Insurers frequently refer to such an exam as an IME. Sometimes an injured claimant is scheduled for an IME.
What can you do, if you have been asked to attend such an examination?
You have the right to bring a friend as a companion. That friend could bring a paper and pencil, and take notes, during your examination.
You have the right to respond to the examining doctor’s report, after the insurance adjuster has seen it.
–Do not expect the insurance company to provide you with that same document; you must request it.
–Be sure to backup the response with information from your friend’s notes.
–Send the response to the adjuster, and, if necessary, pinpoint how the statements from the examining physician differ from what the doctor has reported, following any of the exams that you received earlier, while recovering from your injury.
Know what inquiries you can make, after learning what the physician that conducted the IME has reported.
You should feel free to ask how many times the insurance company has used that particular physician. By the same token, you should not hesitate to ask how much the insurer had paid the doctor that performed the IME.
Personal Injury Lawyer in Sydney is of the view that you should not expect an answer, but feel certain that the adjuster and the insurer have taken the time to compare the information in the 2 different reports.
How and why an IME’s results might be shared with a Human Resources Department?
That would be the case, if the company providing disability insurance were to order the independent exam. Typically, the members of the same department have seen exactly how a given workplace injury has affected the examined employee.
For instance, someone with a head injury might be wearing a cap, in order to cover at least some of a shaved head. The insurance company would hope to convince the members of the HR Dept that the request for a continuation of disability benefits should be denied.
Hopefully, the worker’s lawyer would stand ready to contest the post-IME report. Otherwise, the examined worker might feel compelled to go in search of a new job. The worker’s quest for that job would take place against a backdrop of amazement from those in the HR Department.
Indeed, any one of those same men and women might be willing to support any case that could be made by the lawyer of the employee that had been denied disability benefits. Regardless of what the examining physician has said, the true condition of the person that has undergone an IME may be all too evident. If an insurance company does not like that evidence, it should not be scheduling a second independent medical exam.
