I Was Investigated and This Is What I Learned
RISK MANAGEMENT
Miles Bodzin
DC
Many years ago, I was reported to my state licensing board by another chiropractor who did not like what I was teaching. It turns out that it’s not uncommon to be reported by another chiropractor.
The chiropractor thought it was unethical for me to teach chiropractors how to increase cash collections and patient retention. He was one of those who thought chiropractic was only good for pain relief, and anything more than a couple of adjustments was unnecessary. He must have felt I was some kind of mon ster for teaching doctors how to help people with long-term chiropractic care.
He filed a complaint with the board mainly over the financial plans we were helping doctors arrange with their patients. When a licensing board gets a complaint, they are obligated to investigate it. So, in this case, the board had to look into what I was doing.
One day I received a letter in the mail from the chiropractic licensing board saying they were investigating some of the claims I was making on my website. You see, when I first launched my website, it had information about how I did long-term chiropractic care with examples of before and after X-rays showing improved cervical curves. I was very proud of the results I got with my patients. In the letter, the board asked me to provide documentation for my claims that improving the cervical curve was of any benefit to the patient. I was dumbfounded as to why they needed me to do this, but the licensing board was asking for it, and I needed to produce it, or my license would be in jeopardy.
He was one of those who as thought chiropractic was only good for pain relief and anything more than a couple of adjustments was unnecessary.
Now, let me remind you, the complaint that was made against me was about the “financial plans” I was teaching. It had nothing to do with my claims about the benefits of restoring the normal cervical curve in my patients. Meanwhile, the board was still asking about these claims.
I hired an attorney who advised me to find as many research articles as I could on the subject, and he would present all the material to the board on my behalf. So I went to the UCSD School of Medicine Library and hunted through the of literature to find what I could. At the time, there was not much “chiropractic” research on the subject of “cervical curves.” Most, if not all, of the research came from traditional medical literature. I was able to find a dozen or so articles from the medical literature that my attorney then used to answer the board on my behalf.
Now that I had the medical literature, I also had to answer their questions regarding the financial plans I was teaching. This is where things could have become sticky. In California, the Board of Chiropractic Examiners states that any financial plan you offer patients must be submitted to and reviewed by the California Department of Managed Care. I suppose this is their way of making sure the agreement is acceptable and not “acting” like an insurance program.
Fortunately, I had submitted my plans to the Department of Managed Care, as required, and had a letter from them with their response. That letter was extremely important in answering the state board’s questions regarding the plans I was teaching. Without it, odds are the board would have taken further actions against me.
So after several thousand dollars in legal fees, my time doing the research, and providing the letter from the Department of Managed Care, my attorney packaged all the information and presented it to the licensing board. I could have done it myself, but I had been properly mentored to use representation when appropriate, and, certainly, this was one of those times.
The day finally arrived when I received a response from the state board. The investigation was dropped. Woo-hoo! I could get back to the business of taking care of my patients and helping chiropractors with their long-term care plans.
Why am I sharing this story of how I was investigated? Did you catch something in my story? What was the complaint? And what was I investigated for?
The complaint was filed by another chiropractor over “financial plans,” but when the board investigated, not only did they ask about plans, they also asked about clinical claims I had made. Let me repeat that. They also asked about the clinical claims.
My point is that once any type of complaint is made, they will look at everything you are doing, and if they want to investigate any “additional things,” they will. Just one complaint will often open a can of worms, and you may end up dealing with something unrelated to the complaint.
So this is exactly why you must make sure you are doing everything compliantly. I often hear chiropractors naively say, “I’m a cash practice, so I don’t have to worry about X.” In my mind, this is no different from a person saying, “I drive a white car, so I don’t have to worry about being ticketed for speeding.”
Statistics do show that when you drive a white car, you are less likely to get pulled over for speeding as compared to driving a red car. However, that does not mean you won’t ever be stopped for speeding when driving a white car. If you do get pulled over in a white car, you’re still going to get the ticket—just like someone in a red car.
And you had your cell phone in your hand, weren’t wearing a seat belt, and there was a radar detector on your dash, so you’re going to get busted for all those “additional things” that had nothing to do with the original reason you were stopped.
One thing opens the door to other things. So what do you need to be doing correctly to avoid such headaches?
• Document correctly
• Code correctly
• Diagnose correctly
• Treat correctly
• Bill correctly
• Collect correctly
• Discount correctly
Each of these seven areas must be done correctly, no matter your practice style or type.
When it comes to doing these things correctly, a lot of great resources are at your disposal. I recommend checking out KMCUniversity, ChiroCode, and ChiroHealthUSA, as well as my company, Cash Practice. All of us are well versed in one or more of these areas when it comes to doing them correctly.
I know we all got into chiropractic to take care of people, and it would just be easier if we didn’t have to deal with all these rules and regulations. I like to think of it as playing a sport, though. For example, can you imagine playing soccer if you didn’t know the rules of the game? And then you were surprised that you got a penalty for using your hands. Knowing the rules makes it easier to play the game, and so it is with playing the game of chiropractic.
Dr. Miles Bodzin is the founder and CEO of Cash Practice Systems, chiropractic's #1 technology platform for increasing patient loyalty. He may be contacted at drbodzin@ cashpractice.com or (877) 343-8950 x200.
