IME Tag Archives — Alabama Injury Lawyer Blog

Published on: October 10, 2022

How Can The Insurance Company Dispute My Alabama Workers’ Compensation Claim After Providing Some Benefits?

An injured workers calls our office. They describe the accident. They tell us the insurance company provided some medical care. The insurance company may have even paid some compensation to them while off work. But, the insurance company suddenly told them it was now disputing the claim. That’s what prompted the call to our office. How can my employer provide some benefits and then turn around to dispute the claim?

It’s a good question. It really does not make sense. It seems wrong. But, Alabama law does allow your employer (or its insurance carrier) to pay some benefits and then later dispute the claim. The Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act (Section 25-5-56) specifically says:

In order to encourage advance payments, it is expressly provided that the payments shall not be construed as an admission of liability but shall be without prejudice.

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Published on: September 9, 2019

Work Comp Wants An “Independent Medical Examination.” What Should I Expect?

By Jeff Blackwell

The weeks and months following a serious work-related accident can be some of the most stressful in your life. One day you are fine. The next, you are hurt and unable to work. Medical treatment, long-term recovery, household bills, and job security, are the most important things in your mind.

Work comp should provide needed medical care without delay. That was the original intent. Yet, the system often fails. Insurance companies and their adjusters ignore doctor requests, fail to return your calls, and work to delay care. You suffer. I hear these complaints about adjusters on a daily basis. You are not alone in your frustration.

Many times, an adjuster or case nurse will suddenly call you out of the blue with an appointment for an “independent medical examination” by some new doctor. They may even tell you the visit is needed to understand treatment options. Don’t forget, the real goal of the insurance company is ALWAYS to save its money.

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Published on: September 4, 2018

Did The Insurance Company Hire A Biased Doctor?

By Jeff Blackwell

You are injured from an accident. You are pursuing a claim for damages or compensation. Suddenly, the insurance carrier wants you to see its doctor for an examination. If your case involves a car accident or work comp claim, you may face this request. Sometimes, the insurance carrier even calls its request an “independent medical exam.” Yet, these exams are neither independent nor fair.

Before I talk about the biased insurance company doctor, let me say that these biased doctors are small in number. Lawyers who frequently prepare and try cases will tell you they see the same few bad ones repeatedly. Doctors are like any other profession. Almost all of them are dedicated to serving their patients. The same rule applies to lawyers, accountants, and any other professional. But, a few bad apples exist.

With lawyers, the bad apples are those settlement mill lawyers making promises while refusing to do the work really needed to help clients. When it comes to automobile accident, workers’ compensation or disability claims, we see a few doctors who seemingly make their living issuing misleading reports so claims can be denied. In both the legal and medical professions, the bad ones want to make money pushing paper instead of getting to the heart of their clients’ stories and losses. One sure sign of biased doctors is that many of them have little or no medical practice outside insurance company evaluations. Good doctors actually treat patients. Good doctors don’t make their living generating claims reports.

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Published on: May 14, 2014

The Non-Independent Medical Examination

By Jeff Blackwell

Attorneys who handle personal injury cases know that so-called independent medical examinations (IMEs) are really not independent at all. They are neither independent nor real medical examinations.

These exams are usually an effort by the insurance company and its defense lawyers to purchase a false and misleading opinion. They are an effort to create evidence and mislead juries. Many of the doctors who perform these examinations are absolutely biased against the patient.

What really bothers me is that many plaintiff attorneys willingly let their clients submit to these biased and bogus exams. Attorneys who simply let their clients submit to these examinations are not acting in their client’s best interests. The false and misleading IME reports purchased by insurance carriers can have devastating effects upon injured workers and accident victims seeking justice. They harm all of us by distorting the truth.

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