Issue 4 - March 2003

Not without a license, you don’t!
Even friendly advice can get you into big trouble
By Rodney M. Phelps, JD, DC

One of the most frustrating feelings facing a student about to enter a professional career that requires a license is being “almost there.” You know that you are competent to answer questions and give well-founded, well-meaning advice on virtually any issues that your academic career has prepared you to give. Yet, because you don’t have the license, you can’t do it!

If you give healthcare advice – or adjustments – before you have a license in hand, you risk being accused of “practicing chiropractic without a license.” That accusation could result in your being barred from ever practicing in your chosen profession.

The law says that you are practicing if you establish a doctor-patient relationship and the patient is reliant on the advice given by the doctor.

For example: In a malpractice suit I handled, a mother called her family doctor and described her baby’s symptoms. On two separate occasions, the doctor advised the mother that the child was merely suffering from a cold. However, the doctor made this diagnosis without ever examining the child.

The child did not, in fact, have a cold. He had meningitis and is now deaf in one ear and has significant visual problems as well as severe learning difficulties.

Because the mother had relied on the doctor’s advice, a viable malpractice case resulted.

If you practice – or appear to be practicing – before you have a license, the penalties can be severe. In most states, if examiners are aware of these activities:

• They can refuse to allow you take the state exams;

• They can refuse to give you a license, if they determine you have been engaging in the practice of chiropractic after you take your exam but before you have your license; or,

• They can rescind, suspend or revoke your license if you have it in hand but had practiced before it arrived in the mail.

Before you tiptoe on the edge of practicing chiropractic, keep in mind the following:

• Disclaimers don’t count. You are not covering yourself by saying, “I really can’t offer healthcare advice, but it sounds like…” Instead, refer the person to a chiropractor or to the state or local chiropractic association, which can provide a referral. Restrict your opinions about the diagnosis and treatment of health problems to purely hypothetical situations or to situations in which you cannot later be accused of having the person detrimentally rely on your “expertise.”

• Don’t demonstrate. Playfully adjusting a neighbor who just has a “crick in her neck” is making an adjustment. So is “demonstrating” what you learned in school. Making an adjustment is practicing chiropractic.

• Don’t advertise before getting your license. You never know if your license will be held up for some reason. And if the ad appears before you have it in hand, you run the risk of “practicing” without a license, as a half-dozen chiropractic graduates in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee have found out in the last couple of years.

The bottom line is this: You’ve waited this long, wait just a little longer. Have your license in hand before you act like a chiropractor.

Dr. Rodney M. Phelps, JD, DC, is a 1986 graduate of Parker College. He is also an attorney licensed in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee and has been practicing law for 30 years.He can be reached at 214-521-7339 or DrEsq@aol.com.