When to Seek Medical Attention After a Car Accident

With a car accident attorney, Houston drivers who experience a collision should seek prompt medical attention. This is essential for both your personal health but also your personal injury claim. Oftentimes, people mistakenly believe their injuries will go away and don’t seek medical attention. 

Later, they realize the extent of the injuries is more far-reaching than they thought. When you sustain an injury in a car wreck, insurance companies look for any excuse to reduce your payout. If they are able to discount your medical treatment or call it into question, it leaves you with a mountain of debt. 

You can expect an insurance adjuster to question just about anything related to your claim. They might think it was too long after the accident or too soon after the wreck. Adjusters tend to indicate that people waited too long to get treatment or a proper diagnosis. They use this to claim that they aren’t sure whether the injury was sustained in the accident at all. 

Moreover, adjusters often indicate that certain treatments aren’t medically necessary because the right amount of time hasn’t passed. For instance, if you can an MRI after an accident, the insurance company would rather you wait until later to get the necessary tests. 

No matter what they say, it’s vital that you follow whatever treatment your doctor recommends without worrying about what the insurance company believes. While adjusters might prefer their judgment, they are not doctors, and your health is far more important than what they think. 

You Might Need Advanced Testing 

Oftentimes, people are “discharged” from emergency care and instructed to follow up with a doctor. However, only an MRI or CT scan provides a proper diagnosis of your condition. Typically, emergency care centers only run these tests when they suspect severe injury. 

If you have health insurance, be sure to submit any bills to your provider for payment. If your provider does not want to cover injuries caused by a car accident, contact the Texas Insurance Commissioner to file a complaint. Your Houston car accident attorney is available to advise you throughout this process. 

For those without health insurance, you may need to pay out-of-pocket, visit a hospital emergency room, or locate a medical provider willing to let you pay them from the proceeds of your settlement. If you have an issue locating a physician, contact our personal injury team immediately. 

Prompt Care Is Essential

As your Houston car accident lawyer, we want you to understand how important it is to seek out prompt medical attention. As we stated above, delays in medical treatment allow the adverse insurance company to claim the accident was not the cause of your injury. This is something they may attempt regardless of what the facts of your case are. 

Oftentimes, the defense teams for insurance companies have doctors who testify before insurance companies regularly. Typically, they retain them because these doctors state that medical treatment was unnecessary or excessive. This is what is known as a defense medical examination. 

The doctors who perform this service for insurance are infamous for their opinions that victims of car accidents are exaggerating about their injuries. For example, a highly used doctor in the Greater Houston Area once claimed that the victim required no further treatment after they left the emergency room. 

It is rare that a visit to an emergency room requires no follow-up, but the insurance companies are not on your side. Their job is to preserve their profit.  When you have questions about a personal injury claim or just want to understand your rights, contact our Houston car accident attorneys as soon as possible. 

Schedule a free case evaluation, and let us show you our personal injury firm will fight to protect your future.