Brain injury rehabilitation providers call on lawmakers to put people over profits; group calls out job-killing stance of the Insurance Alliance of Michigan
HB 4486 will protect jobs without adding cost to the system
BRIGHTON, Mich. — (March 15, 2021) — Michigan Brain Injury Provider Council President Tom Judd issued the following statement in response to published quotes from the Insurance Alliance of Michigan, which opposes House Bill 4486. HB 4486 would provide a technical fix to an unintended consequence of the provider fee schedule passed in 2019 as part of the auto insurance reform package — a consequence that jeopardizes access to appropriate and specialized care for thousands of individuals and families throughout the state. Without HB 4486, thousands of Michigan professionals who provide care for accident victims with unique needs will receive pink slips.
“The auto insurance industry feasted on record profits in 2020 as COVID raged and kept people home. Led by the Insurance Alliance of Michigan, the industry now greedily hunts for even more dollars to fill its deep pockets, and it’s willing to end access to care for thousands of patients and kill thousands of jobs across Michigan.
“The Insurance Alliance of Michigan baselessly claims this legislation is about profits. This is a people issue, not a profit issue. Thousands of auto accident survivors will lose access to the care they require if rehabilitation providers are forced to close. The auto insurance industry has always been focused on profits before people, so their response is not surprising.
“Lawmakers have a choice: side with accident victims, or side with the big auto insurance companies. We hope they do the right thing for Michigan.”
Under the 2019 auto insurance reform, health care services that do not have a corresponding “Medicare code” — which includes most services provided by brain injury rehabilitation centers — would be required to slash reimbursements by 45%. HB 4486 adds those services to a reimbursement cap system based on 200% of the Medicare reimbursement rate, a key cost-containing component of auto insurance reform.
The 45% cut is also applied to family attendant care, which means that individuals who care for seriously injured family members at home—many of whom need to quit their jobs to care for their loved ones full-time—will be impacted.