By: Julie A. Lorincz, Personal Injury Attorney
Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault Co., L.P.A.
Yes, an insurance company may review relevant parts of your medical history after a car accident. However, having arthritis, degenerative disc disease, a previous surgery, chronic pain, or an old injury does not automatically prevent you from recovering compensation.
This is one of the most common concerns we hear from injured people.
You may have lived with occasional back pain for years. Maybe you previously injured your neck at work, had knee surgery, or received treatment after an earlier accident. Then another driver causes a crash, your symptoms become much worse, and suddenly you need additional medical care or can no longer do the things you were doing before.
The insurance company may look at your records and say, “You already had this problem.”
That does not necessarily tell the whole story.
The important question is not simply whether you had a medical condition before the accident. The real question is whether the accident caused a new injury or made your existing condition worse.
“A pre-existing condition does not erase the impact of a new accident. The important question is whether the accident caused a new injury or made an existing condition worse, and that is determined by evidence, not assumptions made by insurance companies.” – Julie A. Lorincz, Personal Injury Attorney, Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault
What Is a Pre-Existing Condition?
A pre-existing condition is any medical condition, injury, or physical limitation that existed before your car accident.
It does not have to be a serious or disabling condition. It may be something you occasionally discussed with your doctor, an injury that had mostly healed, or a condition that appeared on an old X-ray or MRI.
Common pre-existing conditions may include:
- Arthritis or degenerative disc disease
- Previous neck, back, shoulder, or knee injuries
- Prior surgeries
- Chronic pain conditions
- Earlier workplace or motor vehicle injuries
Many people live active and productive lives with these conditions. They work, take care of their homes, spend time with their families, exercise, travel, and complete their normal daily activities.
Then an accident changes something.
Once occasional pain may become constant. A manageable condition may begin interfering with sleep or work. A person who had not needed treatment for years may suddenly need physical therapy, injections, medication, surgery, or ongoing medical care.
The difference between your condition before the accident and afterward can become a central part of your personal injury claim.
Can You Still Have a Claim If You Were Already Injured?
Yes. You may still have a personal injury claim if the accident caused a new injury or aggravated a preexisting condition.
You cannot claim that the accident originally caused a medical condition that existed beforehand. You may, however, be able to recover compensation for the additional pain, treatment, limitations, and other harm caused by the accident.
Consider someone who experienced occasional lower back pain before a collision. The person still worked full time, drove without difficulty, completed household chores, and rarely needed medical treatment.
After the collision, the pain becomes constant. The person can no longer sit through a full workday, has trouble sleeping, needs physical therapy, and cannot lift a child or carry groceries without pain.
The earlier back condition did not disappear from the person’s history. However, the accident may have significantly changed the person’s symptoms, treatment needs, and ability to function.
That change matters.
A pre-existing condition does not give another driver permission to make your health worse without being held responsible for the additional harm caused.
Why Does the Insurance Company Want Your Medical Records?
Insurance companies review medical records because they want to determine which injuries and expenses they believe are related to the accident.
If you report a neck injury, the adjuster may look for earlier neck complaints. If you injured your back, the adjuster may search for previous back treatment, imaging, surgeries, chiropractic visits, or pain management records.
The company may compare your condition before the accident with your symptoms and treatment afterward. It may also look for references to previous accidents, workplace injuries, arthritis, degenerative changes, or chronic medical conditions.
Some of this review is a normal part of investigating an injury claim. The problem arises when an insurance company uses a single note, an old diagnosis, or an earlier complaint to suggest that the accident caused no injury at all.
Medical histories are rarely that simple.
A person can have arthritis and also suffer a new injury. Someone can recover from an earlier back injury and later injure the same area again. A previously stable condition can become painful and limiting after the force of a collision.
The presence of an old diagnosis does not automatically explain your current symptoms.
How Can Insurance Use Your Medical History Against You?
An insurance company may use your medical history to question whether the crash caused your injuries or to argue that your claim is worth less.
The adjuster may claim that your pain existed before the accident, that your condition is caused entirely by aging, or that you would have required the same treatment even if the crash had never happened.
The company may also argue that the accident caused only a temporary flare-up rather than a lasting aggravation. If your medical records contain different descriptions of your symptoms or previous injuries, the insurer may point to those differences as a reason to question your credibility.
These arguments can be frustrating, especially when you know how much your life changed after the collision.
Before the accident, perhaps you were working without restrictions and needed little treatment. Afterward, you may be attending frequent appointments, missing work, relying on family members, or struggling through once-routine activities.
