Insurance Adjusters and the HIPAA Release

When you've been in an accident, undoubtedly you will be worked up.  Judgment calls will be made or lost in a blink of an eye.  Your brain may be thinking accident, injury, and then finally settle on financial compensation and insurance.  So, let's talk about that last one for just a minute.

If you make a claim for insurance, at some point you will probably get a call from someone calling themself an "insurance adjuster."  Their job is to investigate the reported claim through interviews of the claimant, witnesses, as well as reviews of the police report and hospital records.  The only one you have any real control over is the last one.

The reality is that if you're making an insurance claim regarding a personal injury, you won't blink twice at the thought of them seeing proof.  Okay, but what about the rest of your health records?

They will send you something called a HIPAA release, explaining that you have to sign it if you want them to have access to your medical records and information.  When you sign that, they have access to all of your medical records, not just the ones from the accident. 

If you have been injured in an accident, contact our firm.  When the insurance adjuster calls you, do not give a statement, do not agree to anything, do not give out information about your family or doctors, and definitely DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING.