Dear Sirs,

I read with interest the two letters that appeared in your May 2009 issue regarding Personal Injury. Dr. Anonymous raised a few issues but he painted with a very broad brush. More interesting was Dr. Studin’s reply. I quite enjoyed Dr. Studin’s thoughtful, articulate and imaginative article in response to the anonymous and clearly disgruntled DC regarding the PI issue.

As a long term PI practitioner here in Boston, I have quite a few thoughts and opinions on the matter myself. My office, Boston Spine Clinics, Inc. was, once upon a time, the biggest office system in the Northeast with our six clinics, 11 doctors and support staff. We did mostly PI…..

As for the suggestion that chiropractic be legislated out of the PI arena, I must disagree. Patients do get injured in ballistic impaction accident and no amount of complaining will ever change that. These patients need care and who better to deliver the most efficacious care than chiropractors? The truth is, there has been fraud and abuse in the PI arena sadly propagated by a small group of DCs. I’ve seen it here in MA. Most of the offenders have been caught and licenses have been pulled. But it is a small group that behaved that way and the entire profession should not be smeared by these few….

… So no, don’t deny patients an opportunity to see a chiropractor for whatever reason. Better to have strict but fair Boards and stiff punishment for all abusive doctors on either side of the PI issue.

Sincerely,

John Haberstroh, DC, DABCN, DACAN, FACFE

Boston Spine Clinics

(This is a shortened version of the letter received by The American Chiropractor. To read the full body of the text, and read other letters received by TAC, go to www.amchiropractor.com/forum )