National Chiropractic Mutual Insurance Company (NCMIC) executive vice president, Larry Rister has announced that NCMIC has declared a dividend -- thanks largely to a decrease in the severity of claims against chiropractors insured by NCMIC.
The company's executive vice president attributes the decrease to the company's aggressive defense of non-meritorious claims, which has been "quite effective." The number of claims dismissed without payment has grown for the third consecutive year.
Policyholders who have been with NCMIC for more than two consecutive years with no losses or loss expenses for three years will be eligible for a ten percent dividend. The dividend credits will be applied to renewal premiums beginning with January 1990 renewals and continuing through 1990.
As a by-product of an aggressive claims effort, the loss expenses for attorneys, expert witnesses, and claim adjudication services continues to escalate. NCMIC is currently paying $1.37 of loss expenses for each $1.00 of losses.
NCMIC continues to monitor the claim handling process. A networking of defense methodology on cases of a similar nature is currently being implemented. Documentation on plaintiff expert witnesses who usually testify against policyholders is distributed to defense attorneys across the country. Mr. Rister said, "NCMIC is continually advised of the many intricacies of chiropractic and the ever-changing legal environment.
As NCMIC strives to improve and serve the chiropractors (who are the true owners of the company) they are pleased to offer a dividend for 1990.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
