ICBC Committee Update — Dr. Brian Arthur, Committee Chairman
On May 28th, 1999 the BCCA liaison committee met with ICBC to ascertain the intent of its proposed amendments to Part 7 Accident Benefits of the Regulations. A written draft of the amendments was not available from the Corporation. Therefore, the BCCA has ceased further meetings with the ICBC Liaison Committee or Pilot Project Committee.
Most members are aware of ICBC's intentions to limit chiropractic care, thanks to the successful media campaign implemented by the BCCA's public relations firm, Margo Bates Publicity Inc. When the media picked up our news releases, several BCCA Board and association members were interviewed, as well some members of the College. The coordinated efforts of our P.R. firm and the BCCA Board enabled us to create public awareness of this issue province wide via print, radio and television. Our thanks to everyone involved in this first round of media frenzy.
Geoff Plante, Liberal ICBC critic was also informed of ICBC's intentions. He subsequently questioned the Hon. Dale Lovick, Minister responsible for ICBC, in the legislature. From the minister's responses, it was evident that he did not understand the existing Regulations regarding payment for necessary care.
At the time of this article submission, the proposed amendments had not been passed. Therefore, a window of opportunity exists for members and patients to press this issue with their MLA for rejection of this deplorable act by ICBC. We cannot concede this issue by allowing patients to pay cash and then recover their expenses under special damages. The BCCA Board continues to voice our indignation with the Minister and ministry, and a meeting has been arranged for early July with the Hon. Dale Lovick. However, our efforts must be supplemented by the efforts of individual members and the public. The Board still desires to litigate the issue of who determines necessary care with ICBC. It is difficult to imagine that none of our 700 members has a patient willing to stand up for chiropractic. The time factor for the patient would be quite minimal - no different than setting up a tort action. Thank you to those members who have written form letters to adjusters. If I have overlooked a potentially good case, please telephone (604-261-1540) or fax ( 261-1580) me. Remember, if you have a patient who is blatantly being denied chiropractic benefits (especially if other benefits are being paid for by ICBC), please use the previously distributed form letter to write the adjuster and fax a copy to the Association. This is a critical first step in the litigation process.
I would like to share some statistics that were given to the BCCA by ICBC: The number of injured motorists seeing chiropractors has increased in each of the last three years. In 1995, 550 chiropractors saw 5851 claimants. In 1996, 590 chiropractors saw 7259 claimants, and in 1997, 628 chiropractors saw 8037 claimants. The 1998 figures are not available. In addition, the ratio of claimants per doctor has increased each year from 10.6 to 12.3 to 12.8 respectively. One could speculate that this is perhaps the reason ICBC is attempting to limit chiropractic care. It appears that the harder ICBC pushes claimants towards a medical model, the busier chiropractors become. Injured motorists obviously know where to get the best results.
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