Opinion ID: 1665997
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the nature of services provided by a professional corporation

Text: Before we address whether a plaintiff must provide an NOI to a PC, it is necessary to review the legal structure of a PC and understand the nature of the services it provides. Since a professional corporation is a statutory creature, we look to the Professional Service Corporation Act, MCL 450.221 et seq., for guidance. The relevant provision of that act provides, in pertinent part: A corporation organized and incorporated under this act shall not render professional services within this state except through its officers, employees, and agents who are duly licensed or otherwise legally authorized to render the professional services within this state. The term employee does not include secretaries, bookkeepers, technicians, and other assistants who are not usually and ordinarily considered by custom and practice to be rendering professional services to the public for which a license or other legal authorization is required. [MCL 450.225 (emphasis added).] This provision makes clear that a PC, while a separate legal entity, does not render professional services on its own; rather, it can only render professional services through its employees or agents who are licensed or legally authorized to render the professional services. This language stands as a legislative recognition that when a PC renders professional services, it is inexorably linked to the licensed health care provider. For all practical purposes, the PC and the health care provider are treated as the same entity when professional services are involved. [21] Moreover, a PC can perform other types of services or take other actions through unlicensed employees or agents, but such actions would not constitute professional services under the act. This delineation of types of services is emphasized not only in the first sentence, it is reasserted in the second sentence of MCL 450.227, which states that [t]he term employee does not include secretaries, bookkeepers, technicians, and other assistants who are not usually and ordinarily considered by custom and practice to be rendering professional services to the public for which a license or other legal authorization is required. Thus, a PC can engage in two different types of actions: those that are professional services and those that are not. While the PC is vicariously liable for either of these types of actions pursuant to MCL 450.226, [22] this distinction is pertinent in determining whether the medical malpractice statutes apply to a particular cause of action.