Posted on 01/01/2005 7:13:21 AM PST by aculeus
Some threaten to resign over the proposed school.
A growing number of professors in the Florida State University College of Medicine are saying they will resign if FSU administrators continue to pursue a proposed chiropractic school.
"I would no longer wish to volunteer my teaching energies to FSU medical school, should it encompass a school of chiropractic," wrote Dr. Ian Rogers, an assistant professor at FSU's Pensacola campus, in a Dec. 15 e-mail. "This is plainly ludicrous!!!!"
The threatened resignations - at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time - reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractic is a "pseudo-science" that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school.
But the professors' stance has a political aim, too.
Opposition is clearly mounting as the chiropractic school heads for crucial votes in January before the FSU board of trustees and the state Board of Governors.
In fact, the school is now seen as a test case for the fledgling Board of Governors, which critics have accused of kowtowing to Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature on the higher education issues it is supposed to oversee.
FSU was closed for the holidays Tuesday. FSU president T.K. Wetherell, provost Larry Abele and John Thrasher, chairman of the FSU board of trustees, could not be reached for comment.
But Sen. Dennis Jones, the Treasure Island Republican who spearheaded legislative support for the school in the spring, said the professors were "overreacting."
He accused anti-chiropractic groups from outside the state of stirring faculty opposition at FSU.
"If they resign, so be it," said Jones, a chiropractor himself. The instructors don't deserve to teach at FSU, he said, "if they're putting their credentials with people known for promoting professional bigotry."
The Legislature appropriated $9-million annually for the chiropractic school, which was pushed by Jones and then-Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, an FSU graduate. It would be the only school of its kind in the country.
As supporters envision it, more than 100 new faculty members would train legions of chiropractors, with a special emphasis on Hispanic and African-American students. The school would also draw lucrative federal grants in alternative medicine.
Planning began years ago, but criticism didn't ramp up until after the legislative session.
Some opponents see the school as an end run around the Board of Governors, which oversees the state's 11 universities but has yet to consider the chiropractic school. Last week, a group headed by former university system chancellor E.T. York filed a lawsuit against the board, accusing it of failing to flex its constitutionally granted muscle and pointing to the chiropractic school as a prime example.
But some FSU faculty members are upset, too, fearing the school will shatter FSU's academic reputation. The list of critics include FSU's two Nobel laureates - Robert Schreiffer, a physicist, and Harold Walter Kroto, a chemist - and Robert Holton, the chemistry professor who developed the cancer-fighting drug Taxol, which has brought FSU tens of millions of dollars in royalties.
In recent weeks, more than 500 faculty members have signed petitions against the chiropractic school, including about 70 in the medical college, said Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an assistant professor who is leading the charge against the proposal. The medical college has more than 100 faculty members.
Some of them say they're willing to do more than sign a petition.
"I teach wonderful medical students from Florida State University here in Orlando," Dr. James W. Louttit wrote in an e-mail to Bellamy, who shared it with the St. Petersburg Times. "If they decide to start a chiropractic school I would no longer be able to support this program."
"It should come as no surprise that no major medical institution in this country, public or private, has embraced chiropractic medicine," wrote Dr. Henry Ho, a Winter Park physician and FSU assistant professor, in another e-mail. "If Florida State University were to do so, its fledgling attempt for credibility as a medical institution of stature would be severely jeopardized."
The situation at FSU isn't the first time chiropractors have sought to tie themselves to an established university.
In the late 1990s, faculty at York University in Toronto - one of Canada's largest schools - considered plans to affiliate with Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. The plan would have brought York millions of dollars in new facilities and donations and given the chiropractic school academic credibility.
After a bitter, years-long fight, York faculty narrowly vetoed the plan in 2001.
At FSU, faculty have not officially voiced their concerns about the chiropractic school. Bellamy said they fear retaliation from lawmakers if they do.
"Everybody wants somebody else to kill it," he said.
Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or
matus@sptimes.com
© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
PalmBeachPost.com
FLORIDA'S INSURANCE CRISIS: Auto Insurance
Fraud blamed for auto insurance hikes
By Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Feb. 23, 2003
Fla.'s Insurance Crisis
Thomas Brotemarkle opened his automobile insurance bill last month and was shocked to find his rates had rocketed from $1,600 to $2,600 a year, a 60 percent increase.
