FAQs

The length of time for recovery varies greatly from individual to individual and depends on their overall state of health prior to their injuries, the severity of the impact, and the amount and quality of care the patient receives following their injuries. It is best not to compare your physical experience with anyone else’s; your body is unique and your trauma as unique as well.

Occupational therapy is generally considered as therapy that concentrates on the maintenance and restoration of the ability to perform activities of daily living. Physical therapy treats illness through modalities such as massage, heat treatment and exercise rather than with drugs or surgery. Chiropractic care is a health-care profession that focuses on the spine and other joints of the body, and their connection to the nervous system. The word “chiropractic” means “to be done by hand.” Chiropractors use adjustments to restore joint function and support the nervous system.

The answer to this question depends on the severity and duration of your pain. Brief use of narcotic medication maybe used to relieve acute pain from trauma. Due to the recent and ongoing opioid epidemic, physicians are moving away from the frequent use of opioids to avoid dependency and addiction in our patients. For patients with severe and persistent pain, a pain management referral may be made for you so that other non-narcotic interventions can be done by doctors with expertise in the field to alleviate your pain. If such procedures are not indicated, the standard of care in medicine now is to allow pain management specialists to manage and monitor patients who need ongoing narcotic therapy for their pain. You would still remain under our care to manage your overall condition and to get you to all of the specialists you may need to help get you better. Having someone trustworthy in the medical realm to direct your care is as important as any individual doctor you may have or see.

Some family physicians are highly knowledgeable in personal injury care, but not all. Furthermore, since there may be a third-party other than the patient’s regular insurance paying for care, your care may be being provided on “contingency.” This means that the medical professionals providing your care may not be paid for the services until your case is fully settled. This may be anywhere from six months to as much as three years after your initial injury, and many physicians are unwilling to wait that period of time to be paid. Our willingness to except a delayed payment in exchange for immediate services is a very compelling reason to receive care from us for many of our patients.

This is a rating of permanent this is a numerical rating of permanent disability that is given to individuals, (usually workers injured on the job) that are considered to have gotten “as good as they are going to get” after an injury. State statutes mandate that a certain amount of money be paid to the injured worker based on the numeric value of these ratings. Injured workers may receive either a lump sum or a monthly payment of the money due to them. Providing a PPI for our patients injured on the job (or anyone else in need of our services) is a service we provide at MAOSN.

This type of anxiety is very common after traumatic events such as motor vehicle accidents. Your feelings and emotions can range from temporary apprehension at intersections to full blown post traumatic stress syndrome, depending upon the intensity and circumstances of surrounding the trauma. Our professional staff at MAOSN recognize this, and so we have an in-house psychiatrist and social worker that can manage the psychiatric consequences of your physical injuries. If you are having anxiety or depression symptoms after seeing one of our medical staff, please let them know so they can make the appropriate referral for your mental health and well-being.

Some patients are able to work after sustaining a personal injury and some are not. If you are physically capable of doing the work, there is no reason why you cannot return to work. However, if you are not physically able, we will provide you with documentation for your employer as to how long we anticipate you will be unable to work and what limitations you may have on the job if you return. For a fee, we will assist you in filling out any Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), short term, or long term disability forms you may have to complete for your employer.

Patients need to be honest about any previous automobile injuries or significant traumas they have being treated for in the past, particularly since the defendant’s legal counsel may subpoena medical records that show that you were previously injured. No one wants to get caught being untruthful in a court of law. The effects of previous injuries all your health, of course, depend on where these injuries occurred, how long ago, and how you have recovered from them. We make every effort to, in good faith, speak to how much of a patient’s current problems are attributable to their most recent injury. This is called “apportionment.“ We try to limit our care to the recent injuries at hand to avoid confusion as to why we are caring for you. If you have other chronic conditions, even ones similar to the ones you were being treated for acutely, we may refer your you to other providers who are not involved in your medicolegal case.

No; however, it may affect who pays for the care that you receive. If you have medical insurance through your own insurer and you were injured in an accident that you were deemed to be at fault in, you may still be eligible for your care to be paid for through your own automobile, homeowner, personal Worker’s compensation, or liability/umbrella insurance policy.

While all of our providers are licensed and fully capable of managing common medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, it is not our focus here at MAOSN, Since these conditions are usually not directly related to your motor vehicle injury, we encourage you to continue seeing your primary care physician or any other specialists concerning your general medical problems. Feel free however to ask us any questions you may have about your overall medical situation and we will do everything we can to either help or direct you to the help you need!