The Hastings Banner — Thursday, November 18, 2021 — Page 15No-fault reform continues impact on families
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
On their last day at the home together,
Teresa and Troy Hughes sat under the
gazebo for 2 hours. They basked in the 64-
degree weather and listened to country
Western music. Troy smiled and danced in
his wheel-chair, lifting his arm and up down
to the beat of the music.
But it couldn’t distract from the inevita-
ble: Troy was being forced to leave his home
at Spectrum Neuro Rehabilitation, where he
has lived for the past 13 years. When Teresa
asked Troy if he felt sad, he blinked twice,
meaning yes. But he would not cry. Not in
front of his mom.
“We need to stay badass till God says so,”
he wrote to her.
They told him he could bring 10 outfits
and a few pictures to his new home at
Spectrum Health Rehabilitation and Nursing
Center. Teresa had to take everything else to
her home in Middleville – his blankets, his
radio, his CDs, his pin-up board, his
Michigan State gear, his flowers from his
father’s funeral. And along with 30 other
people, Troy said goodbye to his room on
Nov. 10.
The adult foster care facility, as they call
it, closed last week as a result of reforms to
the state’s no-fault auto insurance law. The
changes cut reimbursement rates for
Medicare patients by 55 percent. That
change meant companies like Spectrum
Health would not receive full payment for
taking care of Troy and other people like him
who have been catastrophically injured in
auto accidents.
Before the reforms went into effect July 1,
people who were injured in auto accidents
received full coverage from insurance agen-
cies. They received everything they needed
for their care – from caregivers to wheel-
chairs to therapy.
Fourteen years ago, Troy was injured in a
motorcycle accident that left him in need of
24/7 attention. He cannot walk or swallow
and, although he can write, he cannot speak.
His story was highlighted in a Oct. 14 edi-
tion of The Banner as he prepared to move
from the rehabilitation home to a nursing
home.
Now Troy has been in the nursing home
for seven days, but Teresa hasn’t given up.
She has spent her weekends sending emails
and mailing packets of information to every
lawmaker in the state.
It has come to little avail. Sen. Gary
Peters, a Democrat who lives in Oakland
County, and Sen. Peter Meijer, a Republican
from Grand Rapids, sent her advertisements
in response. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sent an
auto-reply email. Her state representative,
Julie Calley, R-Portland, has called Teresa
twice. She spoke with Spectrum about get-
ting Troy back in his room and offered to
help her find a better situation.
But no matter how many emails Teresa
has sent, no matter how many personal
phone calls she has received, nothing has
changed.
“I just, I don’t understand why it’s so easy
to take it away, but nobody can make it the
other way – nobody can fix it,” she said.
For nearly a decade, the insurance indus-
try tried, year after year, to reform the
no-fault auto insurance law. And every year
it failed, with little traction and little hope,
said Sinas Dramis Law Firm personal injury
attorney Steve Sinas.
“It failed in a really kind of embarrassing
fashion to the insurance industry,” he said.
That changed in 2019.
When Whitmer took office, the Republican
party made it no secret that auto insurance
reform was their No. 1 priority, Sinas said.
They brought in experts like Sinas to learn
more about the topic, but there was no
movement on the issue.
Then, one day in early May, there was a
bill.
At 2 a.m., the no-fault auto insurance bill
passed through the House without a public
hearing, Sinas said. A few weeks later, the
Senate passed its own bill, again, without a
public hearing. And a few weeks after that,
both the House and the Senate passed a col-
lective, finalized bill that cemented the
changes to the no-fault auto insurance law.
Sinas was at the state Capitol the day they
passed the law. He called it a “chaotic scene”
with citizens cramming together and yelling.
“Where’s the bill?” they asked.
The elevator doors opened and a stack of
the 120-page bills rolled out on a cart.
No one had time to read the bill before it
was passed.
“Everyone’s trying to read this bill and,
from what I remember, within about an hour
after that cart came off the elevator, the vote
was being called,” he said.
The Legislature didn’t hold a public hear-
ing. The bill was passed and, in one day, the
no-fault auto-insurance industry changed for
good.
“This is why people get screwed over
when governments pass laws that they don’t
even understand without time for public
comment,” he said. “And then the political
parties convince everybody just to say yes,
just because they think it’s in their best polit-
ical interest to do so.”
The bill surprised Sinas. It counters the
philosophy of both parties, he said.
“It’s certainly not in the Democratic
Party’s interest to support the bill that goes
against the care needs of people,” he said.
“And it’s also not in the Republicans’ inter-
est to pass a bill that caps the number of
medical providers that can be paid and
implements government regulation of
health care.
