I had a client come in recently who had a car accident several days earlier. She was in obvious distress and I could tell she had not had a good night’s sleep in a while. However, she also had not had any medical attention, even though she had health insurance. Apparently, her primary care physician refused to see her unless she had an auto insurance claim number. I have fought with a number of doctor’s offices about this practice. The client is insured twice, once through the car insurance and once through the health insurance. The doctor will get paid. To refuse to see a patient who is suffering because of the administrative inconvenience associated with getting a claim number the next day is frankly unethical (and I have told a few doctors so). To make matters worse, she felt that she could not set up an insurance claim because she did not have a police report. She had gone to the police station every day (except Saturday and Sunday when the records division is closed), but could not obtain a police report. In desperation she came to see me. We immediately got her insurance claim set up and got her to a doctor. She filled her prescription for pain meds and had her first decent night’s sleep since the accident. I do not understand why people accept the notion that they cannot do anything until they receive a police report. If they feel hamstrung, they should get into a lawyer’s office right away. However, they should also contact their own doctor immediately. If the doctor refuses to see them, they should tell the doctor they are going to the emergency room. If the doctor still refuses, they should go to the emergency room and tell every doctor and nurse they talk to that they called their doctor and their doctor refused to see them because it was a car accident(in this way the insurance company, especially the health insurance company, gets mad at the doctor, not you). Here inLowell, there are alternatives to the emergency room, such as Saints Walk-In at1230 Bridge Streetthat will see you. It is always good to pick up the police report as soon as you can. However, I will see clients who do not have one yet. Treatment can be obtained without one (although it may require some threatening and cajoling). The refusal to treat your own patient does raise serious professional and ethical issues. It is possible to set up an insurance claim with your own company. All of these statements remain true even if you need the police report to get the information on the other car and driver, to identify witnesses or to determine liability. The police report is important, but it is seldom urgent. There is no reason to allow the police report to delay you seeing a doctor or a lawyer.
