Why Your Doctor Dropped You After a Michigan Car Accident

You were finally getting better. The headaches were fading. You could turn your neck again. Then you showed up for your appointment and the front desk said, “We can’t see you anymore” — and no one explained why.

You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t miss payments. You didn’t skip visits. And yet the clinic that was helping you heal just closed the door.

Here’s what nobody told you: this probably isn’t about you. It’s about a 2019 law whose no-fault fee schedule took effect in 2021, and it has pushed many Michigan crash victims out of treatment.

What changed in July 2021?

A provider fee schedule took effect. Since July 2, 2021, MCL 500.3157 caps what auto insurers pay doctors, clinics and hospitals for crash-related care.

In 2019, Michigan rewrote its no-fault auto insurance law. Most of the noise was about drivers getting to pick lower PIP (Personal Injury Protection) coverage levels. But inside that reform was something that hit patients hard: a medical fee schedule.

Before July 2021, auto insurers had to pay providers a reasonable charge for crash-related care. For treatment after July 1, 2021, the law capped what insurers pay. The cap depends on whether Medicare pays for that kind of treatment:

• Care Medicare pays for: a percentage of the Medicare rate. For most providers it started at 200% and stepped down to 190% from July 2023 on. Some hospitals, including Level I and II trauma centers, get higher percentages.
• Care Medicare doesn’t pay for (for example, some attendant care and long-term rehab services): a percentage of what the provider charged as of January 1, 2019. For most providers it started at 55% and stepped down to 52.5% from July 2023 on.

That second tier is the one that hit hardest. Providers whose services don’t have a Medicare rate, like some attendant care agencies, home health providers, and post-acute brain-injury programs, saw roughly half their old reimbursement disappear on every auto accident patient.

Same work. Same injury. Much less pay.

If you were hurt before June 11, 2019

In Andary v. USAA (2023), the Michigan Supreme Court held that the 55% rule and the cap on family-provided attendant care hours don’t apply to people injured before the reform took effect on June 11, 2019, under policies bought before then. If your crash was before that date and a provider cited the fee schedule, ask a lawyer whether it applies to you.

Why are clinics dropping PIP patients?

Because for some of them, auto patients now cost more to treat than the fee schedule pays. Put yourself in the clinic’s shoes. Their rent didn’t drop. Their staff didn’t take a pay cut. Their equipment leases didn’t renegotiate.

So providers across Michigan made a business decision: stop accepting PIP patients, or limit how many they’ll see. Some closed entirely. Rehab networks that used to specialize in crash recovery have shrunk or vanished.

The clinics still willing to treat you are often:

• Waiting longer to get paid (some insurers drag payment for months).
• Fighting denials on routine treatment the insurer used to approve.
• Getting audited and clawed back on care already provided.
• Quietly capping how many auto accident files they’ll carry at once.

When your file becomes too expensive to keep open — either because the insurer is stonewalling, or because you’ve hit some internal threshold — you get the “we can’t see you anymore” call.

It usually isn’t personal. But the effect on your body is very personal.

What are the warning signs your clinic is about to drop you?

Requests for payment, scheduling delays, a scaled-back plan, or a “see your primary” brush-off. Providers rarely say “we’re dropping you because your insurer won’t pay.” They say something softer. Watch for these signals:

1. They start asking you for payment

If the front desk suddenly wants a credit card on file, or says “your insurance isn’t covering this visit,” that’s a billing fight between the clinic and the insurer — not your debt. But it often ends with the clinic dropping you.

2. Appointments get harder to schedule

“The next opening is six weeks out.” “Your provider’s schedule is full.” Sometimes true. Sometimes it means your file got quietly deprioritized.

3. They switch you to a lower-cost plan of care

Fewer sessions. Home exercises instead of hands-on therapy. A shift from the MD to a PA or assistant. Not always wrong — but ask why.

4. They tell you to “follow up with your primary”

Your primary care doctor is not a substitute for the specialist treating your crash injury. This is often the polite version of a discharge.

5. You get a letter

Some clinics formalize it. The letter usually cites “changes in billing practices” or “insurance reimbursement.” That’s fee schedule language.

What are your rights under Michigan’s fee schedule?

Your right to reasonably necessary care didn’t change; only what providers get paid did. Here’s what the fee schedule did not do:

• It didn’t cut your benefits.
• It didn’t give insurers permission to deny reasonable and necessary care.
• It didn’t turn the gap between the clinic’s old rate and the fee-schedule amount into your debt.

You are still entitled to allowable expenses for reasonably necessary products, services, and accommodations for your care, recovery, and rehabilitation under MCL 500.3107. The insurer’s obligation to pay those benefits didn’t go away. What changed is the amount they pay the provider — not your right to receive the treatment.

A few practical rights worth knowing:

• You can change providers to one who still accepts PIP at the fee schedule rate.
• You can request a written denial from your insurer if treatment is being refused. Get it in writing.
• You can dispute denials through first-party PIP litigation, a lawsuit against your own insurer. Watch the one-year-back rule in MCL 500.3145; our post on PIP denials after an IME explains the deadlines.
• Don’t pay a “balance” bill without advice. If a clinic asks you to personally cover the difference between its old rate and what the insurer paid for covered PIP care, get advice before paying.

Does losing providers mean your lawyer isn’t fighting?

It can. A lawyer working your PIP claim should be pushing for treatment, not waiting for the case to end. If you already have a lawyer and you’re still losing providers, something is off.

A lawyer actively working your PIP claim should be:

• Pushing the insurer to authorize and pay for prescribed treatment.
• Documenting denials and delays in real time.
• Filing suit against the insurer when benefits are wrongfully cut off.
• Helping you find replacement providers when a clinic drops you.
• Keeping you in the loop — not screening your calls.

What you should not be seeing:

• Months of silence.
• “We’ll handle it after treatment ends” (by then your care is gone).
• No updates on whether PIP benefits are actually being paid.
• A lawyer who only talks about the third-party liability case and ignores your PIP fight.

Your PIP case and your pain-and-suffering (third-party) case are two different fights. A lawyer who is only chasing the settlement at the end and not defending your medical benefits along the way is letting your recovery get strip-mined by the fee schedule.

If your clinic dropped you and your lawyer’s response was a shrug — that’s the signal. Here’s how switching lawyers mid-case works.

What should you do this week?

Get everything in writing and keep treating if you can.

1. Get the discharge or “we can’t see you anymore” communication in writing.
2. Ask your insurer, in writing, whether treatment was denied and why.
3. Write down every provider who has dropped you, and the date.
4. Keep every bill, EOB (explanation of benefits), and denial letter in one folder.
5. Find a new provider quickly so you don’t build a gap in treatment the insurer can use against you.
6. If your PIP medical limit is running out, read who pays when Michigan PIP runs out before you sign a letter of protection (a promise to pay a provider out of your settlement).
7. Get a free second opinion on whether your PIP claim is being properly fought.

You are not imagining it. The system got harder in 2021, and it got harder for patients most of all. You have rights. You have options. And you have time, but not unlimited time.

This article is general information about Michigan law, not legal advice for your situation.