Furnish, Sir Elton's partner, said friends were worried for Michael's health and "state of mind".
In an interview at the weekend, Michael expressed his frustration that Sir Elton had made repeated attempts to intervene in his personal life. "Elton will not be happy until I bang on his door in the middle of the night saying, 'Please, please help me, Elton. Take me to rehab'. It's not going to happen," he said"Elton John needs to shut up and get on with his life."
Michael also spoke frankly about his drug use, admitting that he had smoked crack cocaine in the past and explaining that he previously smoked 25 spliffs per day but had now cut back to "seven or eight".
Responding to the interview, Furnish told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The difficult thing for Elton and me is a lot of George's friends keep calling us saying, 'You have to do something, George is in a bad way, he's in a bad state'. We're only reacting to what his close friends say to us.
"They're saying that they're very concerned. A lot of people are saying it to us, we get it very, very regularly, that they are concerned about his health, concerned about his state of mind and his wellbeing and that as Elton has been there and experienced sobriety now for 19 years, that perhaps he's best positioned to be able to help out.
"But if George feels he doesn't need help and his life is in check and balance, then maybe his friends are wrong. I haven't seen him in such a long time, it's difficult to judge and pass comment."
He added: "I respect George, I love George, I think he's a huge talent. I just hope he's fine. I just hope he's well and happy and continues to be the great artist he is."
"George has to want to help himself. If he wants help we're here for him. If he doesn't want help that's fine, that's his choice too."
The strained relationship between the two pop stars has its roots in a very public spat which began in 2004, when Sir Elton said the former Wham! star was "in a strange place" and had "a deep-rooted unhappiness". He added: "All I would say to George is: you should get out more."
It prompted Michael to issue an open letter to Sir Elton, published in Heat magazine, in which he wrote: "Elton John knows very little about George Michael, and that's a fact.... to this day, most of what Elton thinks he knows about my life is pretty much limited to the gossip he hears on what you would call the 'gay grapevine' which, as you can imagine, is lovely stuff indeed.
"Other than that, he knows that I don't like to tour, that I smoke too much pot, and that my albums still have a habit of going to number one."
Michael, 46, has been involved in a number of headline-grabbing incidents, beginning with his arrest in a Los Angeles public toilet for "engaging in a lewd act". On two occasions he was found asleep at the wheel of his car and was subsequently cautioned for possession of cannabis.
In his interview at the weekend, Michael said: "People want to see me as tragic with all the cottaging and drug-taking... those things are not what most people aspire to, and I think it removes people's envy to see your weaknesses. I don't even see them as weaknesses any more. It's just who I am."
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