How Medical Treatment Impacts the Value of Your Car Accident Case

Strengthen Your Injury Claim with the Right Medical Treatment Team

On today's video, we're going to talk about the importance of having the right treatment team after an accident or other injury.

While it's important to have legal representation to advance your claim, it's also extremely important to have the right treatment team in place. And so what do I mean by treatment team? Those are your health care providers, your primary care physician, and specialists to help you in your recovery after an accident.

The reason that's important, obviously, is, first and foremost, for your health. Your outcome in terms of your recovery is going to depend largely on your access to the right kind of treatment early on when it really matters. We always suggest. Do not delay. Get treatment. Follow all of the advice of your health care providers. Work really hard at getting the right kind of treatment for your specific injuries. 

How healthcare and treatment affects your personal injury claim
But in the context of a personal injury claim, having the right team of health care providers can also play a major role in the ultimate outcome of your case. 

I'll give you an example. If I represent three different clients, all involved in a car accident, all rear-enders, so they're sitting on a light and they get rear ended in a car accident, and their injuries are soft tissue, neck pain, back pain, nothing's broken. 

Those kind of cases in particular can involve different doctors. Each one of those could be completely different. As opposed to, you know, a fracture of a joint. where the orthopedic surgeons typically treat them in the same fashion with a surgery and plates and screws and that sort of thing. But in soft tissue cases in particular, the medical treatment could be completely different.

So, one of those people might have simply seen a chiropractor. The other may be their primary care physician and physiotherapy. And the third may be their primary care physician, some other medical specialist like a physical medicine or rehabilitation specialist, or an orthopedic surgeon. Psychologists, because of their mood changes and the impact the injuries are having on their outlook and mood, you have similar accidents, similar injuries, but they're treated very differently in terms of their health care team.

Healthcare + Specialists = Stronger Case
Those three cases will have. three different outcomes in terms of the value of the case, not because their injuries are different, not because one person is hurt more than the other, but simply because the healthcare team in the third example, with many physicians and and healthcare providers documenting the symptoms, offering treatment, following advice would be a far more compelling case. And that person is likely to have a much better result at the end in terms of the compensation they receive. 

Ask for referrals for healthcare providers and specialists
It is very important to, in some instances, be your own medical advocate. Ask for those referrals. Ask to see specialists. Ask for imaging to rule out more significant injuries. Try to get the best treatment team you possibly can get. 

Now, your lawyer can also sometimes offer advice and suggestions on healthcare providers or types of treatment you might want to consider in consultation with your lawyer, have those discussions and also with your primary care physician or your existing treatment team, have those discussions and ask what else can be done to try to get better.

Approach your own insurance company doctor referrals with caution
If your own insurance is recommending clinics or treatment providers after an accident. You might want to exercise some caution when considering the advice your own insurance company has given you.
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Keep in mind, insurance companies are driven by profit. They make profits by paying out as little as possible on claims. I wouldn't suggest following their advice when it comes to treatment providers or clinics. Get advice from your own health care team, your lawyer, your friends, your family, pretty much anyone else other than the insurance company on where you can get the best care and treatment after an accident.

How insurance company medical assessments may affect your case
In addition to helping you recover and get a good outcome for your health, it's important to understand how insurance companies deal with your medical records and how that influences the amount of money they ultimately pay you for your claim. The insurance company will ultimately get a copy of all of your clinical notes and records related to the accident and they will go through them and read the details of the symptoms, the injuries, the treatment that's helping you.

Insurance companies only have so many tools, okay? And one of their tools to deny or defeat claims is to send you to their own doctors, their own assessments. Doctor, they pay a lot of money to, to see you for an hour or less. and write a report saying you're not as bad as you say you are. In fact, you're probably not bad at all. You've made a full recovery and on that basis, the insurance company will say they don't have to pay you anything. 

If you don't have a strong healthcare team, it's really easy for the insurance company to try to defeat what you're saying about your symptoms or your injuries. Consider that report in the context of a whole lot of treatment records saying this person is working really hard to get better, they're still having symptoms, they've made some gains, but they're still having problems, and here are their problems.

Protect yourself with doctors and healthcare providers that are on your side
And these are a bunch of treatment providers, healthcare providers, and their focus is on your health and your recovery, as opposed to the insurance. Doctor that's focused on not treating you whatsoever, but only writing a report that serves the insurance company. When you compare those two opinions, the treatment team opinions are going to be stronger and more credible. But if you don't have your own team of doctors and healthcare providers treating you, then you can see it's really easy for the insurance company to defeat your claim. 

At the end of the day, insurance companies are all about risk. They're not paying you because they have any compassion. for you or your injuries or they want to do the right thing. They only pay where they are at risk of paying more by not settling. A healthcare team, a strong robust team of treatment providers that knows you, knows your injuries and is willing to ultimately, if necessary, testify on your behalf is a great risk to the insurance company. They know, and their lawyers know, those are more difficult cases to defeat, and so they will tend to pay those cases and fight the people that don't have that. 

It's really a no lose situation, by getting the treatment you need, but also in the context of your case, you're more likely to receive a fair settlement than someone that doesn't treat, even if they have the same symptoms, same injuries. You want to put yourself in the best position to get better and also to demonstrate to the insurance company the nature and severity of your injuries. And the best way to do that is to get healthcare providers that are best suited to treat your particular symptoms. 

If you're wondering about what these different healthcare providers do, we do have some other videos where we've interviewed some healthcare providers. So, check out those videos where you can learn a little bit more about what they do and how they might help you following an injury. There are a lot of doctors out there with specialties, take advantage of their specialized knowledge and get the help you need.

Have Questions? Contact Us Today!
Protect yourself in terms of your health and your rights to advance a claim and if you have any questions about this or any other of the topics we might have covered, feel free to give us a call. We offer free consultations. Our phone lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.