More than 25 years after Judge Susan Getzendanner issued her historic opinion in the Wilk v AMA anti-trust case, evidence suggests that despite increasing collaboration between doctors of chiropractic and their allopathic medical counterparts, when it comes to organized medicine, we may be right back where we started.
On Nov. 13, 2014, McAndrews penned a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (reprinted in its entirety in the DC app) requesting an investigation of the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners for "restricting voluntary professional association between medical physicians and doctors of chiropractic as allowed by law." According to McAndrews, he agreed to write the letter after Olga Blakley, MD, and her husband contacted him requesting his help. The following excerpts from that letter provide background on the evolving situation and what McAndrews believes the FTC should do about it:
"I am informed, and now believe, that some members of the medical community have shifted their focus to having State Medical Boards investigate ANY partnership between Medical Physicians and Doctors of Chiropractic. Thus, they put enormous stress on Medical Physicians wishing to professionally associate with Doctors of Chiropractic for the benefit of patients. What was declared privately illegal in the Wilk v AMA case has now shifted to competitors of Chiropractors on State Medical Boards disguising their activities."
McAndrews references as example a May 4, 2014 letter from the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners to Dr. Blakley in which she is "identified as a physician who affiliates and works in [chiropractor Dr. Irshan Chaudary's] clinic." In the letter, the medical board claims that not only may Dr. Chaudary "be engaged in the unauthorized practice of medicine by holding himself out as capable of diagnosing and treating medical conditions outside the scope of practice for a chiropractic practitioner," but that Dr. Blakley "may [also] be practicing in a manner which violates several provisions of the Louisiana Medical Practice Act."
McAndrews' letter alleges a decade-long history of "badgering" by the medical board: "Dr. Mouton [director of investigations for the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, who authored the May 4, 2014 letter to Dr. Blakley] and her predecessor have been badgering Chiropractor Chaudary since 2003. They have been unable to prove any involvement in the unauthorized practice of medicine. The Board has now switched to prosecuting Medical Physicians associated with Dr. Chaudary in order to close his practice.
"The first Medical Doctor who worked with Chiropractor Chaudary was contacted by the State Medical Association / Society and threatened with the loss of his license – which appears to show collaboration between the Board and the Medical Association. It is believed that other MD/DC practices have been similarly treated."
McAndrews concludes by requesting that the FTC "investigate this naked burden on Voluntary Professional Associations between two licensed health care professionals – Doctors of Medicine and Doctors of Chiropractic. The Wilk v AMA case should have settled this issue."