How attorneys should vet medical providers for PI cases

For a personal injury attorney, the choice of medical provider is one of the highest-leverage decisions in a case. The right provider gives your client appropriate care and produces a clean, defensible record. The wrong one can undermine both. Here’s how to vet before you refer.

Start with credentials

Credentialing is the floor, not the ceiling — but skipping it is how cases get exposed. At minimum, confirm the basics before a client ever walks in the door.

• Active NPI and a provider taxonomy that matches the treatment.
• Current, unrestricted state license with the relevant board.
• Active malpractice coverage with adequate limits.
• No exclusions on the OIG-LEIE or SAM lists.

Match the specialty to the injury

A general clinic is not the right destination for a suspected traumatic brain injury, and an imaging center is not where soft-tissue rehab belongs. Referring to a provider whose specialty fits the injury produces better outcomes and documentation that withstands scrutiny.

Look at documentation discipline

When a case is evaluated, the medical record carries the weight. Providers who keep consistent, structured notes — clear baselines, objective findings, and a coherent treatment arc — give you far more to work with than providers who don’t.

A referral is a clinical decision and an evidentiary one at the same time. Treat it that way.

Confirm capacity before you promise care

A provider who can’t see your client for six weeks isn’t actually available. Capacity and geography matter as much as credentials when a client needs care now.

Let the network do the legwork

MediLink verifies every clinic against NPI, license, and malpractice coverage before it can receive a referral, and matches cases by specialty, geography, and current capacity. Instead of maintaining your own provider rolodex and re-checking it by hand, you refer into a network that has already done the vetting — and you keep visibility on the case the whole way through.