Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Hypocrisy of Scope of Practice Partnership's Legal Compliance Statement

http://blogs.do-online.org/media/2/20090301-DR_3-1-09_SOPPForm.doc
From the 2006 "Legal Compliance" Statement of SOPP

"The following principles will guide all activities involving the SOP Partnership:

* No SOP Partnership activity shall be used to effectuate any agreement or understanding among competitors to restrain trade, engage in unfair competition, fix prices or fees, allocate markets, or otherwise to suppress competition. "

Now, while I smell a lawyers verbiage in the above statement, who no doubt advised them that they (SOPP) must be careful of not establishing a monopoly,
the very tactics and agenda set by SOPP, acts to "restrain trade", engage in unfair competition, or "otherwise suppress competition".

If SOPP continues with the agenda they very clearly laid out in their national agenda statement, in which they clearly talk about working to de-license entire professions such as homeopathy or midwifery, it is patently IMPOSSIBLE for them NOT to "restrain trade" or "otherwise suppress competition". If midwives, for example, are competition in any way to OB-Gyns, and you obliterate their legal ability to practice, please explain in this or any other planet, how that does not restrain their trade or suppress this competition. It is almost as if they (SOPP)
are thinking they are on the Bizarro world on which Bizarro Superman lives, a planet on which you say the opposite of what you mean.

Let me make it clear how this is an attempt to restrain free trade, attempts to establish a monopoly, and yes, suppresses competition.
Let's imagine for just five minutes, that four years ago, in 2006, all alternative, natural, and other health care providers, in short, everyone except for Doctors of Osteopathy and Medical Doctors, got together in a meeting, and decided that we must do the following 1) Remove MDs right to prescribe medications 2) Remove their ability to diagnose their own patients and 3) De-license them, on a state by state basis. Furthermore, let's say that our coalition decided to publish statements about their profession that would lead potential patients to believe that not only were they not competent, but may in fact, injure patients. Now, imagine that we were to use considerable legal, financial, and political resources, day after day, state after state, including but not limited to actual court litigation to accomplish these goals

Do you think for ONE MINUTE that the MDs would not think this was restraint of free trade, an attempt to suppress competition, and perhaps was tortious business interference ? Of course they would, in fact, anyone would, and that , my friends, is pretty much what the SOPP and AMA (and other junior state organizations associated with the AMA) have been doing. It doesn't take any leap of faith. Just look at the actions of those working on issues at the behest of the SOPP group. They (SOPP) try to paint a picture in their propaganda, that they are trying to halt the encroachment of alternative providers into enlarging their scope beyond areas which they have proper training and expertise for, and yet, in Texas , they have taken the draconian stand that Chiropractic Doctors, do not have the right, nor the expertise, to diagnose their own patients, even though Doctors of Chiropractic in Texas receive training on proper differential diagnosing techniques, and they (SOPP nor the TMA) have provided broad and sweeping proof that Doctors of Chiropractic are regularly misdiagnosing any conditions. In fact, I believe a good case may be made, that far more MDs are misdiagnosing patients every day in Texas, than DCs, and in point of fact, we should look at the medical malpractice cases filed in Texas, and see what portion of the DCs are ever found guilty of making improper, or missed diagnoses, as opposed to the number of MDs who have been found to have been guilty of either missing or misdiagnosing diseases.

No, SOPP is most CLEARLY an attempt, nationwide, to eliminate ALL competition in the health care arena (i.e. competition for MDs and DOs), to suppress competition, to restrict free trade, to establish a de facto monopoly of health care in the United States, and I believe, tortious business interference may also be the fruit of their actions (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference ).

Wilk v. AMA was a very famous, antitrust case previously, in which the Chiropractic profession was victorious (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chiro.org%2Fabstracts%2Famavschiro.pdf&rct=j&q=Wilk+v.+AMA&ei=7icYTJ7VEMT_lgeA9eCUDA&usg=AFQjCNGxIUMyjRkBXsVRUUeDGJ9DKgkwJQ&sig2=io3wU9FrbIeCuLZN9OtJ4w ).

To quote the late President, Ronald Reagan, "There you go again!".







Keywords for this post = doctors, doctor, chiropractic, medical doctors, osteopaths, allopaths, scope of practice partnership, interfere, attack, health professions, psychologists, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrists, physical therapists, nurse, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, midwives, midwife, homeopaths, naturopaths, acupuncturist, acupuncture, oriental medical doctors, nurse anesthetists, doctor of nursing practice, DNP