Brotemarkle, 44, immediately phoned his Allstate agent, who informed the Jupiter Farms resident that his wife's minor fender bender --two years ago in a Publix Supermarket parking lot -- was responsible for much of the increase in the cost to cover the couple's 1996 Toyota Camry and 1994 Mazda 626.
At about the same time Brotemarkle got his bad news, Stuart retiree Iris Kwek received a bill from Hartford Insurance Co. and learned she was being hit with a 47 percent increase, from $620 to $913 a year, to cover her 2000 Oldsmobile Intrigue.
She plans to take an AARP driving course that will earn her an $80 discount, but still chafes at the hike, particularly considering her accident-free history.
"It's almost senseless to have insurance," Kwek said. "I am quite upset."
Brotemarkle and Kwek aren't alone in their frustration. From Pensacola to Key West, motorists are being hit in the pocketbook by steep increases in insurance rates.
And it's not just drivers who are suffering. Homeowners, medical malpractice and workers compensation insurance costs also are soaring in Florida, frustrating policy holders and pushing the insurance crunch into the state's political spotlight.
While Florida's rising autopremiums mirror a national trend, insurers here offer an explanation not heard in most states: Insurance fraud runs rampant, particularly in South Florida.
Insurers say Florida drivers are paying as much as $200 apiece to line the pockets of scammers who milk the state's insurance system. Bogus medical clinics enlist scammers to stage accidents, with the goal of submitting fraudulent bills to insurers who provide the personal injury protection, or PIP, policies.
Heading into next month's legislative session, the pervasive fraud and soaring cost to Florida drivers is a top priority for state political leaders, including Gov. Jeb Bush. They wonder if it's time to end Florida's 30-year-old system that requires every motorist to carry $10,000 of PIP and property damage liability coverage.
"My approach is either fix it or flush it," said Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who is leading the legislative charge for reform. "The fraud right now is way out of hand."
Yet skeptics say insurers have exaggerated the cost of fraud in an effort to raise rates, fight legitimate claims and win favorable legislation in Tallahassee.
Rates keep increasing
There's no argument that rates are rising. Florida's largest auto insurer, State Farm, last year raised prices twice -- 10 percent in January and 8 percent in October. No. 2 carrier, Allstate, this month imposed a hike that averages nearly 15 percent statewide, its third year in a row of sizable rate increases. Other major carriers, including Progressive, Geico and Hartford, also are raising rates.
What's more, the carriers that specialize in bare-bones policies for low-income motorists are going broke at an alarming rate. Fortune Insurance of Jacksonville, and Union American Insurance and Aries Insurance, both of Miami, went out of business in the past three years. They all blame PIP fraud for at least part of their failure.
As a result, the number of policies in the Florida Automobile Joint Underwriting Association, the high-priced carrier for drivers who can't find coverage elsewhere, quadrupled to 40,000 today from 9,000 three years ago. A growing JUA is a sure sign of a chaotic insurance market.
The rising rates mark a reversal from the late 1990s, when car insurance premiums fell as insurers competed for customers. The cost of the average Florida policy fell 5 percent, from $783 in 1996 to $746 in 2000, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
That consumer-friendly trend is now a distant memory.
Auto insurers nationwide offer a litany of reasons, including the popularity of lumbering SUVs, which do more damage and are pricier to repair than smaller cars. There's also the climbing cost of jury awards in auto liability cases, not to mention the bear market that cramped insurers' bottom lines.
Fraud adds to the problem
But in Florida, fraud looms as an additional culprit. State law requires every car owner to buy $10,000 of PIP insurance, which guarantees minimum coverage for motorists involved in accidents, regardless of who was to blame. A statewidegrand jury in 2000 called those benefits a "slush fund" for unscrupulous chiropractors and doctors.
Yet Florida remains one of only seven states that still require no-fault insurance. Other states, including Georgia, eliminated the program due to fraud problems.
