Florida Chiro. Assn. Suggests Baseline of Standards for Peer Review Doctors

In the Nov. 18 issue of "DC," we reported on the the Florida Peer Review Committee, and that six of the seven DCs on that committee were consultants for DRS, a utilization review company.

We suggested a simple solution to the concerns over conflicts of interest with the Florida Peer Review Committee would be to prohibit board members from working for utilization review companies.

We have since received a position statement on this matter from Ronald Wellikoff, DC, president of the Florida Chiropractic Association. He states that although the peer review committee members are not in violation of any existing ethical regulation, that the FCA would support "establishing a baseline of standards" that would balance the rights of a private doctor who volunteers to do the important work of peer review. The FCA stated it would continue to "stand behind the peer review committee's efforts to identify overutilization which only occurs in a small percentage of cases."