Auto Accidents - Paying For Medical Care (Page 1)
The most important and long-lasting concern from an auto accident is your physical and emotional health. The law provides that you are entitled to be restored to your full former health at the expense of the party at fault. Unfortunately, in many instances, auto accident victims suffer irreparable injuries ranging from mild ongoing pain to chronic pain.
The law also provides that you can receive just compensation for the pain and suffering you endure as a result of the accident.
Because the goal of an car insurance adjustor is to pay as little as possible, the insurance adjustor tries to underestimate the force of the impact, minimize the injuries, criticize the medical treatment, and above all else, make every effort to characterize the injury as "soft tissue, non permanent."
In seeking medical treatment after an accident, be concerned with the following things:
- Know how you can pay for treatment. If you have medical insurance or med pay on your automobile policy, your bills (at least part of them) will be paid. However, some bills will remain unpaid, and many people have no health insurance. An Las Vegas auto accident attorney who enjoys a good rapport with medical providers can usually postpone payment until the end of the case by use of a lien. A lien protects the doctor while at the same time allowing you to receive needed treatment without financial strain.
- Follow your doctor's instructions. Doctors are trained to know what it takes you to restore your health. Do not skip appointments. Sometimes when you are feeling better you will be tempted to stop going. Just because you've stopped hurting does not mean you can stop treatment. Trust your doctor.
- If you delay seeking medical treatment after you are injured, and if you fail to keep appointments the adjustor will argue that you are neither hurt nor feel pain or that something else happened after the accident that is causing your health problems.
- Make sure you tell the doctors everything that hurts. Do not simply focus on the things that hurt most. The sharpest pains often subside quickly while dull pains persist. Adjustors will treat, with great skepticism, any complaints of problems that appear several days or weeks after the accident that were not discussed in the first visits to the doctor. Be thorough.
- Give your doctor a full history of your health conditions. Go to the doctor prepared with a full list of all of your past accidents, injuries and health problems. Your failure to disclose the important injuries, accidents and health problems of the past will (1) make it more difficult for the doctor to assess your injuries related to an accident and (2) will be twisted by the adjustor as meaning that you tried to blame present injuries on preexisting conditions that you are trying to cover up, and that you are lying. You may be compensated for aggravation to a preexisting condition.
