Baltimore Light Rail Injury – Car Insurance Paid For Patient’s Treatment

Baltimore Light Rail Injury – Car Insurance Paid For Patient’s Treatment

As many of my avid blog post readers are aware, I am a Chiropractor in Baltimore that spends the majority of my time treating Baltimore auto accident clients. These clients typically present with some combination of acute post-traumatic headaches, neck pain, radiating arm pain, mid back pain, lower back pain, and/or radiating leg pain associated with their Baltimore auto accident injuries.

As I have discussed in several past blog post, in addition to auto accidents there are several other types of personal injuries that I treat, albeit on a much less frequent basis. These are slip and fall injuries, worker’s compensation injuries, truck injuries, motorcycle injuries, pedestrian injuries (hit by a car in a cross walk), bus occupant injuries, and light rail injuries. In each of these different types of Baltimore personal injuries there are different types of injuries as we can also see shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, hip, knee, and ankle/feet injuries as well. That is, typically, the personal injuries that are not “straight forward” auto accidents usually present with more complex injury patterns depending on how a patient was positioned prior to their injury taking place.

I had a patient come into the office this week after being referred to me by a local pain management physician. The patient was involved in a Light Rail vs. motor vehicle collision injury just under a year ago, in about Mid March of 2015. According to the patient, a large SUV T-boned the light rail car she was riding in, causing the patient to develop headaches, neck pain, mid back pain, and lower back pain. The patient was evaluated at a local ER that evening was told to follow up in a week if her condition did not improve. About a week later she presented to a different ER with worsening symptoms. She was told to use ice and that “it would get better on its own.” She resumed working with her spinal pain and found herself less and less productive since sitting and standing were painful and her neck bothered her while working on the computer.

Her employer sent her to Concentra Urgent care for some PT/massage about four or five times over the next several months but nothing helped her headaches, neck, and back pain. She admits that she wanted to seek some professional Chiropractic therapy to see if it could help her, but she did not have private health insurance and she was afraid that she could not afford the treatment.

After being referred to me by a local physician, I had my staff ask her the usual questions. While it is true that since she was a passenger on the light rail she was not entitled to PIP benefits under the insurance of this municipality, my staff asked her if she had an automobile insured and registered in Maryland during the time of her injury. As it turns out, she did. She had a GEICO insurance policy that was “active” at the time of the crash. This is where the cool part of the story comes in.

My staff informed the patient that if she called GEICO and opened a PIP claim under her auto policy it would cover her Light rail injuries, because PIP is like a small umbrella that you carry with you to pay for medical expenses regardless of which type of personal injury you may sustain.

The important part of this story is the timeline. Her injury was sustained in Mid March 2015, and it was now early March, or about two weeks shy of the one year mark of the injury. According to Maryland law you only have ONE YEAR to file a PIP claim if you intend to receive benefits, although you can utilize those benefits for up to three years. We had the patient contact GEICO just two weeks before her ability to file would have expired and she was granted access to up to $2,500 in money for her chiropractic care and lost wages for that injury. Suffice it to say she was ELATED that she had access to funds for treatment.

The patient began treatment and is beginning to show improvements in terms of pain frequency and she is working with less discomfort.

In addition to providing effective and affordable care, we pride ourselves with understanding complex issues surrounding personal injuries such as Baltimore auto accidents and Baltimore light rail injuries. My staff can help ask prospective patients a series of questions to determine if there may be extra funds available to them to help limit, or in some cases, completely eliminate a need to pay out of pocket for their injuries. If you, or someone you know, has suffered a personal injury in Baltimore and require treatment, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We would be happy to help!

Dr. Gulitz