Covid 19 and Personal Injury Part 2: Injury Treatment Now and After the Pandemic
After injury, getting back to your normal life is the priority. People who enter treatment promptly after injury, tend to have a greater chance of a more complete recovery. However, it is hard to know how to get the treatment you need. Further, the COVID 19 pandemic makes this treatment less accessible. Here are some tips to assist you in getting care when you need it.
Paying for your treatment is likely a concern:
Use any health insurance available to you. Regardless of how you are injured, insurance companies in Colorado must cover their insureds for necessary care. (They may, however, need to be paid back for that care depending on the particulars of your injury and whether another person caused the injury).
If health insurance is not available, use any Medpay you may have on your personal automobile policy or an applicable renter’s or homeowner’s policy. (You will need to contact your insurance and look at your policy to determine what is available and what you are responsible to do to be paid by your Medpay).
If neither health insurance, nor Medpay is available, you should request a self-pay discount for services from the facility. This should significantly reduce those bills, which may keep you out of collections.
Request a payment plan. Many facilities will allow you to make payments as low as $5 per month. These payments will keep your bills from being referred to collections, until you are able to pay them in full.
Getting access to treatment is a problem for many, but it does not have to be. We can all go to the ER and Urgent care for any issue but getting follow-up care can often be a struggle. Try these options to get access to the care you need.
Schedule an appointment with your regular doctor as soon as possible after your ER or Urgent Care visit.
If you have pains or differences in how your body functions, reach out to your doctor immediately for options or referrals.
Check with your health insurance carrier (if applicable) for doctors who specialize in the body part where you are experiencing issues or that handle sports and traumatic injuries. (A referral may be required from your regular doctor depending on your plan, but your plan representative can give you that information when you call for the doctor information).
Ask potential providers about telehealth or virtual appointments to reduce risk of infection.
If telehealth appointments are not available or not appropriate for your issues, find out when sick and well patients are seen and make sure the policies for distancing employed by the facility are adequate to protect you. Many facilities have different days, hours, and entrances for sick patients.
Shop around until you find a provider who can accommodate your needs and makes you feel comfortable receiving care.
If something is not working, say so. Tell your doctor right away if a treatment is painful or does not seem to be helping. We have to empower our doctors to help us by giving them all of the information they need to help us get better.
If a body part is painful or simply different than before, say so. Sometimes injury victims fear being labeled as a complainer or being perceived as weak, so they do not speak up when they should. You should fight that urge. Doctors need to know everything about our symptoms to help us.
*This article is for information purposes only and is not intended to be medical or legal advice. If you have a potential injury case, you should contact an attorney for specific guidance on legal matters. Your medical care and decisions should be between you and your treating doctors. This article is not meant to give or supplant any medical guidance.