#9 What should my patients do to prepare for an Independent Medical Exam (IME)?
QUESTION: What should my patient do to prepare for an Independent Medical Exam (IME)?
ANSWER: To prepare for an IME, patients should take time to carefully recall and document their medical history, focusing on previous similar accidents, injuries, and treatment. Consulting with family members and close friends can be helpful to ensure they don’t forget incidents that could call their credibility into question. Advising your patient to consult with a personal injury attorney will be invaluable in helping them to prepare for an IME. The lawyer offers a no-fee, no-obligation initial consultation and will ask your patient a variety of questions to understand their accident and injuries and then provide advice on the dos and don’ts when attending the exam which will significantly benefit your patient’s claim.
What should my patient do to prepare for an IME?
You will find that most of your patients have never been to an Insurance Medical Exam ( IME) or have even heard the term. Their lack of knowledge about what an IME is or their assumptions about the purpose of an IME can potentially cause problems for their personal injury claim.
One of the biggest mistakes we see patients make when it comes to their IME is not preparing for it in advance and not thinking enough about their prior accidents and injuries.
When the IME doctor asks if they’ve had accidents and similar injuries in the past, and your patient answers no to that question when they actually should have answered yes — it’s usually because they haven’t taken the time to appropriately prepare for the exam and spent time thinking through their medical history.
What we see time and again is that the IME doctor will use your patient’s innocent mistake of forgetting something from their medical history to attack their credibility and say they were intentionally withholding information about their previous accidents and similar injuries.
Credibility is everything when attending an IME appointment, which is why preparing for it is critical to your patient taking good care of their claim.
The other problem we see often is when answering the IME doctor’s questions, your patient is likely to provide longer and more detailed responses — like they would if they were answering their own medical provider’s questions — much like how they would respond if you were asking them questions about their accident and injuries.
Responding to an IME doctor’s questions with detailed responses also creates a lot of problems for your patient’s personal injury claim.
The more your patient says to the IME doctor, the more information they have to use against your patient.
We’ve developed a series of articles and videos where we walk folks through what an IME is, and the critically important steps of how to prepare for their appointment and what to do and not do during the exam. We also recommend that they talk with an experienced personal injury attorney. We offer a no-fee, no-obligation initial consultation, and even if we’re not representing your patient, we’ll talk with them prior to their IME to help them be as prepared as possible for their appointment.
We’re here to be a bridge of support for you and your patients.
We have developed a robust library of information for your patients who have been injured in an accident, which can be found in the INJURED? START HERE portal on our website.
There are 40 topic-focused articles, with accompanying videos, organized into the four categories that include the personal injury claim-related questions we’re asked most often, which include:
- 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
Each article provides advice and guidelines to help your patients navigate each phase of the personal injury claims process. Whether we represent your patient or not, we are passionate about them knowing how to protect their rights, get the medical care they need, and avoid the mistakes that can harm their personal injury claim.
Each article provides advice and guidelines to help your patients navigate each phase of the personal injury claims process. Whether we represent your patient or not, we are passionate about them knowing how to protect their rights, get the medical care they need, and avoid the mistakes that can harm their personal injury claim.
Additionally, if it would be helpful to have the information we feature on our website available in your office to pass along to your patients, we’ve developed brochures for each of the four article series -- in both English and Spanish that we’re happy to send to your office. Please complete the form below and we’ll get them out to you promptly.
