Breaks in treatment
I see a fair number of injury clients who complete their treatment and are discharged from care. It sometimes takes weeks and even months to get the file ready with all of their medical records and bills to send to the insurance company. At some point, the client decides they are not 100% recovered, and they return for more treatment with their doctor. The gaps in treatment can be from anywhere from 1 month to as long as 6 months or even a year. It’s also not unusual that the complaints of pain shift. What may have started out as right sided back or neck pain, now results in complaints of pain to the left shoulder or left lower back. The injury is a moving target.
The other issue related to the gaps in treatment is whether the treatment is even doing the patient any good. If the doctor has discharged you, that’s a tell tale sign that no matter how many times you go back for treatment after that or complain other parts of your body are hurting you, that the doctor may not be able to link them up and relate thus back to the original accident date.
When it finally comes time to settling the case, almost routinely, the insurance company will reject any additional treatment after the patient was initially discharged or any unrelated complaints of injury, not initially documented.
Clients may think that the more they treat, the longer they treat, the more complaints of pain they have, the more doctors they see, equates to them receiving a larger settlement in the end. The truth though is that such prolonged treatment, continuous complaints of pain which are unfounded and unsubstantiated by the physician and continued breaks of treatment with going back to the doctor are harmful to the best interest of the patient and their case.
If you have questions about your injury case or the treatment you should be receiving, contact the experienced personal injury lawyers at Karp & Iancu S.C. today, for a free consultation.
