If you’ve been injured in an accident, one of the most significant aspects of your personal injury claim will be your medical special damages—the amount you have spent or you will spend on medical bills related to diagnosing and treating your injuries. These costs, along with other economic and non-economic damages, are critical in determining your total compensation. However, how you seek treatment and document your medical expenses can greatly impact the final value of your settlement.
To ensure you receive the compensation you deserve, it’s essential to approach your medical treatment carefully and follow the right steps post-accident. Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of your medical special damages and present a strong claim to the insurance company.
What Are Medical Special Damages?
Medical special damages refer to the total amount an accident victim spends on medical bills to diagnose and treat accident-related injuries. These damages include hospital stays, doctor visits, diagnostic tests (e.g., X-rays, MRIs), surgeries, prescription medications, physical therapy, and more. This figure forms a key part of the settlement equation insurance adjusters use to calculate the overall value of your injury claim.
Since medical special damages directly reflect the severity of your injuries and the extent of treatment required, they are often a major factor in determining the total compensation you’ll receive. Insurance companies typically multiply the amount of your medical bills by a factor known as a “multiplier”, which considers your injuries’ severity, pain and suffering, and other impacts on your life.
Tips to Ensure Your Medical Special Damages Compensation After an Accident
While you may not have control over every aspect of your medical care, there are specific actions you can take to ensure that your treatment is well-documented and that your medical bills accurately reflect your needs. Here’s how to ensure the value of your medical special damages:
1. Seek Immediate Medical Attention
One of the most important steps after any accident is to seek prompt medical care if needed. Delaying treatment can allow the insurance company to argue that your injuries either aren’t as serious as you claim or caused by something different altogether, which could reduce the value of your settlement. Getting checked by a healthcare professional right away not only protects your health but also creates a clear record that links your injuries to the accident.
2. Follow Through with All Recommended Treatments
Gaps in your medical treatment can weaken your claim. If your doctor recommends follow-up visits, physical therapy, or consultations with specialists, it’s essential to attend all of these appointments. Failing to follow your doctor’s orders can signal to the insurance company that your injuries may not be as severe as indicated, leading them to offer a lower settlement. Consistent treatment helps demonstrate that your injuries required ongoing care, supporting your claim for higher compensation.
3. Choose Your Medical Providers Carefully
When building a personal injury case, receiving treatment from reputable, licensed healthcare professionals is crucial. Insurance companies tend to give more weight to treatment provided by hospitals, physicians, and established clinics over care from alternative providers like non-MD practitioners. While seeking treatment from nontraditional providers is your choice, know that the insurance company may apply a lower multiplier to those medical bills when calculating your settlement. In order to combat this unfair position, it may be wise to have an MD approve of your use of nontraditional providers.
Additionally, not all medical providers are equal when it comes to documentation. Providers that regularly treat personal injury victims tend to be better at making a direct causation analysis than those that occasionally see accident victims. If your medical provider is unwilling to relate your symptoms and injuries to the personal injury, it could cause you a headache with the insurance company.
4. Document All Medical Expenses and Treatments
The more thorough your documentation, the stronger your claim will be. While your attorneys will order all the pertinent medical records and bills for your case, they can only do so for medical providers that you identify to them. Maintaining a journal that records your treatment timeline, your pain levels, and how your injuries have impacted your daily life is also helpful. This can provide a comprehensive picture of your recovery journey.
5. Be Consistent in Describing Your Injuries
Consistency is key when dealing with insurance adjusters. Any discrepancies between your account of your injuries and what’s noted in your medical records can be used to challenge your credibility. Make sure that the symptoms and pain you describe to your doctor align with what you report to the insurance company. If you are telling your medical providers that you are unable to walk consistently for a mile, your Facebook should not show pictures of your 10-mile backpacking trip. A consistent narrative backed up by medical records can help you avoid unnecessary disputes and maximize your compensation.
6. Avoid Overreliance on Diagnostic Testing Alone
While diagnostic tests may be helpful for identifying the extent of your injuries, extensive testing without adequate treatment can work against you. Insurance adjusters may view a high bill for diagnostic procedures without corresponding treatment as a sign that your injuries did not require significant medical intervention. Make sure that your treatment plan includes both diagnostic and therapeutic care, such as physical therapy or rehabilitative treatments, to show that you needed ongoing medical support.
7. Identify and Adequately Present Future Needs
Presenting a personal injury case is an art that balances identified injuries, past medical treatment, available insurance coverage, and future care needs. Lots of medical bills with insufficient insurance coverage may lead to lower direct payments to the injured victims, with all the money going directly to pay back medical providers and health insurance companies. In the alternative, those facing extremely expensive future needs with high insurance coverage may find it impossible to pay for all the medical treatment needed before the settlement of their case, causing them to settle for far too little. It may be in personal injury victims’ best interest to hire expensive experts to present future needs.
8. Don’t Settle Too Soon
Insurance companies may pressure you to settle your claim quickly, often before you’ve completed your medical treatment. Accepting an early settlement could leave you under-compensated, especially if future treatments or complications arise. It’s preferable to wait until you’ve reached “maximum medical improvement” (MMI) or presented a full outline of your future needs before negotiating a final settlement. This ensures that all your current and future medical needs are taken into account.
How Legal Help in Colorado Can Assist You
Navigating the complexities of a personal injury claim can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to maximizing your medical special damages. The Legal Help in Colorado team understands how critical these damages are to your overall compensation, and we are committed to helping you build a strong case that fully reflects the impact of your injuries.
- Evidence Gathering: We’ll help you obtain comprehensive medical records and evidence to support your claim.
- Expert Identification and Payment: We can identify the right experts that are required in your case and pay the expensive up front costs to have the expert review your case and present the causation opinion and future needs assessment appropriate for your particular case.
- Thorough Documentation Review: Our team will meticulously review your medical bills to ensure every expense is accounted for and properly valued.
- Negotiating with Insurance Companies: Using our expertise in Colorado injury law, we will negotiate firmly on your behalf to secure the highest possible settlement.
If you’ve been injured in an accident, don’t leave your compensation to chance. Request a free consultation today to discuss your case and learn how we can help you maximize your medical special damages.
