As if it isn't obvious, it is extremely important to listen to, and be completely honest with, your physician or hospital staff once an injury has occurred. For many this is obvious. However, very often life can get in the way of timely following up with your physician. Failing to follow your doctor's instructions, make follow up appointments, make all complaints known to your doctor, or return for additional treatment when symptoms persist can have dire consequences, both for your health and any potential claim you may have for personal injuries.
The most important reason that you should be fully upfront with your physicians, and follow the doctor's instructions, is for your own health. A doctor can't feel what is going on in your body. He or she doesn't know if you're having neck pain, or shoulder pain, or leg pain, or numbness, or whatever the symptom unless you tell your doctor. And if he or she doesn't know about the symptom, he or she cannot possibly provide an accurate diagnosis or treatment to make the pain go away. The longer an injury, no matter how slight you think it is, goes undiagnosed, the more likely it is to become a serious or chronic condition, requiring more invasive and extensive medical treatment to heal.
If your doctor instructs you to return in a few weeks, or instructs you to seek physical therapy, or radiological tests, it is because he or she believes that this is necessary for your injuries to heal properly. If you don't follow your doctor's instructions, it is extremely likely that your injuries will not heal properly, and again, they could easily become serious or chronic conditions.
The second reason to be fully upfront with your physician, and follow their instructions, is to protect your rights. If you are injured, and the injury gives rise to a claim, you have certain rights inherent in that claim. The medical records your physician creates when you visit are the evidence of your injury and of the treatment the injury required. It is not enough to simply say "I was injured, pay me." If it was that easy everyone in the country would be broke, for constantly paying out on injury claims. Injured parties have the burden to prove they were injured, to what extent they were injured, and that the medical treatment they received was reasonable for their injuries.
When a claim is made, the insurance company investigating the claim will be looking for any reason they can find to either not pay or pay less than they should. This is their business. One of the most cited excuses given by insurance companies for denying claims, or refusing to pay the full value of a claim, is because of gaps in the medical treatment (meaning weeks going by without a follow up appointment), inconsistencies in the patient's complaints to their physicians, and failure to follow a physician's instructions. Unfortunately, the reason this is effective is because juries generally don't look upon these things favorably. To a jury when a reasonable person is injured (reasonable person being the legal standard applied by juries to most civil cases), he or she will be completely honest with their physician and report ALL of their symptoms. To a jury a reasonable person will continue to make regular appointments with their doctors until their symptoms have completely healed. To a jury a reasonable person will listen to their doctor and follow their doctor's instructions completely. Whatever reason you may have for not being completely honest, or not following your doctor's instructions, or not making timely follow up appointments, a jury will likely not pay attention. They have already heard what they need.
When you are injured, your job is to heal. Do your job and let your doctor help you. When you are injured, the insurance companies job is to take diminish your claim. Don't do their job for them. As always, if you are injured and you believe it was due to the negligence of another party, make sure you speak with a licensed and competent attorney.
