entirely extreme, and I will let the system continue to work itself through, let the law continue to work itself through. You know, people have been released due to COVID-19, and so because I don’t have all of the information, I have no further comment. Brenda Jones is president of the Detroit City Council.

Annalise Frank, city of Detroit. (313) 446-0416 or afrank@crain.com Jay Greene, senior reporter, health care and energy. (313) 446-0325 or jgreene@crain.com

` Nick Manes, finance and technology. (313) 446-1626 or nmanes@crain.com

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Chicago skyscraper developer teams up on Gilbert’s skyscraper

22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JUNE 1, 2020

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Detroit’s most prominent developer is teaming with one of Chicago’s most prominent residential high-rise developers on Detroit’s most prominent skyscraper development. The addition of Chicago-based Magellan Development Group LLC as a development consultant to Dan Gilbert’s skyscraper project on the site of the former J.L. Hudson’s department store downtown adds high-profile development experience and firepower to the project. But it comes as the Hudson’s redevelopment has been beset by delays, cost increases, and shifts in design and programming in Bedrock LLC’s first attempt at a skyscraper in a city that hasn’t seen a new one in nearly 30 years. “We wanted someone who has

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A rendering of the Hudson’s site project in Detroit from late 2018.

Magellan’s Vista Tower is now the third-tallest building in Chicago.

done a lot of these high-rise/residential-hotel kind of projects and has done a lot of recent, iconic projects,” Bedrock CEO Matt Cullen said in a Wednesday interview. “Magel-

lan is certainly one of those folks. We added them to the team as a development consultant to help us. Detroit is a little different than Chicago. These high-rises have been popping

up there for a long time, and it’s nice to take advantage of that expertise there.” Cullen said Magellan has not taken an equity stake in the project. “We are part of the team and lend our experience building high-rise, mixed-use projects in urban environments,” J.R. Berger, principal of Magellan Development, said Wednesday. “We have been following this project for years and believe Bedrock is a transformational developer. We have been working for the last few months with them and our firms have known each other for years, sharing information and data.” Magellan is responsible for the Windy City’s third-tallest building, the roughly 1,200-foot Vista Tower wrapping up construction on Wacker Drive.

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