Do No Harm v. Corewell Health

On March 30, 2026, Do No Harm filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS-OCR) alleging that Corewell Health— one of Michigan’s largest not-for-profit healthcare systems—discriminates on the basis of national origin, favoring foreign-trained physicians over American-trained doctors in its internal medicine residency program at Dearborn Hospital.

Following graduation from medical school, residency programs are prestigious opportunities that are invaluable to the development of newly minted physicians. However, the internal medicine program at Corewell’s Dearborn Hospital displays a near total exclusion of American-trained doctors.

The program is led by a foreign-trained physician educated near the small set of foreign countries from which the program fills its ranks. Only one of the 33 residents in the current cohort attended medical school in the United States; 97% received their medical education in a small number of foreign countries.

Residency programs that selectively favor foreign doctors over American physicians on the basis of nationality or race are discriminatory. As a federal funding recipient, Corewell Health is subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibit national origin and race discrimination.

Because highly imbalanced hiring patterns warrant further scrutiny, Do No Harm’s complaint requests that the agency investigate the matter and remedy any illegal discrimination.