What you should know about how to deal with insurance companies when injured in a car accident
Based on dealing with insurance companies for our patients after car accidents, we’re writing this article so that you can be successful in filing your bodily injury claims and collecting for medical treatments.
The first rule when dealing with auto insurance companies: they make it difficult at times for you to collect for bodily injury.
First and foremost, it’s important to purchase Med Pay, which medical policy that allows you to receive medical treatment for bodily injuries immediately after an accident. This is very important because if you’re the one at fault, you might have to pay out-of-pocket for your medical expenses. If a chiropractor or doctor sees that you have Med Pay, they may bill your insurance for treatment without having to pay upfront. We do this in our office. Even if you’re not the one at fault, it can be very difficult to collect from insurance companies without a lawyer if you do not have Med Pay. A Med Pay policy should be in the amount of at least 5-$10,000. It is not that expensive – $10-20 more a month, but Med Pay allows you to seek immediate medical attention without worrying about whether you’ll be reimbursed.
After you’ve been injured, it’s very important to seek immediate medical attention. The longer you wait, the more that works against you in terms of collecting from insurance companies. In any accident, you usually sustain some sort of whiplash, spinal damage, contusions, head injury or other injuries and your body goes into shock. You have to document these injuries ASAP with your practitioner and fill out certain forms. Often times 2-4 days after an accident, you’ll start to feel better, but if you haven’t gone to get checked out by a chiropractor, whatever injuries you sustained can be compounded overtime and cause chronic issues later.
Even if your insurance company tells you to gather all your expenses together and present them at the end of treatment, if you have Med Pay, you should be submitting medical claims through your practitioner or yourself with super bills and chart notes as soon as possible and continue to do so through your entire course of treatment. At the very least if you don’t have Med Pay, make sure you keep good recordkeeping and have a copy of every treatment from each practitioner that has diagnosis codes and billing codes, the NPI and tax ID number of your practitioner, the correct address to send payments, and corroborating chart notes.
Then you should follow up with your claim agent, and if your practitioner is taking care of this for you, they should be following up every 2 to 4 weeks to make sure the insurance company is getting everything that they or you emailing, mailing or faxing to them. Often times, they don’t get everything you’re sending them. They make a lot of mistakes and delay payment to you or your practitioner.
Don’t assume, even because it’s your own insurance company, that they’ll treat you with fairness. We hate to say this, but we’ve experienced this many times; insurance company agents are working for the insurance company. They want to cut corners wherever they can and how much they pay you for your bodily injuries. So, you have to be very timely, precise and careful with everything you do when you’re dealing with them.
You can contest and resubmit claims if they don’t give you enough or pay the full amount due. You can also go after the third-party and their insurance company and if you’re having a very difficult time, even when you’re submitting things in a timely and precise manner, you may have to hire a lawyer.
We’re not trying to be discouraging, but presenting the reality of dealing with insurance companies. We want to encourage you to get a Med Pay policy attached to your auto policy, and not only get all the information from the person who hit you, but to seek immediate medical attention afterwards, even if it’s just a simple rear-end accident. When your hit from behind even at a slow speed, you incur a whiplash. The older you are the more challenging going through a car accident can be. We want to support you in being prepared and taking care of yourself.
To you good health and safety,
Polly St John Hughes, Office Manager
Dr. Laura Sheehan, DC