How Will the Coronavirus Affect my Auto Injury Claim?

Governor Polis recently stopped all chiropractors from practicing in the state of Colorado. This will unfortunately negatively affect many auto injury patients from receiving the valuable conservative care that they need. Hopefully the Governor’s order will help slow the transmission of Covid-19 and therefore reduce the strain on the hospital systems. Please refer to the CDC website on how to protect yourself and reduce the transmission of the Coronavirus. Albeit, if you are one of the many patients that was actively getting care for your auto injuries, I suggest you do the following in order to protect your medico-legal rights.

It is important to keep in contact with your lawyer. Please call your attorney’s office and ask what you should do in this situation of not being able to get care. They can at least document that you are trying to get care, but due the pandemic there will be a gap or delay in continued care. The firm may also point you to a primary care physician that can help via pharmaceutical therapy, trigger point injections, or any other therapies they may provide.

I recommend that you keep a journal of your home remedies. Most likely your chiropractor or physical therapist recommended stretching, strengthening, heat/ice, NSAID’s, or similar activities. Please make a well-organized journal and record:

Keep track of:

  • Date of your home remedy.
  • What type of home remedy.
  • Length of time of your home remedy.
  • Record how many reps and sets of stretching or strengthening exercises and the time it took you to do the exercises.

It is also important to keep track of how your body is responding to the lack professional treatment and your bodies response to home therapy.

  • List individually each body region that you have pain, stiffness, or a problem with.
  • Assign each region a pain value from 1-10, with 10 being the most pain and 1 being the least pain.
  • Also give each region a % normal value. This value helps us understand how your injuries are impacting your function. A 100% normal value means that you are 100% normal and that there is nothing wrong with you. Your sleep is not affected, you have no stiffness, you are not impaired in any capacity. A 0% normal value is catastrophic. Please give an average of your % normal for each body region that your auto injury has affected.
  • One of the most important topics to record is how your injuries are impacting your lifestyle. Are you only able to walk 10 minutes when you would have liked to walk for 45 min. to 1 hour. Would you have biked 20 minutes verses riding for 1 or more hours. Would you have done a hike, but can’t hike. Please document how your injuries are impacting your day to day life.

For patients of Denver Chiropractic, LLC our physician assistant is still seeing patients. Please check in with Medical Assist for them to help document your situation, provide referral, get imaging, and so fourth.

Unfortunately, most large insurance carriers utilize sophisticated software to determine your case value. Gaps in care will devalue your claim so it is very important that you show you are actively trying to get better on your own.

Please feel free to ask questions about your particular situation.

 

Author: Dr. Trent Artichoker

Denver Chiropractic, LLC
3890 Federal Blvd Unit 1
Denver, CO 80211

303-455-2225