Choosing a Doctor After Injury
Published on May 12th, 2017 by The Illinois Hammer Injury Law Firm
After a personal or work injury one of the necessary steps is seeing a doctor to assess your injuries. To help support your case, the doctor’s findings will be used if your claim goes to court. It’s important to be honest with your doctor about your injuries and accurately report your pain and symptoms. If you are hurting be honest, your case could depend on it.
It can be hard to figure out exactly how many doctors and which doctors you can see for your case. In some situations you can see two doctors, one for an initial assessment and one for a second opinion, but this doesn’t apply if your employer has a list of Preferred Providers. A Preferred Provider is a list of doctors that your employer has authorized and your employer will insist you visit them to assess your injuries. While this is not true for all employers, doctors on the Preferred Provider list may be biased in favor of your employer and may minimize the seriousness of your injury. This could be detrimental to your case if the doctor’s findings underplay your injuries. Even with a second opinion in your favor, the two contradicting reports could complicate your case.
If you choose to forgo seeing a doctor on the Preferred Provider list you will only be able to see one doctor, but that doctor can refer you to any specialists you may need to assist your physical recovery. It is recommended that you consult with your attorney about seeing only one doctor outside of the Preferred Provider list before taking a risk that the employer’s preferred doctor may be biased.
Work with your attorney to go over what your options are, and your attorney will help you make the best possible choices for your health and your case.