“So both political parties have totally con-
tradicted their own principles in passing this
bill, and they’re just trying to convince
themselves that they did something good.”
Lawmakers across the aisle praised the
bill as a success; they intended to lower
some of the highest auto insurance rates in
the county and allow people the choice to
pick their own coverage. Before the legisla-
tion, everyone received full, lifetime cover-
age – regardless of preference.
But, to Sinas, the law represents the
insurance industry’s hold over Michigan
legislators.
Since the reform passed in 2019, the con-
nection between the insurance industry and
the Michigan state Legislature has been
documented.
A May 2019 report by Michigan CampaignFinance Report analyzed donations made to
Michigan lawmakers over a five-year period
from auto insurance interest groups on both
sides of the debate.
It found that the Michigan Legislature had
received about $2.71 million from political
action committees or organizations in favor
of the auto insurance reform, with multiple
members, such as state Reps. Annette Glenn,
R-Midland, and Lee Chatfield, R-Levering,
and state Sens. Jon Bumstead, R-Newaygo,
and Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, receiving
more than $100,000. State Sen. Lana Theis,
R-Brighton, who chairs the Insurance and
Banking Committee that oversees any
changes to the current no-fault legislation,
took nearly $80,000.
“From my perspective, the insurance
industry of Michigan is so powerful that it
really has a great influence on both political
parties,” Sinas said. “From what I can tell,
there was much more of an interest in
appeasing the insurance industry on both
political parties than actually protecting
people.”
***
Two days after he moved to the nursing
home, Teresa visited Troy in his new room.
Unable to visit him inside, she walked
around the building, around the generator
and onto the grass. She kept walking until
she found the window with the initials
“T.H.” where she saw Troy propped up in his
chair.
“Just sitting there in the dark,” she said.
“No lights, no TV. Just sitting there. Sad,
you know what I’m saying?”
Teresa stood on a grate and yelled through
the window as snow fell on her. She told
Troy about his brother’s hunting trip up
North and his sister-in-law’s recent positive
COVID test. From across the room, Troy
blinked to let her know he was listening.
It’s the isolation of the nursing home that
most scares Teresa.
In the neuro rehab homes, her son was
surrounded by people. He had a roommate.
Caregivers came to check on him and hang
out. Teresa could visit and take him to the
gazebo outside the neuro rehab home. And if
he didn’t want to be in his room, someone
could wheel him out to the common area,
where he would be surrounded by his friends.
In the nursing home, Teresa said, he
doesn’t share a room with anyone. He can’t
go outside due to COVID restrictions and
his window doesn’t open. The nursing home
has significantly fewer staffers and he can-
not receive the same level of attention.
Teresa can’t check on him either. Before,
she could call his caregivers on their cell
phones whenever she wanted. They would
tell her when he had a urinary tract infection
and when he was acting grumpy.
But when Teresa has tried to call the nurs-
ing station at the nursing home, no one picks
up. She can only go on a window visit. Even
so, “there’s nobody to talk to about how he’s
doing, what’s going on with him?” she said.
In response to the reforms, lawmakers
said, they set aside $25 million to support
people like Troy. Some had assumed they
would be grandfathered into the system.
And, while those funds have helped those
who are receiving at-home care, those funds
don’t cover the cost of care provided byfacilities the size of Spectrum Health Neuro
Rehabilitation, and the countless other simi-
lar institutions across the state, President of
Continuing Care at Spectrum Health Karen
Pakkala said in a Oct. 13 interview with The
Banner.
“Even $25 million, it seems an extraordi-
nary amount of money, it isn’t going to sus-
tain the program work in perpetuity,”
Pakkala said. “We want a long-term solution
for patients. That might be a Band-Aid for a
bit of time for some providers. It might help
us over the next few months. But it’s not
going to sustain the program forever.”
Even as providers go out of business and
people lose their care, Sinas said he doesn’t
foresee any changes to the no-fault auto
insurance reform.
“They’re going to come up with all kindsof excuses why it’s not the time,” he said.
“There’s too much power within both parties
that want to support these laws, that don’t
want to do anything to acknowledge they’ve
done anything wrong.
“...I don’t have any hope that there’s going
to be a good-faith attempt by either political
party to change any of the fundamental
unfairness.”
Sinas said he has taken matters into his
own hands: He is leading a court case that
challenges the legality of the reform. The
case currently sits in the Michigan Court of
Appeals, but it will take a year or two before
a final ruling.
