Amid Ongoing Turmoil the NBCE Announces Board of Directors Election Results
According to a May 15, 2023 Press Release the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) announced its Board of Directors election results.
While the press release from the National Board states it is "proud to announce" the results which seats 11 members who the NBCE claims "provide expert guidance and oversight to ensure professional competency in the chiropractic profession through excellence in testing" the press release leaves out the cold hard fact that the NBCE as a private corporation enjoys a monopoly through statutory language in the United States. Not only does it enjoy a monopoly but the tests it adminsiters are mandatory in order for graduates of chiropractic schools to get a license to practice.
As much as the NBCE attempts to use the same old tired "we need minimum standards" excuse for their monopoly they do so only by insulting and calling into question the work of chiropractic institutions and the faculty teaching within them that have already assessed the competency of the students who walk across their stages.
These students are repeatedly assessed for competency throughout their chiropractic education and cannot graduate until the faculty assert to the President, Board of Trustees and the state that they are ready for practice.
"No" - says the NBCE and its leaders. "You are not competent until WE say you are competent." And in order to get the NBCE to give their blessing of "competency" so they can begin paying off an already overpriced education the NBCE wants their cut of that student loan debt. So students fork over several more thousands of dollars as they are forced to take redundent exams.
In a recent American Chiropractor article the President of the NBCE Karlos Boghosian drones on for pages about the importance of the NBCE, and peppers his self aggrandizing article with key words like "purpose" and "standards" and invokes the rich history of the profession to justify the existence of this immoral, unethical and perhaps illegal monopoly that exists within the profession and the United States of America.
Boghosian, for his part is immersed in a legal battle along with the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards (FCLB) where he also served on the Board of Directors as the Immediate Past President. Boghosian, along with Carol Winkler DC the current Immediate Past President of the FCLB and the FCLB itself is being sued by Keita Vanterpool, D.C. Vanterpool was Vice President of the FCLB and is suing the FCLB, its President Carol J. Winkler, D.C. and Immediate Past President Karlos Boghosian, D.C. alleging racial discrimination after they suspended her from her position at the FCLB which stopped her from running for President. The lawsuit triggered the resignations of several members of the NBCE Board and their concern has not waned as the minutes from the FCLB meetings over the past year reveal communication about their concerns to the FCLB during "Integrity Checks" at the meetings. In fact, each meeting's minutes begins with a statement about the lawsuit.
CLICK HERE for more about that lawsuit.
In addition to the charges of racial discrimination alleged in the lawsuit the pleadings in the case provide a breadcrumb trail of evidence regarding how the NBCE and the FCLB are intertwined with each other and state regulatory boards. For example not only do some Directors serve on the NBCE and FCLB at the same time some of them like Boghosian and Vanterpool serve on state boards simultaneously. Reviewing the past history of board seats on the NBCE and FCLB reveals a consistent hopscotching from one board to another. And as the Vanterpool lawsuit reveals ascending the heirarchy between the two brings with it rewards, including monetary.
Its well known at this point that the bulk of the funding for the FCLB comes from the NBCE's treasure trove of student loan money derived from their unnecessary and redundant exams. According to publicly available records that cache of student loan debt has grown to $45,000,000.00 in assets for the NBCE coffers.
Some of that student loan money makes its way to the 11 members of the NBCE Board of Directors who average $34,000.00 a year for a few hours to "serve" the profession. And the higher you go on the hierarchy the more money you make.
CLICK Here for more about Ouzts
Let's not forget that while the NBCE operates as a "non-profit" it also has a "for profit" operating within it where the NBCE has branched outside chiropractic through its for profit EBAS corporation. Since EBAS is a for profit chartered in Delaware it is unknown who the principles are, who owns the stock etc. This is despite the "transparency" at the NBCE Boghosian alleges in his American Chiropractor article.
Getting back to the FCLB. While the bulk of its finding is funneled to it from the NBCE, additional funding for the FCLB comes from each state chiropractic regulatory board which uses state tax dollars to pay "dues" to the FCLB. The states also uses tax payor money to fund the trips for members of the regulatory boards who serve as "delegates" to the FCLB to attend their meetings. The last one was held in Palm Beach in April 2023.
Despite the lofty claims based on "purpose" made by the NBCE's President Boghosian there is a growing call for the dismantling of what is referred to as the Chiropractic Cartel.
This Cartel was identified many years ago with numerous articles published in the chiropractic press outlining the scope of the enterprise and revealing a trail of student loan money used to subsidize its control over the entire educational, licensing and regulatory aspects of the profession.
The most dramatic description of the Chiropractic Cartel was revealed during a hearing for the Petition for Renewal of Recognition of The Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) before the United States Department of Education.
Dr. Lawrence J. DeNardis a Committee Member of the United States Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity made a bombshell statement in response to CCE's request for renewal of its recognition by the Department referring to the Cartel and its monopoly within the chiropractic profession:
"Madam Chair, we've heard charges and countercharges from I trust a wide, fairly wide spectrum of the chiropractic profession. At least that's the way it seems to me. Battles over turf, battles over philosophy, maybe battles over personal ambition, but divisions of every kind. And some of this, maybe most of it, is a consequence of, at least as I see it, a monopoly control of a profession which has led to the establishment of a virtual cartel, not unusual. There are several other professions that we deal with that have a virtual cartel control of the profession. We can't change that, but we can consider measures that will try to send a message to the prevailing control group that they should try to be more inclusive rather than less inclusive and I suggest that we try to figure out what is within our range of alternatives to do that. Because I believe if we simply hear it, discuss it, anguish over it, and then give them five years of recognition, that we haven't been the impetus for any corrective action for the profession and I worry about the profession."
Both the CCE and the NBCE (both private businesses) enjoy a virtual statutory monopoly due to language in nearly every single state granting them this monopoly since it is impossible to get a license to practice chiropractic unless one is a graduate of a CCE accredited school and passes the NBCE mandated exams.
The monopoly and reach of the Chiropractic Cartel extends beyond the United States to other countries around the world where chiropractic is regulated. The CCE, NBCE and FCLB all have international arms.
Recently over 50 organizations, state associations, schools, businesses, technique organizations and practice management groups have joined together and signed a series of Resolutions calling for freedom in chiropractic education, testing, licensing and regulation and an end to the statutory monopoly enjoyed by the NBCE, FCLB and the CCE.
CLICK HERE for more on that effort
According to the Press Release from the NBCE at this year’s April 28, 2023, NBCE Annual Meeting of Delegates, three District Director seats were elected:
- District III Director: Gary DiBenedetto, D.C.
- District IV Director: Jason Jaeger, D.C.
- District V Director: Danita Thomas Heagy, D.C.
On April 29, 2023, the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards seated the FCLB appointed Directors to the NBCE.
- FCLB Appointed Director: Karen Campion, D.C.
- FCLB Appointed Director: Robert Daschner, D.C.
At-Large Director elections were held immediately following appointment of the FCLB Directors.
- At-Large Director: Karlos Boghosian, D.C.
- At-Large Director: Carol Winkler, D.C.
The NBCE then elected the following officers who will serve as the Executive Committee for the coming year:
Dr. Karlos Boghosian – President
Dr. Margaret Freihaut – Treasurer
Dr. Jason Jaeger – Vice President
Dr. LeRoy Otto – Secretary
Other current National Board of Chiropractic Examiners board members include District I Director James Buchanan, D.C., (Wyoming), District II Director LeRoy F. Otto, D.C., (Minnesota), At-Large Director Steven C. Roberts, J.D., LL.M., (Missouri), and At-Large Director Margaret Freihaut, D.C. (Missouri).
