CHIROPRACTIC AROUND THE WORLD
Chiropractor who claimed he could cure cancer convicted of false advertising fined $29,500 after pleading guilty to 13 charges filed by Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
A New South Wales chiropractor who claimed he could prevent, treat and cure cancer has been convicted of false advertising and fined $29,500 in a landmark court case.
The chiropractor was sentenced at the Downing Centre local court in Sydney on Wednesday after pleading guilty to 13 charges filed by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency last year.
He was fined for using testimonials in his advertising, which is not permitted when advertising regulated health services, and convicted of unlawfully advertising a regulated health service.
Chiropractic Board of Australia ‘should be sacked’ over members' contentious claims.
It is the first time a chiropractor has faced court and been convicted of false advertising.
The Ahpra chief executive, Martin Fletcher, said claiming to be able to treat serious illnesses through unproven methods was both unethical and illegal.
“In her ruling, magistrate Alison Viney said that while the practitioner personally may not have loaded the advertising on to the website in question, he could not deny responsibility,” Fletcher said.
“This is an important lesson for others who are advertising regulated health services. Today’s outcome is a reminder to all of us as health consumers and patients that, if an advertisement seems too good to be true, it probably is. Make sure you ask your health practitioner what evidence they have to make these claims and, if you’re still unsure, seek a second opinion.”
A public health physician and therapeutic goods policy expert, Dr Ken Harvey, has long called for tougher penalties for chiropractors making false claims about treatments.
“We’ve been waiting for a court case that would provide definite sanctions that might deter these people... and I think it is very important that a substantial fine has been implemented,” Harvey said.
“Hopefully now any unethical chiropractors will realise that they need to obey the national law and if they don’t there will be serious consequences. Well done to Ahpra and the chiropractic board for seeing this through.”
The chairman of the Chiropractic Board of Australia, Dr Wayne Minter, welcomed the court decision, describing it as a win for public protection and a warning to anyone advertising health services in a way that contravened national law.
“The board has been upfront with the profession that if their advertising is not compliant with the law, they will be held to account,” he said.
Chiropractors using 'unacceptable' false advertising, says board
Amember of the group Friends of Science in Medicine, Ken McLeod, has made dozens of complaints about chiropractors to Ahpra and had compiled a database of more than 700 over the past few years.
“This court case comes shamefully late in the proceedings, given the regulators have been aware of these dodgy chiros for many years and yet bugger-all has been done,” he said.
“Quackery is endemic in that profession and I believe there should be a Senate inquiry into the profession because taxpayer money is paying for these so-called medical treatments.”
Advertisements uncovered by Guardian Australia show the chiropractor advertising chiropractic to treat babies and promoting false claims that vaccines can give people cancer. He also advocated chiropractic to treat infertility.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/15/ chiropractor-who-claimed-he-could-cure-cancer-convicted-of-falseadvertising
Missouri hospital and clinic to pay $34Mto settle false claims suit
AMissouri hospital, clinic and infusion center have agreed to pay $34 million to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged they defrauded Medicare.
The suit alleged that Mercy Hospital Springfield and its affiliate, Mercy Clinic Springfield Communities, had an improper financial agreement that provided kickbacks to oncologists based on the value of their chemotherapy referrals to the infusion center.
“When physicians are rewarded financially for referring patients to hospitals or other health care providers, it can affect their medical judgment, resulting in over-utilization of services that drives up health care costs for everyone,” said Chad Readier, the acting assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division.
The $34 million settlement is almost 10 percent of the total ($360 million) that the Justice Department recovered from all hospitals and outpatient clinics under the False Claims Act last year.
Under the act, the whistleblower who filed the federal suit against his employers, Dr. Viran Roger Holden, will receive $5.44 million of the settlement.
Source:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/health-care/articlel52190632.html EZX3
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