"Independent" Medical Exams In Personal Injury Cases

A favorite insurance company ploy in personal injury cases is to request that an order from the Court that the plaintiff be required to undergo an “independent” medical exam — an exam by a doctor hired by the insurance company.

Despite the implications of the name, these are not indpendent.  The doctors are hired by insurance companies and these exams are filled with fraud.

Back in 2009, the New York Times ran a long story exposing many of these exams for the fraud that they are.  Among other things, the report found doctors reporting on tests that were never done, given written reports saying the patient had no injuries when the videotaped tests and exams proved otherwise, and doing cursory exams. 

At the time, I wrote a long blog post that summarized the article, The New York Times Tells The Story Behind “Independent” Medical Exams, and you can read that post for more information. 

But many times, pictures (and videos), tell a story better than words.  And I recently saw a tongue-in-cheek video that was an example of an “independent” medical exam.  It would be a lot more funny if it wasn’t so darn true.