I want to talk to you today about preventable errors in treatment. No, I don't mean medical malpractice, I mean mistakes that you very well might make that could end up hurting your personal injury case.
When you get medical care related to your motor vehicle accident, there's several kind of things that you should avoid. One of the things you want to avoid is what we call premature treatment termination. That means you basically fell off the face of the earth when it came to that doctor's office. The doctor had a plan for your care and you just no-showed the care and you stopped going.
That looks terrible in the records when the insurance company eventually is looking at your injury case. Another thing to consider is avoiding saying things in terms of your history that aren't true. Don't gloss over the fact that you had a prior accident when you're talking to your doctors. Don't assume that simply if the doctor doesn't know about something that that's going to stay silent. It won't. The insurance company's going to get all your records and if this doctor ends up making opinions in your case and he doesn't know your real history, it's going to be a problem so be candid and truthful with your doctors.
Don't over-dramatize in the office. If you're at a level of pain of two or three, don't come in grandiose and look like you're at a pain level of an eleven or a twelve. Insurance companies will often go and take video of you in your regular life. Walking to the grocery store, getting out of a car, and if you're not reeling in pain doing those things, it's going to seem weird that you're in the doctor's office reeling in pain. Lastly, don't over treat particularly with things like chiropractic. It's a big red flag for the insurance companies. Couple of months of treatment with a chiropractor is not a problem. Being into your second year of treatment with your chiropractor where you're seeing the chiropractor three or four times a week, big problem. Each one of these things we discussed are what we call preventable mistakes related to your medical care. Each of these things should be thought about and avoided if at all possible throughout your injury case.
For more information contact us at (303) 782-9999.