In the meantime, Troy Hughes sits in the
nursing home, sequestered in a room with 10
outfits, a few pictures and a window that
can’t open.Providing Exceptional Care in Rural Spaces
Spectrum Health
Pennock adds providers
Spectrum Health
This week we celebrate the power of rural.
National Rural Health Day is Thursday,
November 18 – a day set aside to recognize
the quality of life we enjoy in small towns
across America and the unique health care
needs in rural spaces.
These are great places to live, work and
raise families; where health professionals
develop relationships with their patients and
care is more personalized.
Spectrum Health Pennock has added more
than 30 new health care providers over the past
two years to meet the needs of our community.
“It is the season of Thanksgiving and as I
reflect on some things I am most grateful for,
I am thankful for the amazingly skilled med-
ical providers that we have gained at Spectrum
Health Pennock over the past 12 to 24
months,” said Angie Ditmar, president of
Pennock. “It has been so exciting to watch
the positive growth and commitment to the
health care needs of our community as we
continue to strive to improve health, inspire
hope and save lives.”
Douglas Smendik, M.D., family practice
division chief and longtime Pennock family
medicine physician, said recruiting additional
providers translates to increased care options.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth in provid-
ers,” Dr. Smendik said. “Spectrum Health has
brought a lot of visibility to our community,
and that has helped us improve our recruit-
ment–and ultimately–the quality of care.”
Dr. Smendik called out Carl Baker, M.D.,
as a nice addition to the family medicine care
team who has a passion for working with
patients of all ages including pediatrics.
“He’s done a very good job,” Dr. Smendik
said.
Pennock also recently opened a surgical
optimization center led by certified nurse
practitioner Jill Boynton and a newborn ser-
vices office with Lana Gagin, M.D. The sur-
gery optimization center prepares patients
and their surgical care team before surgery to
improve patient safety and surgical outcomes.
It can also minimize risk of postoperative
complications, decrease length of stay in the
hospital, reduce unplanned re-admissions,
reduce the total cost of care and enhance
overall health and the surgical experience.
Derek Axibal, M.D., is a new orthopedic
provider at Pennock Orthopedic & Pain
Center who specializes in sports medicine.
Dr. Axibal was featured in a Spectrum Health
HealthBeat story this week, which you can
read at spectrumhealthbeat.org.
These are a just a few of the more than 30
new providers that we welcome to Pennock.
See entire list on facing page.
There are 10 practices in Spectrum Health’s
southeast region, most in small towns such as
Middleville, Ionia, Lake Odessa, Ada – and,
of course, Hastings.
Providing care in rural communities is
special.
We know the power of rural is real.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, our com-
munities rallied in supporting our health care
workers like never before.
We see it when elementary school students
send cards of encouragement to our front-
line staff.
We feel it when businesses and organiza-
tions coordinate parades and concerts anddrop off food to thank and encourage tired
team members.
You lift our spirits and strengthen our
resolve with each act of kindness. Thank you!
During Rural Health Day, we celebrate this
community-minded spirit that prevails in
small towns across rural America. An esti-
mated 57 million people – about 1 in 5
Americans – call rural towns and farming
communities home.
These are places where community stake-
holders come together to support the com-
mon good.
About 4,500 rural health clinics and 1,
critical access hospitals provide people living
in rural areas access to health care across the
country.
We value our relationship with area
non-profits, civic organizations, public health
officials, first responders, elected officials
and all who support us in providing care to
our regional community.
We couldn’t do it without you.
Sincerely, we wouldn’t want to – because
working together gives us all ownership in
protecting our rural way of life and caring for
one another.
It’s the power of rural.
We welcome all new Pennock providers,
and we encourage you to contact us for your
family’s health care needs.highpointcommunitybank.com | 1-888-422-Wednesday, December 8, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Highpoint Community Bank is partnering with Preferred Financial Partners
who will present Breaking Down Life’s Financial Puzzle. Information covered
will include methods to:- Take care of your family and business after you are gone
- Cover medical and living expenses if you should become ill
- Plan for retirement if assets should run out
This free seminar will take place in the community room of the Hastings
branch, 150 West Court Street, Hastings. Please reserve a seat by calling
269.948.5579. Refreshments will be served.
Insurance is:
Not a deposit. Not FDIC insured. Not insured by any federal government agency.
Not guaranteed by the bank. May go down in value.Life Insurance with Living Benefits
Protecting What Matters Most
TC123827(1121)On Nov. 10, Troy Hughes was moved out of this room at Homewards North at the
Spectrum Neuro Rehabilitation Services Residential Program, where he had lived for
13 years. The adult foster care facility closed last week as a result of reforms to the
state’s no-fault auto insurance law. (File photo)