Top Michigan long term care expert warns thousands of gravely injured survivors are at imminent risk of displacement, with nowhere to go

Nonpartisan official says ‘waiting is not an option’ when it comes to legislative action on reimbursement rates for post-acute care of auto accident victims  

BRIGHTON, Mich.—(June 7, 2021)— Salli Pung, the State of Michigan’s Long Term Care Ombudsman, has sent an urgent letter to Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, and other legislative leaders, expressing her “deep concern” that severely disabled survivors of auto accidents will suffer “a catastrophic loss of specialized care and services” if two new no-fault provisions are not addressed before they go into effect on July 1. 

“The Michigan Legislature has the power to right this wrong while still maintaining the objectives set forth with the auto insurance reform of 2019,” Pung says in her letter, dated June 3. “For survivors of catastrophic auto accidents waiting is not an option.”

Pung notes that with no “viable or equitable substitution” for the specialized care these vulnerable patients are currently receiving in residential and in-home settings, thousands are at risk for being displaced — and left with no place to go. “These specialized services are not available in nursing homes or other long term care settings,” she writes, noting that these facilities lack the resources to meet “the unique needs of these survivors.”

“Survivors of catastrophic auto accidents, including those with brain injuries, require access to a full continuum of treatment and community-based supports provided by appropriately educated clinicians serving on an interdisciplinary team,” Pung informs Shirkey, echoing the pleas of survivors and providers.

The Michigan Brain Injury Provider Council, which represents health care professionals and facilities that care for people with severe brain injuries, has learned of business closures or discharges of patients with auto insurance funding impacting 530 patients and costing over 1,200 health care heroes their jobs. These numbers will most certainly increase in the coming weeks and months.   

“We thank the State of Michigan’s long-term care expert for standing up for gravely injured patients, who are some of the most vulnerable in the state right now,” said MBIPC President Tom Judd said. “Salli Pung isn’t here to play politics, and she doesn’t work in a partisan office. She is simply standing up for Michigan residents who need ongoing care for catastrophic injuries — residents who are terrified of what will happen to them after July 1. We are running out of time to act while people’s lives are at stake. Legislative leaders haven’t listened to the pleas of their constituents who need continued care and they haven’t listened to those that care for them. For these people, perhaps the last hope is that enough legislators listen to this plea from Michigan’s Long Term Care Ombudsman and respond to her warning – ‘waiting is not an option.’” 

Since 1972, the Michigan Long Term Care Ombudsman Program — a nonpartisan program funded by federal and state government, with no cost to residents or families for ombudsman services — has worked to improve the quality of care and quality of life for residents of licensed long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult foster care homes. The program also aims to improve the overall long-term care system, advocating for the passage of laws, regulations, and policies benefiting the over 100,000 Michiganders living in long term care.

Pung has called for immediate action on bipartisan legislation that will protect access to rehabilitative support and services for thousands of residents who have been catastrophically injured in auto accidents. Senate Bill 314, introduced by Senator Curtis Hertel, Jr., of East Lansing, and House Bill 4486, introduced by Rep. Doug Wozniak, of Shelby Township, provide a narrow solution to an unintended consequence of the 2019 auto insurance law: a payment structure that cuts reimbursements for the care of post-acute brain and spinal cord injuries nearly in half.

These bills do not undo the new no-fault law or eliminate consumer cost-saving measures. In fact, they don’t change any other aspect of the 2019 auto insurance reforms whatsoever.  They impose a fair and reasonable fee schedule, as opposed to an arbitrary across the board funding cut.

If the fee schedule’s dramatic cuts are enacted as planned on July 1, small businesses serving vulnerable patient populations will be forced to close or discharge patients funded through auto insurance coverage, throwing patients and families into chaos and putting thousands of frontline caregivers out of work. 

The ripple effect of inaction on this crisis has consequences far beyond the post-acute care industry, and the following organizations support MBIPC in its fight to pass HB 4468 and SB 314: The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, the Case Management Society of America and its affiliate chapter CMSA Detroit, the Michigan Assisted Living Association, Disability Rights Michigan, the Brain Injury Association of America, Disability Network/Michigan, Michigan Occupational Therapy Association, Michigan League for Public Policy, Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council, and the League of Michigan Bicyclists.