How to Find Out If Someone Has Been in an Accident

An accident may be recorded by several organizations such as police departments and hospitals. These databases help individuals see if someone has had a history of accidents. This history may help insurance companies, police departments, or work places know if someone has a long history of health concerns. The reasons for knowing this information are various, including knowing if insurance fraud is being committed or to see if a person is an insurance risk. For whatever the reason, a person's health record is nominally protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. A third party, however, can still view some information in a person's health record when a person gives consent. This consent may come in the form of an application waiver, a background check, or a loan application.

Instructions

• 1

  Contact a person's auto insurance company. This step helps see if the person has been in an auto accident in their past. When a person applies for a car, they give consent for the auto loan company to see that person's insurance history. That insurance history records any auto accidents that the person may have gone through.

• 2

  Investigate the Department of Education. Students' medical records are publicly knowledgeable because of public health risks in schools and school activities. Although it may not be a huge portion of the person's life, the student files may cover several accidents during the person's students life.

• 3

  See if credit card companies may give information about health records. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allows financial institutes to know some medical information about a client. Credit card histories may include hospital visits or physical therapy sessions, which may indicate that the person had an accident of some kind.

• 4

  Contact past or current employers. Employers need to know some aspects of your health history to cover liabilities. An accident in a worker's past is usually verbalized to the employer to cover the worker and employer's bases. A past employer or the person's current work place may divulge this specific information.

• 5

  Research the Medical Information Bureau. The Medial Information Bureau is a database containing health information on clients across health insurance companies. The information includes specific conditions that may be the result of an accident injury. The information in the Bureau's database is coded, so prior knowledge of the medical coding is needed to find out if a person had an accident in the past.