UNFAIR TACTIC: The Other Driver’s Insurance Threatens “My Company Won’t Pay for That Kind Of Treatment”
Sometimes the other driver’s insurance will find out about the type of accident-related medical treatment that an injured biker is receiving and threaten that it will not pay for that type of treatment. This threat is often given about chiropractic treatment, a significant amount of physical therapy, or treatment from an expensive specialist.
The idea that the other driver’s insurance corporation can dictate your medical treatment is simply not true. Under Iowa law, the at-fault driver (or his or her insurance corporation) is responsible for paying all “reasonable and necessary” medical treatment caused by the crash. What qualifies as “reasonable and necessary” medical treatment is decided by your doctors and other medical providers, not by an auto insurance adjuster sitting in a cubicle somewhere.
What makes this tactic particularly unethical is that most insurance company representatives know the truth and are still using this “we won’t pay” line to bully accident victims into stopping legitimate treatment for crash-related injuries.
In most situations, motorcycle accident victims should get whatever medical treatment a doctor recommends until they are healed or until they are told by a medical professional that their injury is “as good as it is going to get”. Doctors often call this status “maximum medical improvement.” That is the only way to ensure that the injured biker will get fair compensation for his or her accident-related injuries.
To find out the more about the unfair tactics insurance corporations use to exploit injured bikers, use the form on this page to download the entire Law Guide to Iowa Motorcycle Accident Claims.
