Obtaining Medical Care and Communication with Your Doctor

If you are hurt, get medical attention immediately. If you do not have medical insurance or know a doctor who can assist you, please contact our office for assistance. Many doctors will see you without requiring payment up front when you work with an experienced accident attorney. You can contact us at 602.424.5547 or complete our online contact form.

Your doctor is a key component to presenting a successful personal injury claim. If your injuries are not documented in your medical records, the insurance company will not consider them in its evaluation of your claim. One of the most important things an insurance company will evaluate about your claim is the consistency of your treatment and whether you followed your doctor's instructions. If your treatment is sporadic, the insurance company will assume that you were not hurt in the accident.

Also, human nature is such that generally when we go to the doctor we have a tendency to minimize our ailments. For example, most doctors greet a patient with a "how are you doing?" and the patient typically gives a pre-programmed response, "I'm fine". The reality is that if you were fine, you likely would not be sitting in the doctor's office. Doctors are trained in medical school to write down everything a patient tells them in order to document the symptoms, the diagnosis and recommended course of treatment. If you minimize your injury, it will get recorded in your medical chart that way. The insurance company, in turn, will later read your medical chart and conclude to your detriment that your injury was minimal and your course of treatment excessive given the injury described.

When you communicate with your doctor don't exaggerate, but be sure to tell your doctor all of your complaints. If something hurts and it is not documented, you will not be compensated for it. Be sure to tell your doctor at each visit, how your injuries affect the things you normally do, including what this injury either prevents you from doing or causes you pain when you do it. The better you communicate with your doctor, the more likely it will be that your injuries will be documented and your doctor's treatment will be more effective.

Use caution to avoid communicating information that is not important to your case. For example, there is a difference between having a history of something and an incident. If you had a prior injury eight years ago but it resolved and you have not had any further problems, it is probably an incident not a history. If you have a chronic medical problem, and regularly see your doctor for assistance, it is probably a history. The insurance company will be looking at your medical records with an eye toward finding something in your past that it can blame for your current symptoms. The insurance company gets this information from you through your doctor's records. Therefore, think about what you're saying before you say it. Insurance companies only have to compensate you for the injuries that are exacerbated by, or sustained in, the accident. They do not have to pay you for injuries you already had prior to the accident.

Finally, if your doctor only writes you a script for your pain and then schedules a return visit once every four to six weeks to see if you are healing on your own, your injuries are not getting documented. It also does not communicate the impact of the accident on your life. Unless your injuries are fully documented by an unbiased person like a doctor, detailing the treatment you received and the impact on your life, the value of your claim will be reduced accordingly. Having the right doctor to assist you is as important as the right accident injury attorney.

Not all accident claims need the assistance of an attorney. If you would like to know whether your claim could benefit from an experienced accident attorney navigating you through the claim's process or you need help finding a doctor to treat your injuries with or without health insurance, please contact us for a free consultation at 602.424.5547 or complete our online contact form.