Auto Accident Chiropractor in Des Moines | Champion Chiropractic
If you were in a car accident, get checked out — even if you feel okay right now.
Champion Chiropractic & Spinal Injury is in Clive, Iowa. We treat people hurt in car crashes across the Des Moines area, and we write the kind of medical records that hold up when an insurance company pushes back. The clinic is run by Justin Luneburg, DC, FPSC(C).
Why get checked out if you feel fine?
Because adrenaline hides pain.
After a crash your body floods with stress hormones. They mask soreness for hours, sometimes for a day or two. A lot of people walk away from a wreck feeling shaken but okay, then wake up the next morning unable to turn their head.
Getting examined does two things. It finds anything that needs attention now. And it creates a record of how you were right after the crash — which matters later if your symptoms turn out to be real.
What to do after a crash
Get examined. Even if you feel fine.
Call your own insurance company and report the crash. Do this no matter whose fault it was.
Take pictures. Both cars, the scene, and anything you can see on your body.
Go slow on recorded statements. If the other driver's insurance company calls asking you to record a statement, remember that you can't describe an injury nobody has examined yet. Whether to give a statement, and when, is a question for a lawyer — not for us.
Keep everything. Bills, mileage to appointments, days of work you missed, and the things you couldn't do that you'd normally do.
How car accident claims work in Iowa
This is general information, not legal advice. For your own case, talk to a lawyer.
Iowa is a "fault" state
There's no no-fault system here. That means the at-fault driver's insurance is who pays. If the other driver caused the crash, you're dealing with their insurance company — and their insurance company works for them, not for you.
Iowa's required insurance minimums are low
Iowa only requires drivers to carry $20,000 per person for injuries, $40,000 per crash, and $15,000 for property damage (Iowa Code § 321A.1(11)).
That's not much. One ER visit with a CT scan can eat most of $20,000 before you've had a single treatment.
You may have coverage you don't know about
This one is worth five minutes of your time.
Under Iowa Code § 516A.1, your own policy has to include coverage for uninsured and underinsured drivers unless you signed a written rejection. Plenty of people assume they turned it down and never actually signed anything.
If the at-fault driver has $20,000 in coverage and your injuries cost more than that, this is the coverage that fills the gap. It's worth having a lawyer request your policy file to find out whether you have it.
You may also have medical payments coverage (people call it "MedPay"). It's optional in Iowa, and it pays medical bills no matter who caused the crash. Check your policy.
Being partly at fault doesn't necessarily end your claim
Under Iowa Code § 668.3, you can still recover as long as your share of the fault isn't greater than the combined share of everyone you're claiming against. Your recovery gets reduced by your percentage.
You generally have two years
Iowa Code § 614.1(2) gives you two years to file a lawsuit for a personal injury.
But when that clock starts, and what else applies, depends on the situation — it's paused for minors, claims against the state or a city have their own rules, and a claim against your own insurance company is a contract claim that your policy may limit differently. Don't rely on a general rule for your specific case.
Do you need X-rays?
Not always, and any clinic that X-rays everyone who walks in the door isn't practicing good medicine.
Emergency rooms use two well-tested checklists to decide who needs imaging right away — the Canadian C-Spine Rule and the NEXUS criteria. They're both good at what they were built for: finding a broken neck or a serious dislocation before someone goes home.
Here's what those checklists were never designed to find: the strained ligaments, stretched joint capsules and torn muscle fibers that make up most crash injuries. You can pass both checklists and still be genuinely hurt. That's not a loophole — it's just what the tools were built to do.
We image when there's a clinical reason to, and we write down what the reason was.
Why your medical records matter more than you'd think
Whether you were hurt and whether your records show you were hurt are two different things. Only the second one is visible to an insurance adjuster.
Records that cause problems usually have the same gaps: no description of how the crash actually happened, findings written down as vague words like "tender" with nothing measurable, no record of what you couldn't do, no explanation for why treatment continued as long as it did, and unexplained gaps where you stopped coming in.
What we write down instead: how your body moved during the crash, exam findings recorded as numbers we can re-measure at your next visit, the specific things you can't do right now, why we're recommending what we're recommending, and a referral out when something falls outside what chiropractic should handle.
"But my car barely had a scratch"
You'll hear this from adjusters. Sometimes it comes with photos of your bumper attached.
Here's the honest version: how much a car is damaged is an imperfect predictor of how much a person is hurt. Not a meaningless one — an imperfect one. Researchers genuinely disagree about this, and studies exist pointing both directions.
We're not going to tell you your bumper doesn't matter at all. We're going to tell you that what we examine and measure is you, not your car.
Common questions
Do I need a referral to see a chiropractor in Iowa?
No. Iowa licenses chiropractors as direct-access providers. Just call.
I already went to the ER. Do I still need to come in?
Usually yes. The ER's job is to rule out things that could kill you today. Managing a soft-tissue injury over the following weeks is a different job.
I felt fine at the scene and terrible two days later. Is that normal?
Common enough that it's worth getting looked at. Delayed soreness doesn't prove you're injured, and it doesn't prove you aren't.
Do you work with attorneys?
Yes, regularly. See our page for attorneys and paralegals.
What if I can't pay right now?
Call and ask. Arrangements for crash patients depend on what coverage is available, and we'd rather talk it through than have you skip care.
Come get checked out
Champion Chiropractic & Spinal Injury
11050 Hickman Road, Clive, IA 50325
(515) 777-1014
Serving Clive, West Des Moines, Des Moines, Urbandale, Waukee, Johnston and the surrounding metro.
Related: Whiplash Treatment in Des Moines · For Attorneys
General health and legal information only. Not medical or legal advice, and reading this doesn't make you our patient. Go to an emergency room if you have severe pain, numbness or weakness in an arm or leg, loss of bladder or bowel control, or a headache that keeps getting worse.
