Sometimes the problems we face are our own fault! Everyone complains about health care costs, yet the Raleigh County Board of Education doesn’t mind running up the bills, allowing their human resources office to play doctor and ultimately affect an injured teacher’s ability to recover.
Case in Point: A couple days ago I had a Raleigh County teacher schedule an appointment to have her wrist and hand evaluated. She had a recent fall off of a school bus on a field trip. It has been a week and she has continued with tremendous wrist and hand pain.
About an hour ago this teacher called to cancel her appointment. She told us that the Raleigh County Board of Education office instructed her not to go to us. They told her she needed to go to the Emergency Room to have it evaluated so that they could refer her to an Orthopedic Surgeon.
Does anyone see the problem with this?????
First, we don’t know how severe the injury is.
Second, after an evaluation, if indicated, I would order x-rays and fit the patient with a brace. If findings indicated it we would immediately order additional testing or make an appropriate medical referral.
Third, the fee that I would receive for this would be only about 20% to 40% of the associated cost of the Emergency Room.
Fourth, the fee of most chiropractors like myself would be half of that of a specialist like an orthopedic surgeon.
Fifth, most orthopedic surgeons in our area don’t “take worker’s compensation cases” because they get very annoyed at having to evaluate a non-surgical case. These cases should be evaluated by those trained in physical medicine and if non-surgical they should be rehabilitated.
If the injury is stable but significant involving a hand sprain/ strain or contusion I usually recommend a light brace and if necessary I refer the patient for 2 to 4 weeks of out patient physical therapy.
If it appears un-stable because of exam or findings on x-ray, I would order the pertinent testing such as a wrist MRI to look at the tendons or CT of the wrist bones if I suspect a fracture.
If the studies revealed something significant I would then refer to the right specialist such as an orthopedic surgeon.
Why am I writing this? Because this is a prime example of someone with to much power and not enough sense at the Raleigh County Board of Education discriminating against a chiropractor while wasting your tax payer money.
The average cost for chiropractic evaluation and case management is slightly less than traditional medical management by a primary care doctor. It IS Significantly Less Than management by Emergency care and Medical Specialists.
That means a case that may have been managed for $1000 of associated costs will likely now cost 3 to 5 times as much… that’s $3000 to $5000 of your tax dollars.
The icing on the cake is that I would have seen the patient within 48 hours of her calling for an appointment. The average non-emergency patient that presents to the Raleigh County Emergency room will experience a 5 hour ordeal that will leave them with a follow-up referral to an orthopedist anywhere from 1 week to 6 weeks out.
So in reality, the patient is receiving substandard health care that is costing the board of education more because of a desire to discriminate against chiropractic rehabilitation and send non-emergency cases to the emergency room. Boy, that makes me happy to know we have such great people working in the human resources department at the Raleigh County Board of Education.
For those of you who wonder why I am writing this, it is because so many people who complain about what their insurance will or won’t cover still unknowingly cause our healthcare costs to balloon. If you don’t need to go to an emergency room or a surgeon, then don’t…. The system could actually work.
So, in summary, Shame On You Raleigh County Board of Education!
Julian Chipley, DC
Recent Comments