Debunking the most offensive myth from the insurance industry

Debunking the most offensive myth from the insurance industry

Countering misinformation with facts

In the next series of posts in Diving Deeper with MBIPC, we will debunk the myths surrounding the fee schedule from the insurance industry and counter their misinformation with facts.

There can be little doubt that the insurance industry's strong political influence (i.e., deep financial pockets) is responsible for much of the auto no-fault “reform” law, and they have done nothing but beat back aggressively against any attempts to make necessary corrections since its passage. In doing so, they have provided little evidence to support their claims while misguiding the public and our policymakers away from the real impacts the law has had on consumers and people catastrophically injured in a car crash through blatant misinformation.

Conversely, MBIPC has remained consistent with our public education and advocacy for a narrow fix to the law that has resulted in a Crisis in Care. We have done so with logic, common sense, and factual accounts of the devastating impact of the “fee schedule.” The next series of posts will dive deeper into these diverging approaches and separate fact from fiction.

The most offensive claim

We’ll start with the most offensive claim by the Insurance Alliance of Michigan: People are getting the care they need.

Among the insurance industry’s most-repeated sound bites is that the “reforms are working.” They claim the law has saved Michigan drivers billions of dollars and that insurance premiums are declining. We’ll get to those myths later, because we must first address the most appalling piece of misinformation: their continued denial that the fee schedule has uprooted people’s lives and significantly reduced access to essential rehabilitation and care services.

All the way up to a recent op-ed in Crain’s Business Detroit, the Insurance Alliance of Michigan states that “people can and are still receiving quality care.” Since the implementation of the fee schedule, they have repeated this claim, and they have their enablers within the state’s insurance regulatory agency and lawmakers following suit.

How the law impacted Brian Woodward (and many others)

Unfortunately, we know this is at best, ignorance or at worst, a blatant lie. I would like to see someone tell the family and friends of Brian Woodward that the fee schedule doesn’t impact access to quality care. Brian was living a productive life full of enrichment, joy, and independence. He was working and living in his own home for years prior to the law change. He received the necessary care and support for his quadriplegia, which allowed him to live with dignity and enjoy a high quality of life. Soon after the implementation of the fee schedule, however, Brian’s life was tipped upside down. He no longer could have nurse aides come to his home because the reimbursement level for those services was now below the cost of care. Brian was uprooted from his home, lost employment, and was in and out of hospitals and care settings. On July 31, 2023, Brian tragically passed away.

Read Chad Livengood’s heartbreaking story about Brian in the Detroit News.

Brian wasn’t the first life lost prematurely and unnecessarily due to the fee schedule’s impact on access to care. In March 2022, a memorial service was held for 5 individuals who lost their lives after the law changed. Over the last two years, there have been dozens of other stories covered by the media bringing forward gut-wrenching stories of struggle and anguish. Personal accounts have also been shared on the We Can’t Wait Facebook group, and we can be sure hundreds of other lives have been impacted  stories that have not been told.

Perhaps the Insurance Alliance of Michigan discounts these personal stories as outliers, or perhaps they sadly view them as inconsequential. Whatever the case may be, these are real people who had a promise of quality care ripped away from them because of a law that limited what providers could be paid to nearly 50% of what they were getting paid in 2019.

There is data out there to show how widespread this calamity is. The non-partisan and objective research done by the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) demonstrates the impact of the fee schedule. The study reveals that as of April 2022: nearly 7,000 people were discharged from their care provider, and over 4,000 healthcare jobs were eliminated.

Why we need a legislative solution

There is no denying the carnage the fee schedule has had on people with catastrophic injuries, their families and the professionals who dedicated their lives to providing high-quality services. While the people that were able to survive the tumultuous past two years obtained relief provided by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Andary that reverts the pay system back to “reasonable charges” for those injured prior to June 2019, people injured since will experience the same level of difficulty in finding access to care.

This is precisely why we need a legislative solution, or the Crisis in Care will continue. The Insurance Alliance of Michigan will certainly keep attempting to silence the voices of those calling out desperately for help by glossing over their suffering. They will do so despite the documented deaths of Michigan citizens, personal testimonials, and objective data. It is up to our Legislators to stop listening to them and act because the truth is that people will continue to suffer if they do not.

Our next post will take a deep dive into another misguided notion being repeated by the insurance industry: the fee schedule is common-sense costs control.

Sincerely,

Tom Judd
Executive Director