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Office Hours: |
Monday 8a-6p
Tuesday Closed
Wednesday 8a-6p
Thursday 8a-6p
Friday 7:30a-2:30p |
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Chiropractors Fighting for
Patient Rights
Recently Doctors of Chiropractic have stepped up the
fight for their patient rights. In several different US
states the issues have made it to the courtrooms. In one
such action in the state of Washington, the Washington
State Chiropractic Association (WSCA), recently filed a
formal complaint with the Office of the Insurance
Commissioner (OIC) against Regence/Blue Shield. The
complaint, filed April 10th, 2001 seeks relief for
actions and contemplated actions by Regence/Blue Shield
against chiropractors and other complementary and
alternative care professionals. The purpose of the
lawsuit is to get Regence/Blue Shield to abide by the
"Patient Bill of Rights" state law that allows patients
to see their chiropractors without a prior physician
referral, and requires disclosure of utilization
management guidelines for healthcare providers,
including chiropractic and alternative providers. ``The
WSCA wants nothing more than for Regence to accept and
follow state insurance laws without resorting to tactics
that will blunt the effect and purpose of these laws,''
stated John Peick, attorney for the WSCA.
In another action ten Alabama chiropractors have filed
suit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BC/BS) of
Alabama for discriminating against chiropractors. The
suit alleges two antitrust violations of the Sherman
Act: restraint of trade or commerce in an agreement with
HealthSouth Corp., and monopolizing or attempting to
monopolize health care reimbursement services in
Alabama. Along with other issues the suit also alleges
that BC/BS has engaged in establishing severely
restrictive benefit limits for chiropractic services
that are arbitrary and without reasonable justification
and reimbursing chiropractors at a much lower rate than
the reimbursements paid to other providers for
comparable services.
In still another legal battle the New York State
Chiropractic Association, in conjunction with several
individual doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic
patients, has filed suit against seven of the largest
health plans and managed care networks in New York
state. The suit alleges the insurance industry's
apparent failure to comply with the requirements set
down in the New York Chiropractic Insurance Equality
Law, a law designed to protect patient's rights. The
suit charges the plans with fee discrimination;
unreasonable fee and benefit limits; improper
restrictions on the scope of chiropractic practice and
the services chiropractors provide to health plan
beneficiaries; as well as other practices that
discriminate against chiropractic patients and their
doctors.
Recently more of these types of actions are being taken
on behalf of chiropractic patients. The goal of all of
these is always to allow patients the right to choose
chiropractic care with out having any additional
hardships or discrimination. As more people are going to
chiropractors and demanding that these services be
available, more of these types of actions will be
brought up to protect and ensure the patient's rights. |
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