Delayed medical treatment can affect the outcome of an injury claim

Waiting to see whether the pain settles before seeking medical treatment could lead to a lower injury claim payout or no payout at all. Insurance adjusters will look to exploit any delay between your accident and your injuries becoming apparent to say the two are not linked. Timely medical intervention is critical to show your injuries came from your accident and that you did all you could to make as full a recovery as possible.

The challenge is that after an accident, injuries do not always display symptoms right away. The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation reports that around a third of people who suffer neck injuries in car wrecks do not feel anything for up to two days. Adrenaline can mask the pain at the time, while other injuries become more complicated the longer they go on. 

Why Do Some Injury Symptoms Arrive Late?

Soft tissue injuries, concussions, and internal injuries can all lurk beneath the surface undetected for a while unless you seek timely medical treatment and advice. At the scene of the accident, you may feel relieved to have walked away unscathed and refuse an ambulance or a hospital trip to get the all-clear. However, you may wake up the next morning feeling stiff, and by day three, be unable to move your head.

The key takeaway is that the importance of medical care in the first 24 hours isn’t about the severity of your symptoms at that time. It’s about establishing a baseline and getting an expert opinion before your injuries can be attributed to anything else.

Insurers Love a Gap in Medical Treatment

From an insurance adjuster’s perspective, the time between your accident and medical treatment is an opportunity. A period of time when you could have injured yourself in another way and then tried to pin the blame on your car crash.

The longer the interval, the easier it is for them to try to suggest the following about the injury:

• It happened elsewhere
• It wasn’t that serious
• It was due to an underlying condition

The impact of delayed treatment can be measured in dollars. The same injury, documented on day one, may be worth substantially more than the same injury first medically reviewed on day 20.

Don’t Skip Treatment

The legal implications of delays in treatment once started should also not be downplayed. Missed appointments, abandoned physical therapy, and long stretches without records can read two ways in the injury claim process. Either you’ve recovered, or you’re avoiding treatment to claim your injuries are more serious than they really are.

Give yourself the best chance of success by seeking immediate legal advice from Parker Waichman attorneys. They can advise you on the importance of medical care to your claim and how to manage it successfully.

Get Medical Treatment on the Right Timeline

After any accident, get examined, keep going for medical treatment, and keep the paperwork. The record you build in the first month is the one an insurer will still be arguing about a year later, so make sure it tells the right story.

If you found this useful, browse the rest of our articles for more practical guidance on protecting your rights after an accident.