Earlier this week, federal agents working with the Minnesota fraud bureau raided multiple Twin Cities chiropractic offices, the culmination of a long-simmering investigation initiated at the behest of the State Farm insurance company and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Several insurance companies in the state offering coverage for general health and auto accident claims have noticed that for almost a decade a pattern of excess claims, based upon up-coded diagnoses and even staged accidents, provided patient "victims" for up to 10 chiropractic offices to allegedly bill false or fictitious claims.
One practice was recently sued by State Farm for a bit over $1 million for alleged over-billing and fraudulent claims. The focus of this phony practice is in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, but the investigation is also ongoing in outlying regions, according to sources there in the Department of Commerce.
From a health and science point of view, we here at the American Council hold a strongly dismissive attitude towards the ostensible benefits of chiropractic "care" in general. The reasons: needless X-rays; alleged musculoskeletal benefits of manipulation, which can actually cause dangerous neurological impairment; claims by D.C.s that they can also care for medical issues such as preventing cancer, Alzheimer's and endocrinological disorders through spinal manipulation and acupressure; and other baseless assertions. All of these make us warn the public against seeking such care.
We cover this topic quite thoroughly in our recently-published book, written by "reformed" chiropractor Preston H. Long, Ph.D., D.C., edited by well-known QuackWatch guru, Stephen Barrett, M.D. It is called Chiropractic Abuse: An Insider's Lament. If you're considering seeing a chiropractor, please read this first.
