How Quickly you Seek Medical Treatment – It’s widely thought that seeking medical examination after an accident should be your first priority. That is absolutely true. From a scientific perspective, it helps isolate the cause of your suffering. The longer you postpone treatment, the more grounds the other side will have to claim your injuries happened under different circumstances. Also, expediency will help your case– That each stage of treatment was urgent and necessary for recovery. Even if you’re someone who dislikes hospitals, you should come in for an evaluation. It makes no sense to suffer chronic injuries later in life just because you were too lazy to check-in.
The Amount of Times you Seek Medical Treatment – The number of visits does not impact the total claim amount so much as the nature of each visit. Your insurance might demand a small copay each time and if the check-in is mostly procedural, it won’t impact your compensation too much. Be wary of repeatedly seeking medical treatment with the intent of driving up your claim cost. Be especially wary of annoying your doctor or medical provider, or making them think your symptoms are imagined. This is called malingering and there is little that medical service providers hate more. Hospital policy forces providers to give treatment even when a patient is deemed malingering because of the off-chance the symptoms are real. But most doctors know the difference and their aggravation won’t help you in a courtroom.
The Gross Cost of your Medical Bills – The law understands you will need money to pay for medical expenses. This can include drugs, devices, as well as physical and mental therapy. If a long-term treatment course is necessary, make sure you have a sophisticated option for calculating expenses over time. This can be difficult with the unpredictable swings in health care costs, but be as conservative as possible. If rising health care costs mean you have to pay more to attend physical therapy in ten years, that should not be your responsibility.
Obtaining a Medical Report – Following treatment, you should get your doctor(s) to create a medical report. The report should include the type of injury, length of treatment, and what long-term impact the injury may have on your life. If you are unsatisfied with the report, consider asking for a second-opinion from a different doctor. Make sure you specify on your HIPAA release form that you do not wish this report to be released to anyone but yourself. Otherwise, the insurance company or other party might get a hold of it and use it as evidence during trial or adjustment.
Property Damage – Most commonly, property damage occurs during a car accident, where your claim should at least include the blue book value of the car. This is usually favorable as studies indicate most Americans are unable to sell their cars at blue book value in today’s economic climate. Other types of property damage might include broken electronic devices or damage to expensive clothing or jewelry. In cases where you purchased a defective product and installed it in your home, you will be also be able to recoup all damage to the property that resulted from installation.
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