Bulletin 81-15 and Order No. 81-2752-M
June 15, 1981 and July 13, 1981
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Allowable Expenses for Rehabilitation [§3107(1)(a)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Not Applicable
CASE SUMMARY:
In Bulletin 81-15, Commissioner of Insurance Nancy A. Baerwaldt, concluded that the "Michigan No-Fault Law provides that a person injured in an automobile accident is entitled to receive vocational rehabilitation benefits. . . .The statute does not limit availability for vocational rehabilitation benefits to the three-year wage loss benefit or any other arbitrary time periods; eligibility for benefits exists as long as the rehabilitation services received are reasonable and necessary." In so holding, Commissioner Baerwaldt cited with approval the Oakland County Circuit Court Opinion in Hodges v Transamerica Ins. Co. (Item No. 409). The Bulletin goes on to specify at vocational rehabilitation services may include but are not limited to such things as vocational counseling, diagnostic evaluation, physical restoration, job training or retraining, training-related transportation and maintenance costs, job analysis and restructuring, interpreter services for deaf persons, job placement assistance, employment follow-up, etc.
In Order No. 81-2752-M, issued on July 13,1981, Commissioner Baerwaldt ordered that a public hearing take place on August 20,1981, at the Michigan Insurance Bureau for purposes of determining "the need to develop guidelines, rules, or statutes regarding the payment of vocational rehabilitation benefits to persons injured in automobile accidents under the Michigan No-Fault Laws." Among the issues to be examined at the public hearing are the development of standards for determining "reasonably necessary" benefits under the scope of the responsibility to provide these benefits for people who are unemployed at the time of injury, how disputes with regard to payment of such benefits should be resolved, etc.
