“One of the most important things to do when filing an insurance claim,” says Steve Harrelson, a injury lawyer Little Rock, AR trusts,” is to make sure that you are able to collect all medical records and billing to provide a total and complete snapshot of how the collision has affected your life.”
This means that it’s important to write down the name of each and every single medical provider who provided treatment to you after the accident. It begins with the ambulance service and first responders and continues with every physician who may have examined you only once. Your lawyer will have you execute a HIPAA-authorized medical authorization or medical release in order to request a full set of all medical records. How important is having a complete medical summary to your case? Here are 3 reasons to show you how important it is:
3 reasons to compile an organized medical summary:
- Valuation of your case: Like it or not, the amount of medical bills you have acquired will have a direct impact on the value of your case. You should be expected to have an immediate answer to the question “how much are your medicals?” or “what is the total amount of your specials?” at the ready, because you will be asked near the very beginning of your claim by the insurance claims adjuster assigned to your case.
- Responses to discovery: As soon as your case is filed, you can expect the defense to immediately request information in regard to your medicals. If you have a concise, complete set of medical records that are organized and bates stamped, along with a medical summary and billing summary all loaded onto a CD, it shows the defense how organized your case is and how prepared they better be in order to defend the proof that will be
- Presentation to the jury as exhibits: You have only one shot to present your case to a jury. They will be forced to digest your entire case – the case you’ve been working on for months or years – in just a short period of time. It’s important to be able to provide the records to the jury in a way that helps them understand your injuries and how this car crash has affected your life.
Conducting a full investigation like this is the only way to maximize your compensation. As a lawyer might attest, compiling a full report to submit to the insurance adjuster (or potentially a jury) is the best way to be compensated for the injuries you sustained. This does not even take into consideration the portion of your claim regarding lost wages.
For these reasons, it is always best to contact a personal injury lawyer to help you through a situation like this to (1) help you through the process while you’re recovering and (2) to maximize your benefits to ensure all of your injuries are appropriately compensated.
Thanks to Steve Harrelson and our friends and co-contributors from Harrelson Law Firm, P.A. for their added insight into the compilation of medical records and bills after a car accident.