Can a Doctor Refuse to See You for Car Accident Injuries?
No one ever expects to be involved in a car wreck, let alone injured in one. After an accident, your first instinct is probably to go see your primary care physician (PCP) if your injuries aren’t serious enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room. What many people don’t know is that some doctors—even family doctors you’ve known for years—will refuse to see you for car accident injuries, period. In cases such as these, you’ll need to seek out a car accident injury doctor.
Is it Legal for a Doctor to Refuse to See Me for Car Accident Injuries?
Unfortunately, it is in many cases totally legal for a doctor to refuse to treat a patient for car accident injuries. How can this be?
The truth is a little more complicated. By law, healthcare providers are allowed to deny services as long as the denial is not a result of discrimination based on age, sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, or national origin and as long as it is not a true medical emergency. This means that outside of an emergency room, doctors are not obligated to treat you.
Why Won’t My Doctor See Me After a Car Accident?
There are many reasons why a doctor may refuse to treat a patient who has been injured in a car accident. The most common reasons doctors won’t treat car accident injuries often have to do with billing, feelings of dislike towards the legal system, and not wanting to deal with insurance companies or extra paperwork.
Your Doctor Doesn’t Think They’ll Get Paid
Some doctors automatically turn away car accident victims because they believe they won’t be paid for their services. If you have personal injury protection (PIP) insurance through your car insurance policy, it will often cover medical expenses related to your accident.
Unfortunately, some primary care doctors and their staff aren’t familiar with PIP billing procedures. PIP billing requires additional paperwork that many medical practices don’t have the skill or capacity to handle.
In addition, even after your medical provider has submitted your medical bills to your insurance, the insurance case manager of your accident claim may deny that the treatment was medically necessary. They may also try to reduce the amount billed, leading to more headaches for the healthcare provider.
Your Doctor Doesn’t Want to Deal with Lawyers
Some doctors don’t like to deal with the legal system. By treating you for injuries sustained in a car accident, your doctor may be concerned that they will be called upon to testify in a personal injury case.
At the very least, this could require large amounts of paperwork and statements regarding your injuries, your prognosis, the mechanism of injury, etc. to be presented in a deposition with car insurance companies. A doctor who does not want to get involved in this kind of legal process will likely turn you away for treatment.
A car accident injury doctor who routinely evaluates and treats these kinds of injuries will have a better idea of what to expect from a legal perspective. These are the types of doctors you should seek out if you’ve been injured to give you the best chance of receiving medical care and settling your claim favorably.
Where Do I Find a Car Accident Injury Doctor?
Although some providers prefer not to treat accident victims, rest assured that there are many medical providers who do provide medical care for injuries related to car wrecks.
The skilled intake personnel and case coordinators at Patterson Legal Group have access to directories of medical providers who treat patients suffering from injuries sustained in car accidents. There are even some low-cost and fee-adjusted providers available to match any budget.
Contact Patterson Legal Group
If you’ve been injured in an accident and turned away by your regular doctor for medical care, contact Patterson Legal Group. Our team works with many of the highest-rated medical professionals in Kansas and Missouri. We can help you find a doctor or specialist that will evaluate and treat your injuries with professionalism and compassion.
If your injuries resulted from a car accident caused by another driver’s negligence, an accident attorney may be able to help you obtain compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. At Patterson Legal Group, no win means no fee.
Ready for our team to help? You can reach us by phone at 888-687-2400 to schedule your free consultation. We have offices conveniently located in Wichita, Topeka, and St. Joseph. You can also speak with a representative online using our LiveChat service.
Need a copy of your accident report in Missouri or Kansas? We can get that for you. Request your free accident report now.
The information on this blog is for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as legal advice for an individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship nor does viewing this material constitute an attorney-client relationship.
