Confessions of a Quackbuster

This blog deals with healthcare consumer protection, and is therefore about quackery, healthfraud, chiropractic, and other forms of so-Called "Alternative" Medicine (sCAM).

Monday, January 31, 2005

Another Chiropractor Calls It Quits

The nightmare is just about over. After 18 years in practise I have called it quits. I don't believe that the profession is not going to get better. The problem is multy faceted.

(1) From a business point of view we are not expanding our market share. We have doubled the number of DCs in the last 20 years and yet we are still seeing only 7% of the population. I have seen the number of DCs grow from 20 to 85 in our area in the past 18 years.

(2) Insurance is also problematic . I am presently being reimbursed less for a manipulation now then I was when I initially opened in 87. Co-pays used to be 20%
of the bill and now I have seen co-pays up to 45$ per visit.

(3) Managemant companies that I have investigated want you to employ procedures that I don't agree with.

Incidently they are also suffering . They are marketing to accupunturists.

(4) I don't see our reputations changing. We are still seen as a marginal profession. This proven by the fact that we are still stuck at 7% for the past 30 years.

(5) We are the wild west of health care. The patient never knows what he is going to get when goes into a DC's office. One office is EBM and the next office has the patient getting mucsle tested while he has fecal matter on his chest or maybe he is receiving a homeopathic potion for a miasm that ancestors gave him. When an expose reveals the nonsense the wagons circle and nothing changes. The state boards refuse to protect the public. I guess the foxes are guarding the hen houses.

My only regrets is that I will miss many of my patients. I will looking for a EBM DC or maybe an osteopath who can safely care for my patients.