Hey there thanks for joining us again Dr. Rodney White with Sarpy
Chiropractic and this is our third and final video in our auto insurance and
injury series. I'm here with Shawn Benge from State Farm again and he's just
lending us some of his insights. So if you've been watching the first two
videos you'll remember last week we talked about what happens if you go past
your medpay which is basically the insurance that covers all your bodily
injuries, and if you're not at fault we talked about how to collect from the
other insurance company. Now something you've got to look out for that Shawn
touched on was if you're not at fault, you've been rear-ended, let's say you had
to go to hospital, a couple of scans, you've already used all your med pay and
then you come into someone like us because you've got whiplash injuries and
your bill might end up, your total medical expenses could be $6000, $10000,
$20000 whatever it is, the other insurance company of the at-fault person
will tend to want to try and settle with you. So Shawn do you want to run through
with the viewers what normally happens in that case and why? Right well so when
we're talking about an accident and you're not at fault, so you've filed a
claim through another insurance company, many times what they're going to want to
do is they're going to want to settle that claim or finalize that claim as
soon as possible. There's multiple reasons for that obviously is that
they do want to finalize everything and know where they're at as far as what
they owe as far as payments or medical bills. The issue with that is
once you finalize that claim many times that could be the end of payments
that you are going to receive for that. So if someone accepts the settlement
that's it? Well if the claim is closed you would
have to, what you'd have to then do if let's say your back flared up and
in three months or six months down the line and you feel like it's from
that same accident now at this point you're going to have to try to get that
claim reopened which I would think would be difficult. And then the second thing
is obviously you're going to have to prove that now this pain
is from that same accident that maybe happened. Which is hard to
do and so we always recommend to our patients, the science behind whiplash
and these kind of injuries is that up to 12 months as a minimum after an accident,
even if you've been pain free for six months you can still suffer flare-ups of
pain and symptoms from the injuries that occurred, so we recommend to all of
the patients who come to us no matter how long you've been pain free do not
settle or close the case or accept any financial amount until it's been twelve
months, or to us we say since you are pain free for at least twelve months since
the injury. And definitely don't accept (and I'm sure Shawn will attest to this)
if the other insurance company offers you any kind of money, even if it seems
higher than what you'll use they're pretty tricky, they know off their books
the average whiplash treatment and things like that, they'll make it sound
better for you now because they know on the backend it's going to cost them more.
So do you recommend to your clients to never accept a settlement unless they
have been fully released? Well I think yes definitely in a case of bodily
injury you want to discuss that with with your doctor making sure
that he's finally going to sign off on your treatments, yes I think that
they're going to send you a legal piece of paper so unless you're having
an attorney or somebody look at that and really dissect what that means I think
it's best to listen to your doctor and what path he's trying to do
with your treatment. Right so even if a client of yours called you and said hey
Geico Insurance was the other person's insurance, they're offering me a
settlement you would always say no or talk to an attorney?
Yes that's usually what I would say. I would say "Yes I would maybe
hold off on that." Okay and if you ever are in need of an attorney it can be a
tricky minefield - there's a couple of really good personal
injury attorneys that that we do refer to when we need to but the majority of
them we've found it very difficult to work with and people have some trust
issues with them and from their experience I can't disagree with them. So
the times you might need an attorney are when you've been hit by someone else and
their insurance is not wanting to pay or the case is bigger. So Shawn why don't
you let the viewers know what what else can be covered because
most people think my car is covered in an accident and that might be it, some
are now aware they have a med pay to cover bodily injuries, what else
can be covered? Well so with some of the things that an agent and what we are
really concerned about are called liabilities right, so we never know when
something's going to happen at a weather event or an accident or something like
that and talking about an accident you don't know if you're in an
accident who's involved, I mean what kind of vehicle did I hit? Who's driving that
vehicle? Are they injured? What are my responsibilities? Well quite frankly
you know you could hit a Cadillac Escalade, an $80,000 vehicle,
I total that vehicle out, I'm responsible to pay for that vehicle.
That driver could have bodily injury, it could force them to
not be able to work for an extended period of time,
whereas if they're to bring a lawsuit against you now your insurance company
is responsible to the limits that your coverage is and if
it's above that, ultimately you're responsible to make those payments. So
that's one case you would need an attorney and then if we flip that a lot
of people don't know we see people who are in an accident and they can't work
for a certain period of time so you have a right to chase loss of
wages right? Yes. Also pain and suffering, so these are some times where if you do
feel like you need to chase those things that's where a good attorney will help
you. So hopefully you found this series useful? Please share these videos
with anyone you know who has been or might be in an accident because the more
knowledge we have the better armed we are. We appreciate Shawn's time with
these and we'll have his details in the comments below. If you have any insurance
questions don't hesitate to reach out to him, he's our insurance agent we trust
him very implicitly so you're not going to go wrong there. If you have been in an
accident and you're still suffering from injuries then call us if you think we
could help at Sarpy Chiropractic and we'll certainly assess you and see what
we can do. We'll see you next time!
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