Readiing about Dave W's adventure and then returning home to fresh collection communication, prompts me to offer advice to those driving race cars, who may one day, get a ride from the track in an ambulance.
1) Have a card in your suit with your medical insurance provider information and phone numbers for your friends at the track. When you don't have your phone, and you are sitting in the hospital in your underwear, you need to be able to provide insurance info and be able to reach your friends/crew. The alternative is that they will call your wife .... which may not be what you want under those circumstances.
2) Advise everyone you talk to at the hospital that you were not in a motor vehicle accident. The hospital has processes in place for motor vehicle accidents that assume there will be expensive legal activities, which will be paid for by auto insurance companies. If you don't be loud, clear, and firm, you will have $20K worth of tests and scans done to you before they even know your name.
3) Don't let them cut off your suit to do these tests.
4) Be prepared to spend a month of your life dealing with sorting out the paperwork.
5) Do not expect the organization running the event to help you with any of it. In my case, when I contacted SCCA, yes, they sent me two forms, but Janet Farwell ceremoniously decreed that my competition license was immediately suspended, pending a new medical. This seemed her biggest concern. Considering that my license was expiring in a week and race season was over, This seemed unnecessarily oppressive. The bottom line is that you will be on your own to do everything that needs to be done.
Yes, it was a bad experience, to go with others I have had recently, but I expect it to all work out. Seven months later, I get several collection letters per month, which I follow up with calls to my insurance company, who assure me will be covered by them in due time. I also get letters from K&K denying payment on those same collection letters, because those are the responsibility of my primary provider. In the end, I expect my primary provider will pay all the claims, and K&K will cover my deductible. I of course, still have to fix the crashed race car and replace my racing suit (which was undamaged before I got to the hospital).
I won't go into the extended details, but it was a crash into a wall last November. I am not upset that I was provided with medical assistance as I have about 15 mins memory loss and another short period of confusion. I have seen pics of me standing beside the car and had no physical injuries. I clearly got my bell rung. I think that strapping me to a table, cutting off my suit, and doing scans of my entire body, was excessive. Once the tests were on the books, I was left sitting in my underwear in the waiting room. I got a ride back to the track, got in my truck and drove 18 hours home. Now I spend hours dealing with documentation and hoping it all works out in the end.
I am not trying to stop anyone from racing. I am suggesting that you prepare yourself and understand the situation. Every year, a few of us will live this experience.