It can take only moments for the car crash to happen. When the vehicles stop moving, it is time to assess whether you or your passengers have any physical damage. It is also a time to decide whether or not you should seek any medical attention for your injuries.
What type of medical attention should you get? Should you go to urgent care, or just see your regular medical practitioner?
Should You Go to Urgent Care After an Accident?
If you have a serious or life-threatening medical condition, you should go to the emergency room immediately, especially if you are incapable of getting yourself to the hospital due to the medical condition or not having reliable transportation to receive help. If your condition isn’t life-threatening but should still be checked out, it is advisable to see urgent care or a regular physician.
Many injuries from a car accident can seem minor. However, with your adrenaline revved up, you may not actually be as well as you feel. Internal injuries can take some time before appearing, and you don’t want to be in a position or place where it would be too difficult to receive the medical attention that you need.
In addition, you want to have a stress-free insurance claim when it comes to receiving compensation for your medical bills and vehicle damage. By getting medical treatment as soon as possible, you can make sure that your injuries are attributed to the car accident. If you wait too long and an undiagnosed condition is later revealed, it can be harder to convince the insurance company that the car crash was the cause for the condition.
What is Urgent Care?
Urgent care centers are medical facilities that provide medical treatment for people who have injuries or illnesses that are not life-threatening. You can go to an urgent care clinic when you can’t see your regular physician because the medical condition happened after business hours or on the weekend when the physician’s office is closed.
An urgent care center can treat a range of illnesses or injuries such as fevers, flus, broken bones, sprains, cuts that require stitches, breathing difficulties such as asthma, urinary tract infections, moderate back problems and accidents. These medical conditions usually can’t wait for a day or two so you can see the regular doctor, yet will not endanger your life where you would need to go to the emergency room.
Seeing Urgent Care Without Medical Insurance
Many people skip going to either the emergency room or a regular physician due to lacking medical insurance. You may decide to “tough it out” and just deal with the pain because you can’t afford the enormous hospital bills. However, if you ignore an injury for too long, you could put your health at greater risk.
An urgent care facility may be the better option in these cases as they will see anyone even if you do not have medical insurance or you have medical insurance that doesn’t offer a lot of coverage. An urgent care facility may offer better payment terms as well as costs for their medical services, and some insurance companies will cover urgent care visits.
Be advised that the emergency room would still be the best option when having a serious medical condition. No hospital can withhold care even if you do not have insurance.
Getting Compensated for Your Medical Expenses from a Car Accident
Being in an accident can be scary. Yet dealing with the pain from injuries can put an emotional and physical toll on you. In addition, the accident can strain your finances to the limit when the bills start to come in. Knowing these factors, you may have already made up your mind that you won’t go to see a doctor or get any care.
Yet can get compensated for your injuries by the insurance companies so long as you receive medical attention for your injuries within 72 hours after the accident. This window of time will allow you to see the right medical professionals at the right time based on your health needs, your medical insurance coverage, and your finances.
Once you have received medical attention, you can file your insurance claim while having all the medical documentation to prove that the injuries were caused by the accident. If you are worried about filing the wrong paperwork or not filing an insurance claim on time, you can contact a West Virginia personal injury attorney who can help with the insurance claim process. They can evaluate the car accident details, gather important evidence and medical documents, and ensure that all paperwork is filed completely and accurately.
Also, if the insurance company later denies your claim, the personal injury attorney can help you file an appeal or sue the guilty party that caused the accident.
If you are looking for a qualified personal injury attorney in the Charleston, Virginia area, reach out to the law offices of Johnstone and Gabhart. We can help you with your legal matters after a car accident.