Around 4 years ago, chiropractors were shocked and surprised when the law was changed in California so that if you were injured at work, you could at most receive 24 visits to the chiropractor.<\/p>\n
It should not be a surprise (but it is) that someone is taking on this arbitrary limit in California courts system.<\/p>\n
I for one have had injuries that have literally taken me years to heal, and in a few cases decades. I have seen plenty of patients who take years or decades to fully improve from some severe injury. This can involve them needing literally hundreds of chiropractic visits to reach their maximum improvement.<\/p>\n
The way the law works now, is that if you are at work, fall of a crane, break your spine, and severely injure the discs and muscles, that when the bones have healed from the fractures and you go to the chiropractor, you will be limited to 24 visits, unless the insurance company decides to give you more visits, which in my experience is so rare that I personally have never seen it.<\/p>\n
The following is an exerpt from a letter written by Roger W. Calton who is an attorney in Orange County who I have known for many years.<\/p>\n
The challenges in this case are very interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 The California Constitution creates a complete system of workers compensation which is to include “full provision for such medical, surgical, hospital and other remedial treatment as is requisite to cure and relieve from the effects of such injury.”\u00c2\u00a0 The Legislature’s arbitrary 24 visit cap places, for the first time, a limit upon care which otherwise would be necessary to cure and relieve the effects of the industrial injury.\u00c2\u00a0 If the Legislature can place a 24 visit cap on chiropractic, then could they lower the cap to 15 visits (as was the original proposal) or to 10, or to 5?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span><\/font><\/em><\/p>\n <\/font>\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Under the current law, the carrier<\/u> can authorize in excess of 24 visits.\u00c2\u00a0 But allowing the carrier<\/u> to make this determination does two things:\u00c2\u00a0 First, it creates a decision maker with an immediate and substantial bias.\u00c2\u00a0 Secondly, it deprives the Court of the right to make the determination of what care is necessary to cure or relieve the effects of the industrial injury.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n \n The full court documents from the filing are here if you want to read them:<\/p>\n Document 1<\/a><\/p>\n Document 2<\/a><\/p>\n