HOUSTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/
On Wednesday, November 4, 1998, Chiropractic America, a national
organization for the advancement of chiropractic, filed a lawsuit in Federal
Court seeking an injunction to enjoin Governor Christie Whitman and Officials
of the New Jersey State Department of Banking and Insurance from implementing
proposed regulations which would eliminate the ability of auto accident
victims to receive therapeutic chiropractic care, and require all New Jersey
health care providers to follow rigid pre-determined medical protocols or care
paths.
These cookie-cutter medical protocols ware created by the Department of
Banking and Insurance with the assistance of a large accounting firm, to
reduce the costs of benefits given to auto accident victims under their
Personal Injury Protection ("PIP") auto insurance policies.
According to experts whose work was cited in support of these regulations,
the medical protocols "are a work of fiction" and constitute "junk science and
baseless opinions." The regulations deny treatment to injured accident
victims and "will result in tripling or quadrupling of the rate of chronically
injured spine patients in New Jersey." The lawsuit alleges that medical
authorities cited in support of the care paths were in many cases,
misconstrued, miscited and fabricated.
These regulations have been universally condemned by the medical
community. The New Jersey State Board of Chiropractic Examiners has publicly
called for the withdrawal of the medical protocols and has published a two
hundred page response and rebuttal to the proposed regulations. The
Chiropractic Board has stated that the regulations are not consistent with the
standard of chiropractic care in the state of New Jersey and may harm many
accident victims. Also, every state and county chiropractic society has
publicly opposed these regulations, as have numerous medical societies.
According to Chiropractic America President Garrison Pomeroy, "These care
paths represent a medical disaster in the making. Unless we are successful in
our lawsuit, New Jersey citizens who are injured in auto accidents may not
receive adequate treatment."
Chiropractic America is being represented in this action by noted Houston
health care attorney Richard Jaffe. Mr. Jaffe successfully represented
controversial Houston cancer doctor Stansilaw Burzynski in a federal criminal
action brought by the Food and Drug Administration to incarcerate him for
providing his un-approved cancer medication to patients. Mr. Jaffe also
represented New Jersey chiropractors several years ago in a successful federal
racketeering lawsuit against officers of the Department of Insurance, Fraud
Division and obtained a consent agreement whereby state agents agreed not to
use extortionist tactics against health care practitioners. According to
Jaffe, "this case has national significance. It will determine who makes
treatment decisions, the doctor and the patient or the state government and
the insurance companies." "Unless we win this case, there will be an awful
lot of under-treated patients whose medical conditions could, but will not be
resolved."
A press conference will be held today at 12:30 P.M. outside of the New
Jersey Training and Conference Center, 200 Woolverton Avenue, Building 20,
Trenton, New Jersey (telephone number, 609-777-2100). Immediately following
the press conference is a public hearing on these regulations at which
chiropractors and medical doctors will speak. For copies of the complaint and
further information, contact Chiropractic America, 800-466-9988.
SOURCE Law Offices of Richard A. Jaffe
The following was released today by the
Law Offices of Richard A. Jaffe:
