#3 MISTAKE: Not following your medical provider’s advice after a car accident

QUESTION: What is the most important thing to do when getting treatment from a medical provider following a car accident?

ANSWER: To have a speedy and full recovery from your injuries from your car accident and to take the best possible care of your personal injury claim, follow your medical provider’s advice, including attending all medical appointments and doing the exercises you’re given. Not keeping your appointments or following the recovery plan your health care professionals have given you can be viewed by the insurance company that your injuries don’t require treatment, which can be used to justify stopping paying your medical bills. When it comes to settling your claim or offering you a lower settlement, take care of your health and your claim by following your provider’s treatment plan.

The third biggest mistake you can make following a car accident is not following your medical provider’s advice after the accident.

We all know what’s most important when you’ve been injured in an auto accident is having a full recovery as quickly as possible. The way to ensure that happens is to do what your medical provider asks you to do.

Most importantly, make sure to keep all of your appointments with the medical providers you’re receiving treatment from. There are always going to be exceptions, that’s understandable. However, we often see clients missing appointments consistently. Not only does that delay their recovery, but when it comes time to settle their claim, we hear the insurance adjuster say, “Well if they were really injured, they would’ve consistently seen their medical provider”.

Another common mistake we see is people not doing the exercises and stretches, or doing activities that their medical provider has advised them not to do.

For a variety of reasons, it can be challenging to follow your medical provider’s advice. It is important to know however that our clients who do follow the treatment protocol and schedule their medical provider has given them are the ones who make the quickest recovery. Additionally, when clients do make it a priority to do their exercises and stretches they say, “Oh my goodness, I wish I would have been doing this sooner because it’s been helping me so much.”

If your medical provider advises you not to weight lift or to not do specific activities at work, it’s important to follow the treatment plan they give you. The information about how your recovery progresses and whether or not you’re following your medical provider’s care instructions is going to be in your treatment chart notes.

When it’s time to settle your claim, the insurance company is going to have a copy of your chart notes. If they see that you didn’t follow your medical provider’s advice, they are going to offer you less money to settle your claim. The insurance adjuster will say,

“Well, since you didn’t do what your healthcare professionals told you to do so you could recover from injuries from your car accident, it must not really have been a problem.”

We know that’s not true but it looks that way to the insurance company.

When we’re evaluating our client’s claims, we’re not concerned about what the insurance company thinks. We care what a jury thinks. If you’re not following your medical provider’s instructions, a jury is going to think you must not really have been injured, or injured enough to follow through with getting medical care to help you recover from the car accident.

You will have the best chance at fully recovering from your injuries and protecting your personal injury claim if you follow your medical provider’s advice and guidance.

Whether you’re our client or not, we want to be a bridge of support for you.

We’ve developed a robust library of articles and videos organized into four topics which include our responses to the personal injury claim-related questions we’re asked most often.

• Top 10 Personal Injury Claim Mistakes to Avoid
• What You Need to Know About Your Claim
• How Are My Medical Bills & Wage Loss Paid
• How to Prepare for Your Independent Medical Exam

The articles provide advice and guidelines to help you navigate each phase of the personal injury claims process. Whether we represent you or not, we are passionate about helping you protect your rights, you receiving the medical care you need to recover from your injuries, and having the information you need to avoid mistakes that can harm your personal injury claim.