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If you’ve been injured, one of the hardest things to do is to get medical treatment. It can be hard to muster the energy to go to the doctor when you know physical therapy will likely be painful, inconvenient, and costly. However, the cost and inconvenience of medical treatment is far better than the long-term consequences that come with delaying treatment. As you go through the crucial healing process, keep these key concepts in mind for your own health and for managing your insurance costs.
Follow Your Doctor’s Advice for Medical Treatment
If your first stop after an injury event is to your medical doctor, he or she will give you a full evaluation and then recommend certain types of treatment based on your injuries. You should follow the advice of your doctor. If you are not comfortable with the type of treatment recommended, then you should ask for alternative options. For instance, if you don’t like taking pain medications then you should inquire about other ways to manage the pain. You’ll want to clarify what you’re comfortable with early on and define a treatment regimen that you can stick to. The flipside is that if you don’t follow your doctor’s advice, the insurance company may deny paying for your medical treatment down the road.
Making yourself open to other types of treatment, such a chiropractic care, you can potentially speed up the healing process. If you do not recover in a few weeks without treatment it will be helpful to explore a range of treatment options to get better.
Be an Advocate for Yourself
Medical providers are extremely busy and see numerous patients each day. It’s important that you advocate for your care. If you’re not getting healthy after months of treatment, then you should ask your doctor for a different course of treatment or ask for additional testing to determine if there are more extensive injuries.
Be Active in Your Medical Treatment
Getting healthy after an injury is about you. Everything that is done with the doctors is to get you better, but it also takes you to be active in your recovery. If the medical providers recommend that you do home exercises, icing, walking, stretching, etc., then it’s important to try and engage in these activities. This will help show the doctors that you are working to get healthy and help defeat arguments from the insurance company that it’s your fault for getting extensive treatment.
Be consistent. Taking several weeks or months off of treatment will make the insurance companies think your injuries are not severe or not related to the accident. Additionally, it will prevent the medical providers from improving your condition if you allow it regress.
Be Prepared for Your Appointments
When you prepare to go to doctor, physical therapy, massage, chiropractic and other treatment providers you should be ready to discuss your progress. It helps to track how you’ve been progressing. If certain activities aggravate your injuries and you note them at the time it will help your providers tailor your treatment appropriately. Note pain levels and other ways your life has been impacted by the injuries. In addition to helping your medical providers those notes tell the insurance company (and the court) how much your life was impacted by the injury.
Keep Your Attorney Up to Date
Letting your attorney know about your medical treatment helps ensure that bills are paid and that you’re able to continue with your course of treatment. The last thing you want to have happen in the middle of an injury claim is getting treatment cut off for nonpayment.
While you’re focused on recuperating, let us help you keep your case moving forward. Elsner Law Firm is a personal injury attorney in Snohomish County. We’ll assess your incident, the next steps, and give you the best chance at getting your case to court. Give us a call today.
