Action by a healthcare provider seeking reimbursement of attendant care services; MCL 500.3112; Whether charges have been incurred; MCL 500.3107(1)(a); Douglas v Allstate Ins Co

Holding that plaintiff-healthcare provider failed to present evidence that defendant-insurer’s insured incurred the attendant care expenses for which plaintiff sought reimbursement, the court affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary disposition for defendant. Plaintiff sought reimbursement for attendant care services it provided to defendant’s insured, who was injured in a car crash. The trial court granted defendant summary disposition. In a prior appeal, the court affirmed. The Supreme Court remanded, finding that the court had “erred by applying the pre-amendment version of MCL 500.3112 to attendant care services that were provided after the effective date of the amendment of that statute.” On remand, applying the present version of the statute, the court again affirmed. It rejected plaintiff’s argument that it was entitled to collect the unpaid costs of the insured’s attendant care services, and, thus, the trial court erred when it granted defendant summary disposition. It found that while plaintiff was entitled to “commence a direct cause of action against [defendant] to recover overdue benefits payable for” its insured’s attendant care charges, it “could only seek reimbursement for charges actually incurred by” the insured. For plaintiff “to potentially collect $34 per hour from [defendant] for the attendant care services, it had to have charged [the insured] $34 per hour for the services. The fatal flaw in [its] action in this case is that it presented no documentary evidence, as necessary to create a genuine issue of material fact, that [the insured] was ever charged $34 per hour, or that she ever became obligated or liable to pay $34 per hour, for attendant care services.”