When you get hurt and file a claim with a car insurance company, they will often send you a “medical authorization” form. This gives them permission to access your medical records and use them in making their decisions, but broad authorizations are ripe for abuse by the insurance company.
Insurance companies do not need medical authorizations in the first place; you can have your lawyers send them the medical records they specifically request, as the need arises. If you give them full authorization, they can search for records that are beyond the scope of this accident and read into them too closely, using them against you in unfair ways.
For help with your injury case, call the Dallas, TX car accident lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797 today.
What Can Insurance Companies Do with Your Medical Records?
When the insurance company demands that you sign a medical release, they may be trying to do a few important things. Our car accident lawyers will use the medical records in your case for similar purposes, which are some of the more legitimate uses of medical records:
Determine Damages
Medical records help show what treatment you received. However, medical bills are more helpful for showing the actual amounts charged for treatment.
Even so, the medical records can help show non-economic damages by showing what kind of scarring, lost function, permanent disabilities, and amputations you might have suffered.
Determine Preexisting Injuries/Conditions
Access to earlier medical records can help draw the line between what injuries and conditions you had before the accident and what injuries you suffered in this accident. Insurance companies do not pay for prior injuries or conditions, so proving what came from this accident is important.
If you did have prior injuries that were made worse – such as rebreaking a broken bone – we can still claim damages for the new injuries and the extent that your injuries got worse from this accident.
Link Injuries to the Accident
You also need to prove that your injuries actually did come from this accident. If your medical treatment occurred on the same day as the accident or in the days immediately after the accident, it shows the connection.
How Insurance Companies Abuse and Misuse Medical Records Authorizations
When insurance companies request records, they may be using them for legitimate reasons discussed above, but they often try to use them for these more argumentative purposes as well:
Painting You as a Complainer
If you have extensive medical records with lots of injuries and illnesses, they will try to use that to show the court that you are always complaining of injuries, and that it means these injuries aren’t that bad.
This argument is sometimes nonsensical; just because you were hurt before or had injuries before says nothing of how these injuries happened or how severe they actually are. Even so, this can often unfairly sway jurors into thinking you are exaggerating your medical conditions.
Blurring the Lines on Preexisting Injuries/Conditions
If prior records show injuries or complaints about pain in the same areas of the body injured in this accident, they will try to use that to argue that this injury was there before the accident.
Sometimes medical records are detailed enough to show that an old complaint improved, and that this injury was new, but it often requires us to spend additional time and attention disputing those claims. If they did not have old, irrelevant medical records, they might not be able to make this claim in the first place.
Bogging You Down in Discovery
The more documents insurance companies ask for, the longer it takes to get them turned over. They will also argue that they need time to review them, potentially slowing down your case even more.
If we can limit what they get an opportunity to look at to only the relevant records, it can streamline your case.
Challenging Your Character
If there are things in your medical records that paint you in a negative light, they might try to use them against you. For example, they may argue that mental health issues show you are making your injury claim for attention, or an ongoing illness shows your emotional distress predated the accident.
A lot of these arguments are frankly irrelevant in a legal sense, but they can still sway juries.
FAQs About Medical Authorizations in Injury Claims
What is a Medical Authorization vs. a Prior Authorization?
In the context of a car accident case or other injury claim, a medical authorization is an authorization for the insurance company to access your medical records. This has nothing to do with authorizing medical care, treatment, or expenses.
Prior authorization is something that health insurance policies – not car insurance companies – often require before they will pay for treatment. This essentially makes you go to them first to ask for permission to get the treatment before going to your doctor.
Can You Revoke a Medical Authorization?
If you no longer want the insurance company to get access to your medical records, you can notify them that you are revoking medical access. However, it might be too late; they might have gotten copies of everything they needed right away.
It is better not to give them medical authorization in the first place.
Can You Deny the Insurance Company Your Medical Records?
Not exactly. If your injuries and health are at issue in the case – which they always are in an injury case – they get the right to review relevant records. Insurance companies will need access to at least some medical records as proof of the injury.
However, they rarely ever legitimately need access to your entire life’s medical records, so broad authorizations are not the right way for them to obtain the necessary records. Instead, our lawyers can provide relevant records on an as-needed basis as part of the evidence stage of your case.
Call Our Car Accident Lawyers for Help Today
If you were hurt in an accident, never sign anything from the insurance company before calling our Austin, TX personal injury lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797.