Scammers stage crashes with cars full of passengers so everyone involved can visit a doctor with fake ailments. While the motorists feigning injury might collect a few hundred bucks each from a medical clinic, the real beneficiaries are the clinics behind the crashes, which submit phony bills for thousands of dollars to insurers.
Insurance fraud investigators are cracking down. Last year, seven Miami-Dade doctors and three clinic owners were charged with defrauding carriers of $1 million by submitting bills for treating patients they never saw.
Still, most of the fraud goes undetected, regulators acknowledge. Bob Neumann, head of the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud and former sheriff of Palm Beach County, recently estimated that 80 percent of accident-related medical claims filed in Miami-Dade County are bogus. Miami-Dade remains the epicenter of PIP fraud -- and Miami drivers pay more than motorists elsewhere in South Florida and the Treasure Coast -- but thescams have spread throughout the state.
Insurers estimate that they pay out $1 billion a year in fraudulent auto claims in Florida, where they collect $6 billion a year in premiums from motorists. The cost of the average PIP claim climbed from $4,300 in 1997 to $5,700 last year, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. That increase, insurers say, is a direct result of scammers learning how to work the system.
And insurers simply pass the cost of fraud onto their customers, said Richard Parrillo, the president of United Automobile Insurance Group, a North Miami Beach company that provides PIP coverage to 200,000 motorists in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Parrillo's company stopped doing business in Palm Beach County in the 1990s because of the high number of fraudulent claims here, he said. And the company in the past few years has begun to stubbornly fight what it believes to be bogus claims.
Fraud overstated, critics say
Critics argue, however, that insurers and regulators overstate the cost of fraud. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, calls the $1 billion estimate little more than a wild guess.
"That's just made-up," Hunter said. "The numbers are very squishy."
What's more, some attorneys and motorists insist insurers use fraud as an excuse to deny valid claims.
"They would rather fight you than pay a legitimate claim," said Phil Valente, a West Palm Beach attorney who sues insurers on behalf of motorists. "An insurance company will target anything as a fraudulent claim."
One of Valente's clients, electrical contractor Frank Ferrara, says he was forced to sue Allstate after the company offered to pay only $5,000 to treat back and neck injuries he suffered in a 1998 crash on State Road 7. Ferrara sued and won $203,000, plus $162,000 in attorney fees.
Allstate appealed, and Ferrara settled for a confidential amount. The dispute still bothers Ferrara.
"They pushed me to such a point that I ended up in court," Ferrara said. "They make it sound like everybody wants a million dollars."
An Allstate spokeswoman declined to comment on Ferrara's case, but she said the insurer fights claims that it doesn't agree with so it can keep rates from rising even more.
Gripes about stingy payment practices are particularly loud when it comes to United Automobile Insurance. Attorneys say Parrillo's company denies claims so often that many doctors now refuse to treat patients covered by the company.
"They blame everything on fraud," said Fort Lauderdale attorney Gary Gelch. "That's their magic word."
Parrillo's response? The carrier would be broke if it didn't fight fraudulent claims. For instance, United Automobile once paid "millions" for Jacuzzi treatments at a Miami-Dade clinic, only to learn later that the business didn't even have a whirlpool on its premises, Parrillo said.
Value of PIP questioned
With such bickering and drivers' premiums doubling in some cases, politicians are wondering whether they simply should do away with Florida's required PIP coverage. An anti-fraud law passed in 2001 in Tallahassee hasn't significantly slowed scammers, insurers and politicians say.
King, a leader in the GOP-dominated state legislature, appointed a select committee to recommend repairs to Florida's auto insurance system.
Also joining the chorus, Gov. Bush said recently: "Just getting rid of it might be an option."
Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, formerly the state's insurance commissioner, makesno secret of his skepticism about mandatory insurance. He says some 20 percent of motorists in South Florida are uninsured, although the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles places the number of uninsured closer to 10 percent.
In either case, flouting the law is a simple matter: A motorist makes a down payment on a policy and receives the proof of insurance he needs to get a license plate. By the time he stops paying his premium, he has a valid tag. A crackdown on this practice in the '90s fell flat when authorities seized the license plates of vehicles they believed to be uninsured, only to learn later that some of the drivers who showed up on the state's list of scofflaws in fact had valid insurance.
