Personal Injury Treatment in Hiram
What is a personal injury? In legal terms, this usually means that a person has been injured due to the actions or neglect of another party. Many people immediately think of car accidents when they hear the term, and that’s one kind of personal injury, but there are others. For example, if you slip and fall in a store and hurt your back, that could be considered a personal injury. You might also be injured in an accident involving a boat, golf cart, ATV, or another type of low-speed vehicle. In different situations, personal injuries occur at another person’s home – for instance, if you go to your neighbor’s home for a party and trip over a rake lying in the yard, that could be a personal injury.
These are only some of the more common examples. If you’ve been hurt in any way that another party may have caused, one thing is certain: You need to get treatment for your injuries immediately, or you could get stuck paying the medical bills yourself. Also, delaying medical treatment could mean being in pain longer, making it more difficult to treat your injuries.
How Do You Get Insurance Coverage for Personal Injury Treatment in Hiram?
Depending on your injuries and the type of treatment you need, your medical insurance may cover some or all of your medical bills. However, many policies have copays, which can add up over time. Additionally, certain treatments are not covered by some insurers. You may also become injured during a lapse in coverage (which sometimes happen without the injured party’s knowledge), leaving you to cover all the costs yourself.
For any of these reasons, you might wonder if there are other options for covering your medical costs. While health insurance is designed to cover healthcare expenses, it isn’t the only option. Liability auto insurance will also cover the medical bills of people injured in an accident if the accident was the insured party’s fault. (Establishing fault can be complicated, and your best chance of doing so is engaging an experienced personal injury attorney.) As a result, if you were in a car accident, and your lawyer could demonstrate that the other party was at fault, their car insurance should cover your medical bills up to the policy limit. In Georgia, $25,000 per person is the minimum auto liability coverage available.
If your medical costs exceed the other driver’s insurance policy limits or there isn’t enough evidence to prove they were at fault, there are sometimes other options. When you have a specific type of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage on your car insurance, this may cover your expenses after the other party’s policy is exhausted. MedPay coverage will pay for your medical expenses in accidents regardless of who is at fault. Neither of these coverage types is required under Georgia law, so you may need to check your policy to find out if you have them.
What about other kinds of accidents? Slip and fall or trip and fall accidents are common, often happening in businesses open to the public, such as stores or parks. However, these injuries can also happen on private property, such as in a friend’s home. We meet many people who have suffered back or other musculoskeletal injuries due to a simple fall.
If you have suffered any injury on someone else’s property, there’s a good chance they have a relevant insurance policy to take care of your expenses. Businesses typically carry significant liability insurance, and homeowner’s insurance policies usually cover injuries on the covered property.
Why is it Important to Seek Personal Injury Treatment Right Away?
At Optimum Health Rehab, we sometimes have patients who tell us they started having pain a few days or weeks after an accident but thought it would go away on its own. After a few more weeks, they finally made an appointment to see a chiropractor. As pain management specialists, we know this situation isn’t unusual because not all injuries immediately cause pain. We’re also aware that mild pain is easy to dismiss, but sometimes it gets worse instead of better, leading the patient to seek care later.
Why Should You Never Ignore Pain After an Accident?
There is more than one reason you might have pain following a car crash or other injury. Frequently, we trace the problem to a misaligned vertebra or spinal subluxation. A misaligned vertebra isn’t like a broken bone – you may not feel pain instantly after the vertebra moves out of alignment with the spine. But over time, this misalignment pulls on other bones and soft tissues, resulting in discomfort.
Another possible scenario involves muscle pain and injuries. Sometimes people tell us they didn’t get treatment after an accident because they felt fine, but the following day they woke up with a stiff, painful neck, back, or another joint. This is common with muscle strain or soft tissue injuries, including whiplash, which is very prevalent in car accidents. When a collision stops the car’s momentum, a person riding in the car continues to move forward at the same speed. Usually, a seatbelt will arrest this movement for most of the body, but the head is free to jerk forward before it eventually snaps back. This stress can cause tiny tears in the muscle, which may not be particularly painful at the time. But after the injured party goes to bed, their body starts trying to repair the damage, and inflammation may set into the damaged muscles.
However, people who wake up with a sore neck may not think much of it. They might figure it will resolve itself, or they may treat it with over-the-counter pain relievers. In some cases, the pain does clear up in a few days or weeks with no further treatment. But for other people, it persists, and they seek treatment several weeks later.
In both of these situations, we regret that the patient was in pain for so long before coming to see us, but we can usually still treat the cause of their pain with a spinal adjustment or other therapies. However, it may take longer to achieve a full recovery if you put off treatment.
We understand why some people wait to seek care for their pain, but unfortunately, the insurance adjuster reviewing your claim may not know that some injuries take time to cause symptoms. They will also be looking for an excuse not to pay your claim. To the adjuster, it may appear that you saw a chiropractor for back or neck pain a month after your accident, and the two things were probably unrelated. That gives them an excuse to reject your claim.
Does That Mean You’re Out of Luck for Getting Your Claim Paid?
Not necessarily. It certainly makes your case more complicated, and we urge you to get care as soon as possible to avoid this situation, but sometimes claim denials can be successfully appealed. However, trying to work things out with the claims adjuster yourself is not a good idea. It’s very easy to say the wrong thing and make the situation worse accidentally. Remember that the claims adjuster is aware of your policy’s ins and outs and may twist your words to fit a scenario in which they don’t have to pay.
For this reason, we urge you to contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Speaking to one before you file your claim is better, but in many cases, they can help even if your claim was already denied. If you don’t know how to find a lawyer, our office staff can put you in touch with one.
Having well-documented records of your injuries is also very helpful in successfully filing a claim or appealing a denial. We always detail how the patient’s injuries were caused by their accident, how long they’ve had symptoms, and how their experience is consistent with injuries from this type of accident. This makes it more difficult for the insurance company to argue that your injuries were not from your accident.
Make Sure You Don’t Have More Severe Injuries
Insurance concerns aside, there is another crucial reason you should see a healthcare professional immediately after your accident. While pain is frequently caused by misaligned vertebrae, muscle injuries, or even compressed nerves, there are also potentially severe or even fatal causes. In a few instances, neck or back pain may be caused by a spinal fracture. If untreated, some fractures can lead to permanent paralysis or even death. By seeking care right away, you will get X-rays and other imaging to ensure no severe issues require immediate treatment. If there are potentially severe injuries, they can be treated before they worsen.
Where Can You Get Personal Injury Treatment in Hiram?
If you have pain or other symptoms after any personal injury, please contact Optimum Health Rehab immediately for an evaluation and treatment plan. The sooner you call us at (770) 439-6997, the sooner we can help you feel better.