Don’t Decide to Seek Treatment With Your Own Health Coverage

Don’t Decide to Seek Treatment With Your Own Health Coverage

Don’t decide to only seek treatment with your own primary care physician with your own health coverage. I understand you’re familiar and happy with the doctors who have been treating you for some ten to twenty years so you’re more comfortable going that route. The problem with that is the insurance company doesn’t care who your primary care physician is. Insurance companies want you to go to a doctor that is an authorized treating physician. As a matter of fact, the law says that you specifically need to go to an authorized treating physician.

​Who is an authorized treating physician? Let’s back it up to the panel of physicians that we discussed earlier. The panel of physicians is any doctor you pick off of that list. The list should be a minimum of six doctors who are authorized as treating physicians for your workers’ compensation injury.

If you choose to bypass those doctors and go directly to your doctor, you’re putting yourself at risk and you’re putting your claim at risk because now we don’t have someone who is authorized as your treating physician diagnosing what your injury is or stating what your treatment plan is. When a doctor is not authorized, guess who’s footing the bill? You are. That means you could go and get this treatment that cost tens of thousands of dollars and there is nothing your attorney can do to get that money back for you; you simply didn’t go to the doctor that you needed to go to.

​I completely understand when you are injured that you want to go to somebody you trust. That’s why it’s important to trust your attorney – because your attorney sees this on a daily basis and knows how you feel.

Your attorney will know the physicians who will provide an unbiased treatment plan and if they can not treat you for your injuries, then they’ll refer you to people who can.

There may be ways in which your attorney can get your authorized treating physician as your primary care physician. But it won’t happen until you give us an opportunity to look at your case. If we do that, we can get your primary care physician to be your authorized treating physician and then everybody’s going to be happy. You’ll be with who you need to be with and who you’re comfortable with. If they provide appropriate care then the insurance company will pay for it.

​Give us the opportunity to help you immediately after your injury and if your employer is not trying to send you to a doctor immediately and you want to go see your own doctor, then your attorney will try and get you that. If you are in pain, don’t stay in pain. As a matter of fact, you can even go to the emergency room if you’re in severe pain – at least initially. But don’t continue to treat with those doctors unilaterally until you go to a workers’ compensation doctor or you will put your claim at risk. We’ll get you to the right doctors; we’ll get you the right care; we’ll get you the right treatment that will put you in the right position.