That full picture is important. A claim should not be evaluated solely by finding an old diagnosis in a medical chart.
What Does Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition Mean?
The worsening may involve more severe pain, new symptoms, reduced mobility, additional medical treatment, missed work, or greater difficulty completing normal activities.
For example, a person with mild arthritis in the knee may have been walking, working, and climbing stairs before the crash. After the knee strikes the dashboard during a collision, the person may experience swelling, instability, increased pain, and a need for treatment that was not necessary before.
The arthritis existed before the accident, but the person’s actual symptoms and limitations changed because of the collision.
The same issue can arise with neck injuries, back conditions, shoulder problems, previous concussions, and many other medical conditions.
When an insurance company argues that everything is pre-existing, medical evidence can help distinguish the earlier condition from the new or increased harm caused by the accident.
What Medical Evidence Can Help Your Claim?
Medical records help show when your symptoms began, how they developed, and how the accident affected your health.
Helpful evidence may include:
- Medical records from before and after the accident
- Diagnostic testing, including X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans
- Physician opinions about whether the accident worsened your condition
- Work restrictions and treatment recommendations
- Documentation showing changes in your daily activities
Earlier records may show that you had not sought treatment for a condition in several years, that your symptoms had been controlled, or that you had no previous complaints involving a particular area of the body.
Records created after the crash can document new pain, numbness, weakness, headaches, limited movement, swelling, or other symptoms. They may also show whether your doctor imposed work restrictions, recommended physical therapy, ordered diagnostic testing, referred you to a specialist, or discussed surgery.
Your description of the accident and your symptoms should be honest and consistent. Tell your medical provider where you are hurting, when the symptoms began, and how they affect your daily life.
Do not focus only on your worst symptom. A person who concentrates on severe back pain may forget to mention a developing headache, shoulder pain, or numbness. If those symptoms become worse later, the absence of early documentation may give the insurance company another argument.
This is not about creating a claim. It is about making sure your medical records accurately reflect what you are experiencing.
Why the Before and After Comparison Matters
Insurance companies often focus on diagnoses, but a diagnosis alone does not show how an accident changed someone’s life.
A medical record may show that you had degenerative disc disease before the accident. That does not explain whether you were working, sleeping comfortably, taking care of your home, or living without significant restrictions before the crash.
The better question is: What could you do before the accident, and what are you struggling to do now?
You may have been able to work a full shift before the collision but now need frequent breaks. You may have handled your own yardwork, driven long distances, exercised, played with your grandchildren, or slept through the night before the crash.
Those everyday changes can help show the real effect of an injury.
Medical records are important, but they may not tell the entire story. Family members, friends, coworkers, employment records, photographs, calendars, and other evidence may also help show how your abilities and daily life changed after the accident.
Why Should You Be Honest About Previous Injuries?
You should tell your attorney and medical providers about previous injuries, surgeries, accidents, and medical conditions.
Many people are afraid to mention an old injury because they think it will ruin their claim. Hiding it is usually far more damaging than explaining it honestly.
Insurance companies frequently investigate prior treatment. They may obtain earlier records or find references to an old condition in your current records. If you said you had never experienced back pain and the insurer later finds years of back treatment, the company may use that inconsistency to challenge everything else you say.
A previous injury does not automatically destroy a case. A credibility problem can make a valid case much harder to present.
Being honest allows your attorney to understand your medical history, review the relevant records, anticipate the insurer’s arguments, and explain what truly changed after the accident.
You do not need to remember every appointment or exact date. Say so when you are unsure. An honest answer such as “I had treatment several years ago, but I do not remember the exact date” is better than guessing or denying that treatment occurred.
Should You Sign the Insurance Company’s Medical Authorization?
Medical records related to your injuries may be necessary to evaluate an Ohio personal injury claim. However, that does not automatically mean the liability insurance company needs unrestricted access to your entire medical history.
Some authorizations are limited to specific providers, injuries, or treatment dates. Others are written broadly and may allow the insurance company to request years of unrelated medical records.
Before signing, check:
- Which doctors and medical providers are included
- How far back does the authorization allow the insurer to search
- Whether the request is limited to injuries related to the accident
- Whether the insurer may speak directly with your medical providers
The insurance adjuster may describe the authorization as routine, but you should still read it carefully.
For example, if you injured your neck or back in an Ohio car accident, earlier records involving those same areas may be relevant. That does not necessarily mean the insurance company needs every record from every provider you have seen.
Relevant medical information should not be hidden. Those records may help show whether the accident caused a new injury or aggravated a pre-existing condition.