The state suspended the licenses of some 347,000 uninsured drivers last year, although a suspension doesn't necessarily prevent someone from driving -- and perhaps getting in a wreck.
Deciding whether to buy auto insurance boils down to a question of protecting personal assets, insurers and regulators say. A middle-class or wealthy driver feels compelled to carry insurance should an accident lead to a judgment that could force him to sell his house or empty a bank account. But a poor person who can barely support his family and needs his car to drive to work will choose food over auto insurance, even if the coverage is mandatory, Gallagher said.
Both King and Gallagher raised the possibility of dumping mandatory insurance, but neither endorsed it outright. And while nearly everyone involved in the auto insurance debate supports raising the criminal penalties for scammers, it's unclear whether the second round of penalty-stiffening in three years will stop them.
"We can make them have the death penalty," Gallagher said, "and we're still not going to get rid of PIP fraud."
From December 17-20, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel printed a special investigative series on Automobile Insurance Fraud. Following is a compilation of the articles. All articles are copyrighted by the Sun Sentinel; the following material is provided in order to retain a record of this improtant series for future archiving purposes.
Go to: http://www.flains.org/newfic/mediapublic/2001Legislature/sunsentinelauto.htm#22
read my post 94. I do have an open mind. Chiropractors do have a place in health care.
I would agree, for most chiropractors. However, there are several different approaches to the art. I've had back troubles since college. It got to the point where I started going to back-crackers, but each adjustment lasted shorter and shorter. It got to the point where I could lay on the floor and twist my body and my back would pop back into place. However, it would just as easily pop out. I was working my way towards the twice-a-week adjustment level when we moved away.
When I got to NJ, a co-worker referred me to a chiropractor who used what is called the sacro-occipital approach. I'm not sure of the exact name, as now I only see here once a year or so, when I've done something not-so-bright.
When I first started, the treatments were twice a week. However, her treatments always lasted longer each time I went. I then went to once-a-week and within a couple of months, I stopped regular treatment.
With this approach, they never crack your back. The idea is that it weakens the back and makes it easier to pop out. The manipulation technique seems magical, more of a light massage, combined with moving the legs and arms around to help flexibility, and some gentle pressure on hips and joints to straighten things out. She avoids the painful area entirely, and yet at the end the pain is gone, and I'm walking upright. The assigned home work is to walk more, drive less, and keep good posture, and do the same exercises as suggested by the orthoped I'd gone to.
And, I've never heard her claim to handle anything but back troubles.
YMMV, of course.
My Mom is 83. She had a vertebrae crushed when she was young. She sees a Chiropractor often. One hubby forced her to see a REAL doctor so that he could inform her that she was okay and did not need to see a chiropractor. He xrayed her, and told them both to keep doing whatever was working, because from the looks of the x-rays, she should be in a wheelchair.
She has frequent pain from her 5th lumbar being crushed, but she's still very active.
I vote FOR chiropractors.
Keep his hands off my neck !
ping for a later check of docs
Wow! KeyLargo, that's some compilation of fraud in the "traffic accident industry." Of course, some physicians are involved too. It's not just chiropractors who can become crooks.
Do you think that the legal mess with chiro fruad is behind the state's effort to set up a chiropractic college at FSU? An effort at quality control? Licensing standards?
I guess, however I am certainly no expert. In the city of Philadelphia, in the last ten years, four osteopathic hospital (Metropolitan Hospital, Parkview Hospital, the Hospital of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and St. Agnes Hosputal (now St. Agnes Continuing Care Center) have closed.
A lot of hospitals are hard up for patients and maybe will give admitting privledges to almost any licensed physician (which of course includes DO's but not chiropractors). How much the DO label hurts when you try to get on a hospital payroll, I don't know.
"he is quite simply a traitor to everything he was taught of his profession."
Not really. Knowing chiros as I do, I those that I have known have all said that medical practitioners have their place and physical healers do as well. It is the horrible chiros that think they can treat all things. The Palmer college is still the most recognized, but each chiro I have known are all graduates of Palmer and none think they can treat all things.
