Traffic Accidents can be very scary. Whether it is your first or you have been down this road before, there are some things you should know as you make medical decisions going forward. This article will help you understand your options as well as what actions are important for you to take promptly.
Should I Seek Immediate Medical Attention After a Car Wreck?
If you suspect you are injured as a result of an accident someone else caused, you should seek medical care immediately because some injuries do not manifest immediately and insurance companies use delays and gaps in care against you.
Reasons for Unseen Injury or Delaying Feeling of Pain
The human body is an amazing work of art. It can protect and heal itself in many respects. As a result of this, we often tend to blow off injuries and assume our body will just heal itself with time and rest. Many times when a person suffers an injury in a car accident, however, the body has a difficult time healing by itself.
Injuries from auto collisions are extremely common. The forces involved in two 4000-5000 lb. vehicle collisions is immense, even at seemingly slow speeds. While manufacturers are doing more and more to design vehicles to take these impacts with less damage, the human body remains the same. It is not designed for the pulling, twisting, and tearing of muscles and ligaments that a whiplash injury can produce.
Do Whiplash Symptoms Appear Immediately After a Wreck?
Sometimes the effects of a whiplash injury are not fully realized immediately. There are several reasons for this. First off, the muscle and ligament stretching and tearing above cause the human body to go into a healing mode. Your body begins to produce fluids in the damaged area. Swelling occurs and the site of injury. As your body stiffens up from these effects, you often begin to feel more and more discomfort. This may take hours or even days. Second, you may be in shock after an accident and/or have substantial adrenaline that makes you less in tune with your body’s immediate condition.
What is Stress-Induced Analgesia Masking the Pain?
There is a condition known as ‘stress-induced analgesia’ that sometimes occurs following the scare of an accident and enables an injured person to temporarily block out the pain mentally. When a person is in a very stressful situation, the body releases noradrenaline into the bloodstream. Noradrenaline a/k/a norepinephrine is a hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and sympathetic nervous system that blocks the transmission of pain to the brain. When a person is ‘stressed out’ by an accident, they may block out the pain until a later point at which things calm down, the noradrenaline levels return to normal as suddenly the pain is perceived by the brain again.
If you suspect injury at all or suspect that your body is causing pain, you should seek immediate medical attention. Emergency rooms for hospitals as well as independent centers are a good place to start.
Adjusters Use Lack of Care to Deny or Low-Ball Claims
Another reason to seek necessary medical care promptly is that it will benefit you when filing an auto accident claim. Thanks to tort reform in this country, juries are very distrusting of people claiming injuries in auto collisions—particularly injuries that they cannot see objectively. Insurance adjusters know this. The more they can misguide you into not seeking care promptly and reasonably, the lower the value of your claim in the eyes of jurors and adjusters. Additionally, many adjusters use computer software to analyze your claim. This software is just an algorithm that adds or decreases the settlement offer they will make based upon certain activities you took that they input into the system. Here are some of the medical care mistakes they commonly deduct from your offer for:
- Not calling an ambulance
- Not going to a hospital from the scene
- Delays in seeking the initial medical care
- Delays in following up after the initial medical care
- Not following your doctor’s orders
- Missing scheduled appointments
- Gaps in your medical care
- Not filling prescriptions
- Seeking “alternative,” “holistic,” or “experimental” types of medical care
If you do not want to get treated unfairly, your best bet is to seek reasonable and appropriate medical care promptly for your injuries and follow the doctor’s orders. You should also consider consulting with a personal injury attorney if you have not already done so.
Does Health Insurance Cover Auto Accident Injuries in Texas?
Sometimes your health insurance will cover your medical bills for injuries after an auto accident in Texas but sometimes they deny the claim. If you have health insurance that will cover your medical care, you should give this information to your medical providers. Failure to time provide the information can result in delays and denials of coverage.
Many people ask: “But why should my insurance have to pay when I did not cause the accident?”
When you are involved in an accident, health insurance policies may pay the bills upfront and seek reimbursement from a third-party insurance carrier and/or out of any settlement later. This is called insurance subrogation. If your health insurance company refuses to pay, you should consider contacting the Texas Board of Insurance and reporting them.
Caveat: Some medical providers (like many primary care physicians) refuse to see you under health insurance for certain types of accidents. That is because they know that some health insurers will give them the runaround about paying when there is a third-party insurer involved. Again, consider a complaint to the State Board of Insurance if this is happening to you.
Does Medicare or Medicaid Cover Auto Accident Injuries in Texas?
Medicare specifically states in the statute and on its website that Medicare and Medicaid are secondary to any other insurance–including auto insurance and health insurance. Neither you nor your medical providers are supposed to file a claim through Medicare if there is another insurance company to recover from. However, sometimes Medicare does pay for care related to an accident by oversight. If this occurs, there will be a Medicare lien that you must resolve. Medicare will seek reimbursement out of any settlement or judgment you obtain. You have a legal obligation to reimburse them out of any money recovered.
Medicaid generally will pay for medical care upfront and then seek reimbursement through subrogation. You have a legal obligation to reimburse them out of any money recovered. If you suffer injuries that are likely to cause you to endure medical care in the future, medicare will require you to do a Medicare set aside to protect its future interests in not paying for something that someone else owes.
Will Car Insurance Cover My Medical Expenses As I Go?
The other party’s insurance company will generally not pay for your medical care as you get treatment. They will also not give you advice on seeking care generally. More specifically, you should not ask for their advice in obtaining care because they owe a duty to their insured to hold down your cost, not to help you get better. Delays and gaps in your care will work to their benefit.
Your own insurance can help you seek medical care if you have personal injury protection or Medpay coverage. Both of these can help cover initial bills, copays, and deductibles for medical care. Be aware you need to check your limits of coverage. Most of these policies we see are very low ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 except for some USAA personal injury protection policies that go up to 50,000 or 100,000. These policies can also cover therapy and chiropractic costs.
How Do I Get Medical Care After an Auto Collision If I Have No Health Insurance?
If you do not have any health insurance, PIP/Medpay, Medicare, or Medicaid, there are still ways to obtain the medical care you need to recover from your injury. An attorney can issue a letter of protection (LOP) to medical providers who accept LOPs. A letter of protection is simply a letter promising that the bills will be paid out of any settlement or judgment obtained. If no recovery is made, however, the person receiving the treatment is still responsible for the bills. Letters of protection do not relieve you of the debt just because you do not make a recovery in the case.