Meek v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court, 379 Mont. 150

Judy Meek fell on Nov. 2, 2011 and died Jan. 23, 2012; her estate sued the premises owner for survival and wrongful death damages.
Medical providers billed $197,154.93 for care; Medicare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield paid $70,711.26.
District Court ruled Meek had no liability exposure beyond amounts paid by Medicare/BCBS, granted defendant Pierce’s Dodge City’s motion in limine to limit medical-damage evidence to amounts actually paid, and entered summary judgment on that issue.
Meek petitioned this Court for supervisory control to overturn the pretrial exclusion of billed amounts.
The Montana Supreme Court considered whether billed amounts are admissible evidence of medical damages and whether excluding them violated Montana’s collateral source statute.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of medical provider billed amounts at trial	Meek: billed amounts are relevant to show nature/severity and reasonable value; treating physician supported reasonableness of billed amounts	Defendants: billed amounts are inflated/unreliable; only amounts actually paid by insurers reflect reasonable value and admission of billed amounts risks windfall	Court: Reversed exclusion. Billed amounts may be admissible evidence for the jury to weigh; factual disputes about reasonableness preclude summary judgment
Application of collateral-source rule and post-verdict offsets	Meek: collateral-source statute bars jury consideration of insurer payments; any offset occurs post-verdict per §27-1-308(3)	Defendants: jury should consider amounts actually paid as best measure of damages	Court: Jury cannot be presented with collateral-source payments as determinative; collateral-source payments must be handled post-verdict, so excluding billed amounts pretrial violated §27-1-308(3)

Newbury v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance, 184 P.3d 1021 (Mont. 2008) (addressed insurer/insured disputes over medical-payment benefits and windfall concerns)
Conway v. Benefis Health System, 297 P.3d 1200 (Mont. 2013) (discussed insurer payments and limits on recovery when provider accepted payment in full)
Harris v. Billings Clinic, 305 P.3d 852 (Mont. 2013) (considered relationship between billed charges and amounts ultimately recoverable)
Burley v. Burlington Northern, 273 P.3d 825 (Mont. 2012) (jury determines reasonableness of claimed damages)
Tidyman's Management Servs. v. Davis, 330 P.3d 1139 (Mont. 2014) (statutory requirement that damages be reasonable)