State Farm used Dr. Ed Trachtman 450 times in 5-year period

[Guest guest]

Can You Sue the Doctor that Examined You for the Insurance Company?

August 3, 2009

This blog post was prompted by Injury Board reader Willard Gatzke

from Colorado. In my last post re: neutral 3rd party observers sitting

in on examinations by insurance company doctors, Mr. Gatzke posted a

comment re: his story in Colorado and how these " for hire " doctors

terminated his long term medical benefits.

His comment got me thinking about what recourse, if any we have here

in Michigan against these " doctors " ? If you're a new reader,prior posts of mine

tell the story of

doctors hired by insurance companies who have had their licenses

revoked, have been the subject of investigation by the state, who have

failed out of medical school or have medical illnesses that prevent

them from performing a proper examination.

The question for readers of this InjuryBoard.com blog is, " what rights do I have

against these " hired guns " .

Well, in Michigan, not many, but it might be getting better. Since

there is no doctor patient relationship in these exams, holding the

doctor accountable for performing a 15 minute/less than

thorough/totally biased exam does not exist in Michigan.

But, if they injure you physically during the exam, you have a cause of action.

One of the more notorious insurance company medical examiners in

Michigan is Doctor Ed Trachtman. He is a favorite of insurance

companies looking to cut off benefits to their insureds. In fact, State Farm

used

over 450 times in a 5 year period. We see him often in our auto

accident cases where the insurance company is looking to cut off

medical benefits.

Without going into the hundred's of thousands of dollars he makes

each year from doing solely insurance company medical exams or any of

the other documented areas of bias including a medical condition that

prevents him from performing a proper exam, let's look at the time when

he actually physically injured a person while trying to perform an exam

for his employer, the insurance company.

Dyer v. Trachtman is the case. In this case, Mr. Dyer told Dr. Trachtman that

his doctor

said not to lift his shoulder above a certain level. Dr. Trachtman

ignored this and shoved the man's elbow up into the air and tore out

his shoulder. The Michigan courts allowed Mr. Dyer to file suit against

Dr. Trachtman and Dyer successfully sued Dr. Trachtman for the damage

he caused to Mr. Dyer's shoulder.

This isn't much protection from these insurance company doctors, but it's a

start. In fact, the House of Representatives drafted a bill that may provide

Michigan consumers even more protection from these predatory doctors. Stay tuned

for more information.....

http://grandrapids.injuryboard.com/automobile-accidents/can-you-sue-the-doctor-t\

hat-examined-you-for-the-insurance-company.aspx?googleid=268390