|
|
||
|
Insurance and chiropractic:
Most, if not all, insurance policies provide benefits for chiropractic care. We will be happy to call your insurance carrier and check the benefits allowed on your policy. We are a PPO provider for many companies, some are listed below:
Many insurance policies have what is called a physician network. If you see a physician in the network you usually have higher paying benefits than if you seek care outside of the network. These networks provide services for a vast number of insurance companies. So there are many insurance companies which we are in network that are not listed above. Once again, it would be our pleasure to check this out for you. Under Florida Law it is illegal for chiropractic physicians to forgive deductible and co-pays. What this means is that if you have insurance you must pay your deductible and any co-pays written into your policy. When we check with your insurance carrier to verify benefits provided for chiropractic care we ask specific questions to best allow us to discuss any financial responsibilities you may have. Automobile Injuries You should know that Florida is a "no fault" state. What this means to you is that your automobile personal injury protection (PIP) benefits will have to pay for your medical costs resulting from an automobile collision. Most people tend to have the opinion that if the collision was not their fault then their insurance should not have to pay. Most think that the person at fault should have to pay the medical costs from their insurance. But, unfortunately while we understand this opinion, we have to inform you that Florida Law is not written that way. The person who was at fault is not required to have their automobile insurance pay any of your medical bills unless you have a permanent injury. Should you have a permanent injury you would then file what is known as a liability claim against the other drivers insurance. While this can be very frustrating, we do understand how you feel. We have extensive experience with automobile injuries and specialize in the treatment of those injuries. We work with numerous attorneys in the area to help you properly handle an automobile claim. You not only need a physician who can assess, diagnose, and treat your condition properly, but you need a physician who can also give expert court testimony should this become necessary. For those who do not know how automobile insurance works: Your personal injury benefits (PIP), a limit of $10,000.00, pays 80% of your medical bills. What is known as "med pay" (medical payments) will pay the other 20% of your medical bills. Med pay is a very low cost insurance. Most insurance agents do not try to sell this to you because it is such a low cost to you and requires the insurance company to pay additional towards your medical bills. Once your PIP benefits are maxed out (paid to the limit of the benefits) your med pay then picks up 100% of your charges. You should also try to buy a policy that does not have a deductible since you are personally responsible for paying the deductible. For example, if you have a $1000.00 deductible you are responsible for paying the first $1000.00 out of your own pocket. You should evaluate the cost of your insurance without a deductible since in most cases it does not make a lot of difference in your premium. We all know that Florida Law requires every driver to carry insurance, but many drivers do not. Given this fact, you can also buy what is known as "uninsured motorist" insurance which is also a low cost insurance. Uninsured motorist insurance will protect you if the other driver is not insured. Should you be involved in a vehicular collision with someone who is not insured you can then come back and make a claim against your own uninsured motorist policy. This will also keep you from having to pay more out of your own pocket. *NOTE* You should immediately report any collision and or injury to your automobile insurance carrier. The first three days after an injury is the most crucial time. So even though you may not have immediate symptoms, you should have your spine evaluated. Even a low impact collision can cause extensive injury to the spine and soft tissues and a lot of times you may not feel the symptoms immediately. Some people experience this and do not have symptoms for 30 days, or even as long as six months. So it is very important to be evaluated immediately. Even if you do not feel any symptoms, you still have the right to be evaluated and your PIP benefits will cover the cost of the evaluation. On the job injuries (worker’s compensation) Ever since you have held a job, most, if not all, your employers have paid worker’s compensation insurance premiums to provide you with immediate, as well as, rehabilitative care. You have no deductibles and no co-payments. Your care has already been paid in full by your employer. Should you be involved in an on the job injury, under Florida Law you have the right to file a worker’s compensation claim. A worker’s compensation claim is filed with your employer’s worker’s compensation insurance carrier and they pay your medical costs. You should immediately report any injury to your supervisor even if at that time you do not feel you need medical evaluation. (Many times after an injury you seem to think you are not injured, but as time goes on you may begin to feel symptoms which were not immediately noticeable.) Your supervisor should then complete an injury report and provide you and the worker’s compensation insurance carrier a copy of the report. All treatment under worker’s compensation must be pre-approved. Therefore, should you require evaluation and treatment of your injuries you must talk with the worker’s compensation carrier first in order to have approval for the visit to the physician. Florida regulations allow worker’s compensation carriers to have a provider list. You may be required to see a certain physician for your initial evaluation and follow up care. Most worker’s compensation carriers will require you see a general physician for initial evaluation. But, keep in mind that you do have the right to be evaluated and treated by a chiropractic physician should you so choose. If the general physician does not refer you to a chiropractic physician, you do have the right to request evaluation and treatment by a chiropractic physician directly from the worker's compensation insurance carrier. Studies have shown that chiropractic treatment can get injured workers back on the job faster then any other treatment; depending upon the nature of the injury of course. Florida worker’s compensation regulations allow 24 visits or 12 weeks of care, whichever comes first, for chiropractic treatment. Not only are you on a time frame for treatment allowed under Florida regulations, but the sooner you are evaluated after an injury the better response you will receive from treatment. The first three days are the most crucial when dealing with injuries. So why doesn’t everyone injured on the job seek chiropractic evaluation and treatment? Simply most times they just don’t know...spread the word!
|
|
|
