5 Critical Accident Injury Care Questions Answered
Question #1: What type of Doctor should I see for accident injury care?
Answer: You need to see a doctor specializing in evaluating and treating spine and joint pain and injury and accepting third-party billing. Should you need advanced treatments for your spine or joints, only a physician specialist will be able to provide those procedures. For example, a medical doctor or MD with specific expertise in treating spine conditions non-surgically is ideal for car accident injury care.
It is confusing for patients who don’t know the difference between providers that advertise as “accident care & injury” clinics.
At Prime Injury Care, our clinic team is proud to have over 400 years of medical experience providing healthcare. Also, we have an outstanding group of spine and joint medical doctors focused on the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of your specific musculoskeletal injury.
Question #2: How long after an accident can I see a medical doctor?
Answer: As very experienced spine and joint injury clinicians, our recommendation is to see a specialist as early after the accident as possible – Don’t Delay Care! It is better to establish accident care sooner to provide you with every option for early treatment and hopefully avoid more severe long-term pain and side effects from your accident. Should you develop chronic pain from your accident, our clinical specialists and doctors will support your care even years after your injury case has settled.
Question #3: Why NOT use an “accident care only” clinic?
Answer: In our experience, clinics providing accident only care typically have a general “recipe” they use to treat patients, and unfortunately, it is usually geared towards maximizing the amount they charge. Along with this lack of customization to your specific accident injury, you will be discharged from the clinic with extremely limited options for ongoing treatment once the bills reach a certain amount. This is because many accident only clinics DO NOT meet the stringent requirements demanded by traditional medical insurances such as Medicare. In fact, we have noted that some doctors that were kicked out of Medicare or other insurance plans may seek to brand themselves as “Accident Care Clinics.”
At the end of the day, Prime Injury Care doctors and specialists focus on treating patients with all types of spine and joint pain and injuries. Whether you have been injured in an accident last week or ten years ago, our focus is to help you get back to the quality of life you deserve. We routinely get patients transitioned from third-party injury care to more traditional insurance or economical cash-based care options as needed for our patients. Our clinical specialty care affiliates include Interventional Spine & Joint Specialists such as Elite Pain & Health, Orthopedic Surgeons such as OKC Orthopedics, and Physical Therapy Specialists like Physical Therapy Central.
Question #4: What if I have received payment for my car repairs from the insurance adjuster and I have pain or injury? Is it too late to see a doctor?
Answer: Typically, the property damage is managed as a separate claim from a bodily injury claim. In addition, when injured or having pain following an accident, you should always seek specialty spine and joint care evaluation. Sometimes, your injury may not be obvious to either you or another doctor or healthcare provider that has seen you. It is not uncommon for victims of car collisions to assume they will “get better with time,” only to find out you have developed a chronically painful condition or spine injury.
Prime Injury Care specialists will follow and direct your care and monitor your injuries throughout your recovery, whether it takes days, weeks, months, or years. We help patients that need as little as an initial one-time accident evaluation or as complex as a multi-level spine treatment, fracture repair, or life-long chronic pain injury management.
Question #5: What if my symptoms are slowly developing and non-specific, like headaches or body soreness?
Answer: This is actually a much more common scenario following an accident than what most car accident victims realize. We see patients routinely that have developed new symptoms in the days and weeks following the accident. It is impossible to understand the full extent of an injury accident on the day of the accident. It is also extremely challenging to fully understand the injuries or predict an accident injury’s outcome in the days following the automobile collision. For this reason, among others, you should establish care with a true spine and joint specialist capable of not only diagnosis but the active treatment of spine and joint injury.
Our physician spine and joint care specialists and therapists have a vast amount of experience monitoring and actively treating patients with both common and atypical spine and joint pain conditions. At Prime Injury Care, your outcome and return to pre-injury health are the entire goal and focus of your care.