UPDATE: Texas Judge Finally Rules on Diagnosis Issue
UPDATE: Texas Judge Finally Rules on Diagnosis Issue
SOURCE: Dynamic Chiropractic ~ 9-17-2010
Put yourself in the position of a practicing doctor of chiropractic in Texas right about now (if you are one, this is easy). With the Texas Medical Board and Texas Medical Association breathing down your neck, threatening to take away your right to diagnose (or even use the word diagnosis in your scope-of-practice act, claiming that by medical definition, the word is reserved for medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy), a Texas judge has ruled in your favor – depending on your perspective.
While Judge Stephen Yelenosky rejected the TMB/TMA reasoning that diagnosis does not apply to non-MD/DO providers, he did render the chiropractic scope-of-practice act null and void as currently written. By all accounts, any rewrite will need to update the current language in the act, which does not include the word diagnosis (but according to the Texas Chiropractic Association and others, clearly implies it by stating that DCs can “analyze, examine and evaluate”). It is unclear whether the revised scope will need to satisfy Judge Yelenosky’s prior suggestion that chiropractic diagnosis should be limited to “the biomechanical condition of the spine and the musculoskeletal system.” (more…)