If you were hurt in an accident and want to file an injury case, you will often bring your medical records as evidence. They show what your doctor says happened to you, what treatment you faced, what injuries were documented, and what your future looks like. However, they are one-sided, and an independent medical exam (IME) might be used to give both sides – or the court – a fair look at your condition.
Defendants and sometimes the court itself can request an IME to get a second look at your condition with a doctor they choose. Often, saying no is difficult, as the defense has a right to access evidence. In any case, work with a lawyer to understand your rights and how to counter negative IME evidence.
Call The Carrion Law Firm’s New York personal injury attorneys at (718) 841-0083 today.
What is an Independent Medical Exam?
An IME is an exam by a doctor to assess your condition, your injuries, your remaining function/disabilities, and your general well-being after an accident. This is different from exams by your treating physician, whose medical records and reports will usually be for the purpose of getting you better, and will usually help you.
Instead, this doctor is not seeking to treat you; they are there to gather evidence for your opponent in the case, whether that is your insurance company or the defendant in a personal injury case.
Are IMEs Really Independent?
While they are called “independent” medical exams, they often are not exactly independent. When the defense hires a doctor to examine you, they want them to look for facts that help them:
- Your injuries aren’t as bad as you said
- Your remaining function is more than you claimed
- Your disabilities aren’t as limiting as you said
- The original doctor’s records are wrong
- Your injury is altogether fake.
Often, they will not find everything they are looking for, but an IME can cast doubt on your condition, call into question your doctor’s statements, and maybe even make you look untrustworthy.
Should I Say Yes to an IME?
Often, you cannot actually refuse an IME if you want to move forward with your case. You may have medical records that say you were injured and that you are unable to work, and your injuries were really bad, but fairness requires that the other side get a chance to gather evidence about your condition, too.
The law allows them to request an IME that they pay for to get a second look at your condition, function, etc., assuming they provide proper notice.
There may be some exceptions, and there are certainly situations where an IME is not actually reasonable or necessary. In these cases, our New York personal injury attorneys might be able to object under certain rules, in which case we need to give a particular, reasonable excuse as to why the exam should not take place.
Is an IME Necessary?
Sometimes an IME isn’t really necessary or would be unreasonable, such as in these cases:
- The injury is so obvious that no one needs to examine it, e.g., an amputated leg or obvious facial burns.
- Your injuries already healed, and there is nothing to find in an IME.
- There is a problem with the requested doctor, e.g., there’s a personal conflict of interest or they are not qualified. Note that this will likely not stop the IME altogether, but it could require the defendant to pick a different doctor.
All of these are very fact-specific issues the judge would need to assess on a case-by-case and injury-by-injury basis.
Doesn’t HIPAA or Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Stop This?
HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) usually protects your medical records from disclosure. Moreover, doctor-patient confidentiality usually stops a doctor who examined you from being able to disclose that information without your permission.
When you file a lawsuit for an injury, your medical history and records become a necessary part of the case. This essentially means you waive both HIPAA requirements and doctor-patient confidentiality, allowing your doctors to discuss the case, talk about your treatment, and share that information with the court.
This is especially true when it comes to an IME, where the doctor is hired to examine you specifically so they can talk in court about your otherwise private health information.
Other times, an IME might not help them, but having another doctor review your records will. This is especially common in medical malpractice cases, where the treatment that already happened – not your current condition or future needs – is at issue. In this situation, they would request your medical records during discovery, then have their own doctor review the records; they would not necessarily need to examine you.
IMEs in Workers’ Compensation
IMEs work a little bit differently in a Workers’ Compensation case. While some personal injury cases might require an IME, they are usually a basic part of any Workers’ Compensation claim and are used much more frequently there. You usually cannot say no to an IME under the rules of that system.
Our attorneys do not handle Workers’ Compensation claims, but we do handle work injury lawsuits against third parties. If you underwent an IME as part of your initial claim, it is possible the defendant in your personal injury lawsuit might want to see a copy of the report from your IME. You should be given a copy of the report, and they can ask for records like this that you might have in your possession.
Because you cannot say no to the IME under your Workers’ Compensation claim, the existence of that report is something we will often just have to deal with as your lawyers when it comes time to file your injury lawsuit.
Call Our New York Personal Injury Attorneys Today
Call The Carrion Law Firm’s Bronx, NY personal injury lawyers at (718) 841-0083 for a free case evaluation.