Today's Practice: Changing the Business of Medicine TP2018Q2DigitalEditionWeb | Page 53

Adjusters
Paul A. Samakow, Esq.
A drunk driver struck a vehicle, causing an eight-year old
child in the car to hit his face and lose four teeth. The
adjuster said kids lose teeth all of the time, it’s not a big
deal.
A man’s wife was killed in a car accident. After two years
he returned to dating. Unbelievably, his girlfriend was
then killed while riding as a passenger in his car. The
insurance adjuster said that the man’s anguish after the
death of his wife was so high that it couldn’t get much
worse.
A woman made a claim against her boyfriend, who caused
an automobile accident injuring her, because she needed
her medical bills paid and her wages reimbursed. The
adjuster asked: didn’t the woman truly love her boyfriend,
and why is she suing him?
An adjuster refused to pay a man for the wages he lost when
he had take time from his job to attend doctor’s appoint-
ments and therapy. The adjuster offered that the man
should have gone during his lunch hour. (Note that it is
mostly impossible to travel back and forth, and spend any
reasonable time for the administration of therapy in an
hour).
In reviewing medical records for a woman who decades
prior had a sexually transmitted disease, a claims adjust-
er made a condescending comment, as if the adjuster, a
male, was at a frat party. The woman’s attorney pointed
out that her accident injuries were not a result of a
disease.
An attorney offered the following observation:
I have also come to believe that this is a good field to
seek employment for misanthropes who are not both-
ered by efforts to belittle and bring down fellow human
beings. For those who have never outgrown the mindset
of a mean child who pulls the wings off of bugs while
they are still alive, this can be a field where they can earn
a paycheck for having a mentality like that.
“All of this changed in the early
1990's. Insurers went from
trusted advisors to massive
profit centers.”
I tell my clients that the reason I have a job is because
the insurance companies do not do what they should.
Many insurance adjusters should be ashamed of them-
selves. Fiduciary and Indemnity principles are mostly
gone in today’s insurance claims world.
Doctors: write complete and thorough reports, and
state affirmatively that the injuries were caused by the
collision. Don’t give claims adjusters more ammuni-
tion with which to victimize your patients further.
meet the author:
Paul A. Samakow, Esq.
Speaker and Consultant
The Business Answer
Paul A. Samakow is a business consultant for orthopedists
across the country, and an trial attorney in Maryland and
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battles insurance companies and big businesses that will not
accept full responsibility for the harms and losses they cause.
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website: http://www.samakowlaw.com/book.
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