“Advanced” Chiropractor Blames Resistance to Drug Rights on Dogmatic Ideologies

Perlstein Says “Chiropractic Medicine” is a Stronger Identity

In a letter being circulated through the chiropractic profession, Stephen Perlstein DC, who is also a so called “Advanced” chiropractor, urges chiropractors who want to be considered primary care physicians to show up at the hearing set before the New Mexico Senate Public Affairs Committee and voice their support for Senate Bill 471.

The following is the text of the letter.

_________________________________________________________________________________

To All APC’s:

As you may have already read, SB 471 will be heard this Thursday at 2pm In Room 321 of the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.  I will be the expert witness for the bill as I have been for all of our Advanced Practice bills. Allow me to explain what this bill is all about and how it may affect you.

Chiropractic, as you know, is advancing in a particular direction.  It is my opinion that our profession must expand its educational requirements and its duties in order to best be recognized for who we truly are:  Primary Care Physicians.  We may think we are, but the recognition and everything good that comes with that has much to do with how well we integrate into the healthcare system.  Those with prescriptive rights have far more power than those who do not.  To have prescriptive rights is to have the professional option to use or not use them.  To not have them is to be impotent in the process.  One can have prescriptive rights and never use them.  But with them we have a voice that we never have had.  Some think that we will lose our identity by doing so.  I think that we will gain a new identity, one that the public has no problem with us having.  It is only those whose toes we are stepping on (the medical community) and those within our own profession who cannot see beyond their outdated dogmatic ideologies. 

The bill puts the profession in a stronger light by using the terms “chiropractic medicine” and “chiropractic physician” in place of simply “chiropractic” and “chiropractor”.  This is a stronger identity and an adequate representation. 

The bill puts to rest the confusion over Section A and Section B, in that it puts the chiropractic board in sole authority over the formulary pertaining to Section A, which opens up the possibility of allowing more procedures and substances than we have in our current formulary.  This is a very important part of the bill.
The bill presents a new entity, that being the Advanced Practice Chiropractic Physician with a prescription certificate.  That is someone who is an APC and who undergoes 500 hours of supervised clinical rotation, following which that APC will have prescription privileges encompassing legend drugs and controlled substances, the latter being from Schedules III through V only. 

IF YOU SUPPORT THE DIRECTION THAT THIS BILL SUGGESTS CHIROPRACTIC SHOULD GO, EVEN IF ALL YOU WOULD LIKE IS TO DO IV NUTRITION, PLEASE SHUT YOUR PRACTICE DOWN FOR THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND COME TO SANTA FE AND BE IN THE COMMITTEE ROOM WHEN THE BILL IS BEING HEARD AT 2PM. 

The chair will ask who is in favor of the bill.  If we only have 5-10 of us there, we will lose the committee.  If we have 50 of us there, we will make an enormous impression.  This is your moment to be heard.  You can be assured that the opposition will have plenty there.  We have to have more.

I WISH WE COULD MAKE ATTENDANCE MANDATORY, BUT IT HAS TO BE YOUR CHOICE.  I KNOW HOW EASY IT IS TO LET OTHERS DO THE WORK.  DON’T BE THAT PERSON.  DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE THERE THIS THURSDAY.  IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.