Florida Department of Health Recommended “Eliminating” Laws & Rules Exam

On March 11, 2015 the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine voted unanimously to transfer its Laws and Rules examination to the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE). This decision was made despite the recommendation from the Florida Department of Health to “eliminate” the laws and rules examination from licensure requirements for becoming a chiropractor in the State of Florida.

The original news that the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine, under the leadership of Kevin Fogarty DC, had decided to hand over the laws and rules testing to the NBCE was shocking in and of itself considering the role that the NBCE plays in the Chiropractic Cartel. The Florida Board essentially gave the NBCE a launching pad to take over all jurisprudence exams throughout the United States cementing the final slice of control that the NBCE has over the licensing functions of the profession.

Making matters worse is that according to records acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, the State of Florida DOH actually made a formal recommendation to the Chiropractic Medicine Board to eliminate the examination ENTIRELY and instead handle laws and rules simply through continuing education.

The recommendation came through the form of a POSITION PAPER from Zohre Bahrayni, Ph.D titled: Moving the Laws and Rules Examination to Continuing Education. 

The Position Paper brought “. . . into question the effectiveness of the laws and rules examination” and then went into detail on 6 concerns regarding the “. . . adequacy of the Laws and Rules examinations . . .” 

Dr. Bahrayni pointed out that:

1. It’s not new licensees that violate the laws and rules

2. The Laws and Rules examination has very little to do with the protection of the public

3. The pass rate is very high

4. Unimportant issues are included in the test to make it statistically significant

5. The knowledge tested changes over time

6. Changes in Board rules don’t end up on the exam  

In closing, the Memo to the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine stated in part:

“Given the factors described above, we recommend that the Chiropractic Laws and Rules examination be eliminated from the licensure requirements for becoming a Chiropractor in Florida and that the relevant subject matter instead be integrated into the continuing education curriculum of the profession.”

CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE MEMO

Despite this recommendation from the Department of Health to do away with an exam that is unnecessary, the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine went against the DOH and not only kept the Laws and Rules exam, but turned it over to the NBCE.

The Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine recently made other news when it voted to retain the term “Medicine” in the statute. The “Medicine” vote was related to a package of legislative proposals meant to eliminate barriers to licensure in Florida and to protect the public health. The package included removing so called “CCE Only” language and addressing the obstacles created by such language for foreign graduates to obtain licensure. This included removal of bachelor degree requirements since such a degree is an anomaly of the US education system. The deciding vote to keep "Medicine" in the statute was made by Board Chairman Fogarty.  

It is believed that these decisions are tied together in an effort on the part of the Chiropractic Cartel to retain control of the licensing and regulatory functions of the profession through the CCE and NBCE. Such changes would have also interfered with the Florida Chiropractic Association and their plans for designating chiropractic as the practice of Primary Care in Florida.

It is also believed that chiropractic institutions offering bachelor degrees would be adversely affected if their international graduates no longer needed such a degree to obtain a license.  

This relationship between the various trade and regulatory organizations within chiropractic and the control they have over the academic, regulatory and licensing functions of the entire chiropractic profession has been characterized as a “monopoly”.

The notion of a Cartel operating as a monopoly within the profession was first described by Dr. Lawrence J. DeNardis - a Committee Member of the United States Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education and the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). He made the statements during the Hearing for consideration of Renewal of Recognition of the Council on Chiropractic Education in 2006.

The chiropractic profession, led by a Cartel with monopoly control of the profession’s educational, licensing and regulatory functions, has been systematically working to expand the scope of chiropractic nationally and internationally and to position the profession as providers of primary care.

This latest move by the Florida Board and the NBCE is expected to spread quickly to all other states. It is thought that the NBCE views Florida as the “big fish” and that now that they have secured Florida, other states will easily get in line and NBCE’s control over the licensing function of the entire profession will be complete.