An Afternoon With Insurance Companies

It’s the last thing I want to do - spend all afternoon talking to insurance companies. But I had to. We were in a rear end collision two weeks ago. Luckily the driver had insurance and assumed all liability. That included a trip to the urgent care center for a sore neck. We used our health insurance at the visit, but their insurance eventually paid for it and direct deposited the funds in to our bank account. So I checked the portal and saw that the claim was processed yesterday and called my insurance company to tell them that I owed them money for the urgent care visit. It took at least thirty minutes to figure out what to do - put on hold, taking to supervisor, put on hold, etc. I asked her if this was not a common occurrence since they didn’t seem to know what to do. I just needed an address to send a check! I was doing them a favor - actually - just doing the right and honest thing. It wasn’t a huge amount but the idea of not reporting the incident goes against my grain. In the end it occurred to me that maybe people don’t report these sorts of things and that’s why the insurance company didn’t know how to respond. Yes, they work directly with the “other” insurance companies to collect funds after accidents, but those are probably for serious and expensive claims. I hope that’s not the case. I’m thinking I might write a letter to the insurance company about this experience. But how would they know if a claim is accident related? I think it’s up to the user to report it. How likely is that? 

Car Rear Ended on the GW Parkway

If only you could restart the day and make other decisions. We weren’t going to go in to town this morning for a walk but decided to at the last minute. We got on the GW Parkway as usual and soon after saw the “merge left” signs. We always merge before getting to the end. So the blinker was on and we moved left in to the lane that was already stopped up and crawling along for the ongoing road repairs that have been going on for the last several weeks. Then I heard the brakes squeal and a car hit us from behind. We called the police and the park police who told us to move along if there wasn’t serious injury or damage. At least it was reported. To make a long story short the day was ruined. Her front end was affected and our rear end was messed up enough that it is going to require body work. So the rest of the morning was spent talking to her insurance company to figure out next steps. Now we need to wait to hear from them and get the car repaired. We are not anticipating a hassle but one never knows. I just feel very shaken and out of sorts - my neck, knee and shoulder feel a bit odd. Having not been in an accident we weren’t sure what we needed to do. I took photos of everything but it wasn’t easy during rush hour on this very busy parkway. Rather than continue the ride to town we came home. No walk after all. If only we just stayed in the neighborhood today.