Primary care physicians are not accustomed to caring for auto accident injuries.
These doctors often complain of the constant requests for medical records, the requests to be deposed, and the difficulties associated with filing medical bills with automobile insurance companies.
Your primary care doctor handles a lot of every day illnesses, but probably not the kind of injuries sustained in car accidents.
Whiplash, bulging discs, and soft tissue injuries require proper diagnosis, specialized care, and documentation.
Physicians who specialize in car accidents not only know how to treat your injury, but understand how to document and bill the auto insurance companies.
This documentation is essential in getting you the best possible outcome if you bring a case against the at-fault driver or his insurance company. Your average family doctor does not have experience with this level of documentation, and therefore may miss an important piece of documentation you need.
Sometimes car accident cases cannot be settled and litigation is inevitable.
If your case goes to trial, the doctor may be subpoenaed to testify or, at the very least, get deposed. A family care doctor (generally) is more familiar with treating colds, stomach pains, and twisted ankles, than testifying in open court.
The process can be very time consuming, and in turn, very costly because the doctor won't be able to care for their usual patients. Therefore, family doctors gladly pass this responsibility onto physicians that specialize in auto accident injuries, because they are familiar with the legal process and present a better case on your behalf.
If you are in a car accident, the doctor must bill auto insurance instead of health insurance companies. There are different rules, regulations, forms, stipulations, limits, the list goes on!
Therefore, your family doctor, unfamiliar with the auto insurance billing, would rather refer you to someone who knows how to do it.
Yet another reason there are doctors who specialize in car accidents.