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Watson Chiropractic, P.C.
News from our office
Summer 2008
  • Office Update
  • Do I need a lawyer if I'm in a car accident?
  • Summer Special Discounts
  • Humor
 
Office Update
I recently attended an advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI ) seminar, and learned the latest on the upright MRI . I often send patients for MRI’s, mostly to look for disc herniations. In the past, the only option in MRI’s were recumbent (lying down). I would always wonder if a disc bulge or herniation was worse with the additional weight of gravity while in the upright position (standing or seated). I just makes sense that it is. Very recently EPIC Imaging installed an upright MRI. I have already had the opportunity to use it, and am glad to see this technology finally arrived. As it turns out, there is more pressure applied to the spinal discs while seated, rather than standing, so most of the time I will request a seated MRI. Thanks to seminars like this one, when MRI’s arrive on my computer, I am able to accurately read and interpret them as soon as they are available. When I graduated in 1994 MRI’s were just becoming available, and there was not a lot of MRI instruction at that time.

I generally send patients to EPIC Imaging because they are treated very well by EPIC’s great staff. Kudos to EPIC for staying on the technological edge with their new upright MRI system.

 

Do I need a lawyer if I'm in a car accident?
I often get asked this question from patients who have been injured in an automobile accident. I generally do not come right out and say “yes” or “no” to this question. Instead, I’ll offer some information and hand out several lawyers business cards to the patient asking. Here are some tips to help you avoid some of the more common pitfalls.

Tip #1. The most basic Oregon auto insurance policy will allow up to $15,000 in reasonable and necessary health care expenses, including chiropractic care, for up to one year. Cost for care at my office is generally not even close to $15,000. However, one trip to the hospital can cost thousands for just one day. Find out what your insurance benefit is before the bills start coming to you. In addition, talk to your insurance representative about possibly increasing your personal injury protection (PIP) coverage. One trip on Life Flight and you could use up your entire insurance benefit.

Tip #2. Seek care from a health care provider who knows how to bill insurance, unless you want to pay out of your own pocket and then try to get reimbursed from the insurance company later. We’ve had some patients pay for massage out of their pocket because their licensed massage therapist (LMT) did not bill insurance. I will always refer you to a LMT who knows how to work with insurance companies.

Tip #3. Beware of the Independent Medical Exam. Some insurance companies are notorious for using this as a loophole to not pay for care. You are required to see a doctor of the insurance company’s choice for an “independent exam”, or they can deny health care payments. If you do go to the exam, the doctor performing the exam may state that you do not need further care. Then, the insurance company can stop paying for care at that time.

Tip #4. Make sure your treating doctor performs very thorough exams and keeps very detailed records. If your insurance company does deny payment because of an independent medical exam, you’ll need these, so you or your lawyer can battle the insurance company.

Tip #5. Not all lawyers are familiar with the laws regarding motor vehicle accidents. Look for a lawyer who is familiar with “Personal Injury” cases. My office has worked with several lawyers in the past, and we can give you several good recommendations to pick from.

This is just the very basics and not meant to be legal advice. For legal advice, ask a lawyer.

 

Summer Special Discounts

  • 20% off any supplement purchase.
  • All first day services for any new patient $96.00. (includes exam, treatment, & X-ray if necessary).
  • Exam and three spinal adjustments for $96.00. Only for patients who have not been in the office in the last three months.
These offers are only good thru July of 2008.

 

Humor

News Flash
All physicians contracted to Kaiser Healthcare have gone out on strike. Kaiser officials say that they will have a statement for the press as soon as they can get a pharmacist out there to read the physicians' picket signs.  (ncpamd.com/mcjokes.htm#Joke%20of%20the%20Week)

[The next humor article (Eleven ways to get rid of drug reps),  is written by a medical doctor that sounds like she's had too many drug reps soliciting her.  I see first hand how the medical doctors' in the neighborhood receive several visits from different drug reps.  From what I can see out the windows it looks like they receive many drug rep visits weekly, and occasionally, I'll see more than one rep in one day.  And that's just what I see.  You can always tell the drug reps when they drive up.  They are usually around 30 to 35 year's old, impeccably dressed, they drive a mid-sized sedan that is no more than two years old, they open their trunk and pull out a bunch of little drug sample packets and flyers and put them in their large expandable leather brief cases, and they return in about 30 minutes then drive off.  Thank goodness I do not have to deal with them.  Dr. W]

Eleven ways to get rid of drug reps

  1. Develop a chemical sensitivity to doughnuts and pizza.
  2. Ask the Celltech Rep to entertain your pediatric patients by donning his Captain Metadate costume. (The reps really have these duds!)
  3. Insist that they build an accurate 3-dimensional model of the chemical structure of their compound using pick-up-sticks and play dough (most child psychiatrists will have these materials on hand)
  4. Tell your office manager not to admit anyone with a rolling suitcase.
  5. Tell the rep that you are writing an article about ethical interactions with pharmaceutical companies.
  6. Hire a pharmacology graduate student to help out in your front office. The drug rep may not see you until the student has finished quizzing him on the chemical properties of all of his products.
  7. Schedule four of them at the same time and only see the one who emerges from your waiting room alive.
  8. Be sure to return all of your phone calls while the rep is waiting to see you.
  9. Tell the Lilly rep that you really appreciate the email list of the 600 Prozac users that they "outed." You've used it to recruit 8 new patients just this month.  
  10. Take the drug rep back to your office and confidentially tell him that you have had a bit of a problem with your DEA license. Could he provide you with LOTS of free samples?
  11. Get your information about psychopharmacology from talking to colleagues, attending seminars, and reading journals.
 (Carol Watkins, MD  ncpamd.com/mcjokes.htm#Joke%20of%20the%20Week)
 
 
   
 
 
 
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Dr. Watson