The goal is to provide the information reasonably related to your personal injury claim without automatically giving the insurance company access to unrelated parts of your medical history.
Before signing a broad medical authorization, consider having an Ohio personal injury attorney review it. Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault helps injured people across Northwest Ohio understand insurance requests and determine which medical records may be relevant to their car accident claims.
Common Mistakes That Can Hurt Your Claim
Even a valid claim can become more difficult when the medical history is incomplete, treatment is delayed, or the insurance company finds inconsistencies.
Common mistakes include:
- Waiting too long to seek medical treatment
- Hiding or minimizing a previous injury
- Missing follow-up appointments
- Signing a broad medical authorization without understanding it
- Giving a recorded statement without preparation
- Posting information on social media that may be misunderstood
A delay in treatment can make it harder to connect your symptoms to the collision, particularly when you already have a history involving the same body part.
Many people also minimize their symptoms because they are trying to remain positive or do not want to complain. If pain is affecting your sleep, work, movement, or daily activities, explain that clearly to your medical provider.
If transportation, scheduling, cost, or another issue prevents you from attending treatment, communicate with your provider. An unexplained gap in care may allow the insurance company to argue that you recovered, even when that is not what happened.
Social media can also complicate a claim. A photograph from a family gathering does not show how much pain you experienced before, during, or after the activity. An insurance company may still try to use the image out of context.
Learn more about recorded statements after a car accident and your legal rights.
How Can a Personal Injury Attorney Help?
Cases involving pre-existing conditions often require more than simply collecting medical bills.
An attorney can review your earlier medical history, compare it with your post-accident records, and identify evidence showing how your condition changed. This may include reviewing diagnostic tests, obtaining medical opinions, documenting work restrictions, and developing a timeline of your symptoms and treatment.
An attorney can also respond when an insurance company takes an old medical note out of context or argues that every current problem existed before the collision.
Most importantly, your attorney should take the time to understand how the accident affected your actual life.
At Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault, our clients work directly with a dedicated attorney. We understand that an injury claim is not simply a collection of diagnoses and medical bills. It involves the work you have missed, the activities you can no longer enjoy, the pain you experience, and the concerns you have about your future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an insurance company see my entire medical history after a car accident?
An insurance company may request medical records that it believes are relevant to your injury claim, but that does not mean you should automatically provide unrestricted access to every medical record. Review any authorization carefully and speak with an attorney when the request appears overly broad.
Can I recover compensation if I already had back or neck pain?
You may still be able to recover compensation if the accident caused a new injury or made your previous pain or condition worse. Medical evidence showing the difference between your condition before and after the accident will be important.
What if my MRI shows arthritis or degenerative disc disease?
An MRI showing arthritis or degeneration does not automatically mean the accident caused no injury. Many people have degenerative changes without serious symptoms. The issue is whether the collision caused new symptoms or aggravated the underlying condition.
Should I tell my attorney about an old accident?
Yes. Tell your attorney about previous accidents, injuries, surgeries, and medical treatment. That information allows your attorney to prepare for the arguments the insurance company may raise.
What if I had stopped treating before the accident?
A period without treatment may help demonstrate that your earlier condition was stable or manageable before the collision. Your current medical records should still clearly document the new or worsening symptoms you experienced afterward.
Can insurance deny my claim because of a pre-existing condition?
An insurer may attempt to deny or reduce a claim based on a pre-existing condition. However, the existence of that condition does not automatically mean the denial is justified. The available medical and factual evidence must be evaluated.
Speak With an Ohio Car Accident Attorney About Your Medical History
If you were injured in an Ohio car accident and are worried that an insurance company will use your medical history or a pre-existing condition against you, do not assume that you have no claim.
You are not expected to have had perfect health before another driver injured you.
You may have had arthritis, an old back or neck injury, a previous surgery, chronic pain, or occasional symptoms before the crash. The important question is whether the accident caused a new injury or made your existing condition worse.
Before signing a broad medical authorization, giving a recorded statement, or accepting the insurance company’s conclusion that your injuries were pre-existing, take the time to understand your rights.
Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault has helped injured individuals and families across Northwest Ohio with car accident and personal injury claims for more than 70 years. Our attorneys understand how insurance companies evaluate medical histories, prior injuries, and claims involving aggravated pre-existing conditions.
Our personal injury attorneys will listen to what happened, review how your health and daily life changed after the accident, and explain the options available based on your individual circumstances.
Contact Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault for a free consultation with an Ohio personal injury attorney.
Call us today. We can help. 419-843-6663
Julie’s practice at Gallon, Takacs & Boissoneault is dedicated to …
