Average Cost Chiropractor After Car Accident Orange County CA

Car Accidents are no trivial matter. There are many things to consider. Chief among them is who is going to pay my medical bills? And how much does it cost to see a chiropractor after a car accident?

California Law Regarding Car Accident Medical – Chiropractic Treatment

As a victim of a car accident, you are entitled to have your “reasonable” medical bills paid by the responsible party’s auto insurance. In other words, whoever hit you must pay your bills. However, they will only pay for “reasonable” medical costs. Specifically, you cannot treat endlessly and your doctor cannot charge unreasonable fees.

What are “Reasonable” Fees?

The insurance company will argue a fee is unreasonable, even if the fee is only $1 because they don’t want to pay anything! Same with the number of treatments or duration of care. They would prefer you had only 1 visit for $1 and would still make you jump through hoops to get it!

An insurance company’s idea of reasonable is often unreasonable. Fortunately, there are guidelines that exist that determine what reasonable is and it is not entirely controlled by the insurance company.

Auto insurance pays for medical treatment after an accident when they are at fault. But remember, these same insurance companies pay for medical treatments of their insureds when they are victim of a crash. This is called Medical Payments coverage or MedPay.

Actual Real Fees in Orange County for Chiropractic Treatment of Car Accident Injuries

For chiropractors performing typical office services such as adjustments, exercises, stretching, electrical stimulation, etc, MedPay will reimburse chiropractors up to approximately $200 per visit in Orange County. Initial exams and x-rays obviously are more than a typical routine visit. This is provided the doctor justifies what the bills are for.

**The average cost of a chiropractic visit after an accident in Orange County paid by MedPay is a range of $125-170.**

The average case cost varies because some cases are minor and have little treatment need while others are severe and require extensive treatment over a prolonged period of time. With that said, you can expect your total cost for a chiropractor after a car accident to be in the range of $3,000 to $10,000.

When the Other Person’s Insurance Company Says Fees Are Not Reasonable

Doctors cannot just willy-nilly inflate their prices for a car accident claim. A typical visit with an adjustment and a couple of therapies cannot be charged at $300. It won’t fly. And you cannot be treated 100 times without very good documentation of why you need that many visits.

A good car accident chiropractor will keep a list of past payments from automobile medpy claims. When EZ-Auto Insurance says fees are unreasonable, the doctor can look for past claims with EZ-Auto and find they paid their bills in full when submitted to MedPay. If the fees were unreasonable, then the insurance company would not have paid the bills in full in the past. Therefore the fees are reasonable.

Reasonable Treatment Duration

Again, guidelines exist to determine approximately the number of treatments over an approximate time duration is reasonable based on the severity of injury. These are called “The Croft Guidelines.” In this publication, the doctor determines what severity of injury is suffered based on exam criteria. Then an estimate number of visits and time frame are found in a table.

This doesn’t mean every single case with the same severity classification gets the same number of visits, but it is a guideline. If your care is within the appropriate number and time frame then it shows your treatment can be considered reasonable by an objective guide. The insurance company does not have a competing set of guidelines.

Why Don’t All Chiropractors Charge the Same Amount After a Car Accident?

Believe it or not, it is illegal for doctors to check the fees in their area and agree to set a price. That’s called collusion or price fixing. Doctors must rely on speaking with other colleagues of similar geography, training, specialization, their individual overhead costs, etc. to decide on prices–independently. Luckily there are a couple of guidelines that tell doctors what charges in their area are typical.

The Good News About the Cost of Chiropractic Care After a Car Accident

In fact, it’s great news for the victim of a car accident. In most cases, if the other person is at fault, you do not need to pay for your treatment out of pocket, up front.

If you go to a chiropractor who specializes in car accident cases, they will provide whatever treatment you need up front. You will not be asked to pay until after you reach a settlement with the insurance company. So you are not directly paying the doctor. The insurance company is.

The key is, the responsible insurance company will not pay your bills until they have been completed. They won’t pay with a blank check. You must be completely done treating and agree that you will not present any further bills to them in the future before they cough up a check.

Car Accident Chiropractic Treatment on a Lien

This is great news for accident victims, but what about the doctor? The doctor provides ongoing care and has the expense of overhead rent, staff, utilities, insurance, etc. and not receive payment for months and sometime years. In essence the patient is given a line of credit for medical care that can be in the multiple thousands of dollars.

This is why the car accident chiropractor will ask the patient to sign a lien. A lien is a legal agreement between the doctor and the patient that they are responsible for their bills, but do not have to pay up front. It also tells the insurance company that the doctor has a lien against any settlement and their bills need to be covered before releasing money to the patient.

Personal Injury Lawyers

Often a doctor will refer a victim to an attorney who specializes in “personal injury” cases. These are cases where someone is injured by the negligence of others, such as a car accident, slip and fall within a store, dog bites, product defect, etc.

A lawyer my be needed to obtain other expensive medical care such as MRI’s, injections, surgeons, etc who will not perform any work unless you have an attorney involved. A lien is signed between the patient, lawyer and doctor. In this situation, the lawyer will get a settlement from the insurance company and then take money out to pay medical liens and then disburse money to the victim.

As You Can See, the Cost of Chiropractic Treatment After a Car Accident Depends on Many Factors

The most important thing after a car accident is to choose an experienced expert car accident doctor who can show to you and the insurance company that your treatment is being provided within objective guidelines. This insures one less fight with the insurance company.