February 2008

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AMA corrects impairment guide following ACA complaint

Feb. 28, 2008 — The American Medical Association (AMA) has announced it will issue a correction to all purchasers of its Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Sixth Edition, after the legal team from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) questioned the legality of restrictive language related to evaluations by doctors of chiropractic and accused the AMA of violating the permanent Wilk injunction.

In a Feb. 20 letter to ACA, AMA’s legal counsel wrote that the text in question “is incorrect and warrants immediate correction.”

AMA’s action comes in response to a Feb. 7 letter in which ACA asked for an immediate withdrawal of restrictive language in the text that limits evaluations by doctors of chiropractic to the spine only. The ACA was also in the process of contacting the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding concerns about the new guidelines.

In response, the AMA has declared it will take “immediate and visible steps to counteract any

The AMA will send a letter to all purchasers of the guide,  informing them of the correction and a  similar letter will be inserted into all manuals prior to shipment in the future.

The AMA will also post a notice in the AMA Press Online Catalog as well as on the Guides’ Web page.

The correction will be announced in the next issue of the Guides’ newsletter scheduled for publication in late March and future printings of the Sixth Edition of the Guides’ will include the correction with special highlighting to give the correction greater visibility.

ACA has also identified other offending portions of the publication and is urging the AMA to remove or re-write all restrictive language related to doctors of chiropractic.

The Wilk injunction prohibits the AMA from advising its members against associating with chiropractors. 

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