Opinion ID: 1962780
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dutta v. State Farm

Text: Appellants filed suit against appellees following this Court's recent decision, Dutta v. State Farm, 363 Md. 540, 769 A.2d 948 (2001). In that case, Dr. Sisir Dutta, injured in an automobile accident, submitted a PIP claim seeking reimbursement for medical treatment. Id. at 543-44, 769 A.2d at 950. His insurer, State Farm, refused to reimburse the portion of his hospital bill that had been paid originally by Dutta's HMO and only paid him the amount of his co-payment. Dutta filed suit, alleging that State Farm wrongly denied his PIP claim under Maryland insurance law. We considered whether the cost of Dutta's treatment was an incurred expense for which he was entitled to recover even though his HMO actually incurred the costs. Id. at 547, 769 A.2d at 952. We held that, under Maryland Code (1997 Repl.Vol.) § 19-505 of the Insurance Article, insurers must pay PIP benefits to an insured regardless of the fact that a collateral source such as an HMO incurred the expense. Id. at 563-64, 769 A.2d at 961-62. Prior to Dutta, appellees interpreted Maryland law as requiring insurers to pay for medical expenses incurred by the insured, not including expenses paid for by a third party such as an HMO. Appellants' purportedly seek to enforce the holding of Dutta. Nine days after we filed Dutta, appellants initiated these actions to obtain reimbursement for PIP claims denied because of collateral source payments. Around the same time, appellees changed their policy prospectively to comply with Dutta and initiated a remediation program to reimburse their insureds for medical expenses an HMO paid on his or her behalf. Through the remediation process, appellees reviewed past claims to determine which required additional payment and paid wrongly denied portions with statutory interest. The Dutta ruling, therefore, set the stage for the instant cases.