Auto Insurance Claims: Auto Accident/PIP/BI, auto insurance policy, spine stabilization

Question
I was involved in an auto accident on2/18/2008.  It was a rear end accident where one individual rear ended 4 cars at a stop light.  I was car no. 2.  Car was totaled with front and rear end damage and seat of car was broken by force of accident.  Was taken by ambulance in full spine stabilization to ER.  I am still under treatment by a chiro.  Have seen massage and PT.  I have filed both a PIP and BI.  We are a no fault state, however my insurance and the at fault driver's insurance is the same company.  I am unwilling to sign the blanket med release form as I have a mental health  history of depression/bp type 1.  The insurance company has now pended all medical bills until I sign their release, despite my stated willingness  to provide any medical records they would request.  I have not hidden a minor previous neck injury from a MVA (when I was also insured with them and bills they paid) that was 22 years ago from which a had a ~2 month arm weakness that resolved and has not been an issue in those many years.  They have all my current records from my current providers related to this accident and I have verbally told them they have the records from the 22 yr old accident and if they cannot find them in their system I would be happy to try to locate them with the provider for them.  I would love to take care of this all myself, but is this possible at this point?  They have sent me a written letter citing the co-operation clause in our policy and indicating they are pending paying medical bills until I sign their medical release of information (which of course includes ALL records from ANY provider.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and assistance.

Answer
Laurie,

Lucky for you I work in a no-fault state-Florida. Generally, you have a contractual obligation (your auto insurance policy provisions) to comply with all reasonable requests made by your insurance company.  However, you do not have to comply with every request. Since you have not placed your mental condition at issue in your claim (I am assuming no mental health practitioner has submitted bills under PIP), and only your physical condition, you should not have to disclose prior unrelated depression issues or give them access to that information. Write them a letter advising that you are willing to comply with all their reasonable requests and that you are willing to sign a release of medical records which explicitly states it is not a release of mental health records.

If they continue to deny your bills or pend them until they get what they want, there are attorney's that sue insurance companies to ensure they pay medical bills in accordance with the no-fault laws. These are common breach of contract lawsuits which my firm files all the time. Generally, the attorney will file the lawsuit without charge as most states have a law which says if the insurance company loses the case, they have to pay your attorney's fees as well.

Best of Luck.


Marc B. Nussbaum