LOL, beleive it or not, there's a lot of us around. I even have PT friends in, gasp...southern California who are who are conservative, and own their own practices.
Here in the commie pinko Seattle area,
(say no more....ugh!)
all of my fellow Alexander teachers are pinko commies. The best local AT practitioner had moveon.org stuff knee deep in her waiting room for months, which only proves that Alexander doesn't correct every maladaptive position.
Ha! I'll say. From a professional standpoint, and I'm sure you'd agree, that doesn't say much for their, oh..."professionality" does it? Not to mention offensive to prospective clients.
FYI, there's a nifty little book on alexander and pilates I bought at amazon UK by an alexander teacher who learned to teach pilates and a pilates instructor who completed the required three-years to become a certified AT teacher.
At your leisure, freepmail the title. I might want to check it out.
she and the many teachers she trained only got as far as "move your head up." Usually their students just overextend their necks and end up in YOUR office. LOL.
(hate it when that happens, lol)
Galen was a buddy of mine for a short time before she went off to Alexander school in NY. She was professor or architecture at UC Berkeley. When invited to a dinner soire at her house, I almost keeled over at the sight of a huge Chairman Mao poster that covered her dining room wall. Indigestion!
Hmmmm...UC Berkeley, Mao....not surprising. Bet it was a struggle to keep your meal down, ugh!
" spinal manipulators "
BTW, It is odd to hear those that attempt to state what chiropractors are in a negative way only state such a phrase as "spinal manipulators". Having been to and known chiropractors for year, they work on all parts of the body.
"Chiropractors get their money mostly in conjunction with lawyers. "
A continual lie. Medical doctors are more likely to be involved with medical insurance fraud than anyone.
I don't know a chiropractor who makes his living in conjunction with lawyers. In fact, each chiro that I have known hates lawyers.
It works. It is just a matter of learning how to manage your posture so that you don't hurt yourself.
Ja ever go to a Doctor?
Once you've blown a disc, it's blown. (by "blown," I mean herniated, not bulging). Sometimes, in a few cases, you *can* have a herniated disc, but no leg pain/numbness.
If that person is moving the wrong way (stiff, or just plain inflexible to begin with, putting increased stress over the area he just injured), the symptoms can come back with avengence.
Simple clinical tests can be made If the spinal cord is pinched by the bulge in the disc surgery works.
True. I see it all the time. The "company" doc is trying to save $$, and takes short cuts. Unfortunately, there's that one time he does, and it ends up costing the insurance company (not to mention those like your friend) a lot more.
"Once settled, no chiropractor. That's how it works."
Waitaminut. SHE scams for insurance money and it is the chiropractor who is at fault?? It is your neighbor who is the criminal.
"Do you think that the legal mess with chiro fruad is behind the state's effort to set up a chiropractic college at FSU.."
No, Veto, Its all about $$$ for the state.
Lobby dollars from the chiro associations.
See: http://www.fcachiro.org/
Lobbyist support in our State's capital, Tallahassee
We have one (1) full-time lobbyist and two (2) part-time lobbyists attending to Chiropractic issues in the our Legislature.
See: http://www.fcschiro.com/v01/06/000008.php?cat=06
ACA-PAC CONTINUES TO SHINE
The ACA-PAC is pleased to report that since January it has raised $380,000. This is nearly the largest amount raised in any year since the Clinton health care days, when it raised over $1 million. All the more significant is that it raised this amount during the first six months of the year despite not having conducted a drive since that time.
See: http://www.occhiro.org/ACAReports/2001/200110/ACA20011015.htm
How lovely that your mother knows about the Alexander Technique. I'm sure it does her a world of good. I know well, as I'm a certified teacher of the Technique, have been involved with it for more than 30 years, three of those years in teacher-training school in San Francisco. Do you know which teacher or teachers your mother studied with?
I've been to chiropractors twice in my lifetime. First chiro operated by himself out of his house. Second time (thirty years later) there were at least three or four practitioners, not counting assistants. The complex was large and impressive. There were ENTIRE families in there, toddlers, teens, parents. All covered by insurance ... all coming in for their regular "treatments".
And people wonder why medical insurance is out of sight!
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