Tuesday, February 9, 2016

HMSA Also Gets Cozier with Quacks; Aids and Abets Fraud


 HMSA’s decision to let members choose naturopaths (NDs) as their primary care physicians raises many questions. Actually, these questions should have been asked long ago when ND licensure was being rammed down our throats and critics like myself were being treated like mangy mutts during the legislative hearings.  But better late than never, so here are a few of the questions that will eventually have to be answered:
If an ND advises a client family with young children to avoid all vaccinations (or to deviate from the CDC recommended schedule) because they are dangerous and ineffective (as per their dogma about “toxins”), should the ND be paid for the consultation?
If the children in that family then contract, say, measles or pertussis, and return to the ND for treatment (assuming the parents are that foolish), should the ND be reimbursed for the subsequent rounds of high colonics, megavitamins, toxic herbal teas, painful manipulations and other modes of child abuse common to their trade?
If a person with severe arthritis is treated by an ND according to the naturopathic standard of care, which means taking several dozen vitamins, minerals, glandulars, homeopathics, enzymes, herbs, amino acids and the like (often 50 to 100 pills per day, which the ND happens to sell from his or her office), should the ND be paid for the consultations? And who pays for the worthless and often toxic nostrums?  
Since the 1980s NDs have been denouncing anti-retrovirals as worthless and deadly, and claiming that they can cure HIV/AIDS and cancer with herbs, megavitamins, diets, acupuncture and the like. But Magic Johnson and millions of others are alive and well thanks to anti-retrovirals, while those who believe(d) the NDs die(d) prematurely by years, even decades.

Though it would be difficult to calculate with precision, there is undoubtedly a high body count associated with the fraudulent activities of naturopaths and the fools in government, the media and the insurance industry who aid and abet them. (That count would make a great subject for a PhD dissertation.) If a person with HIV/AIDS or a potentially-lethal cancer is dissuaded by an ND from undergoing proven medical therapy in favor of the usual grab-bag of “natural” therapies that do no good and are often harmful, should the ND be paid for the consultations and the worthless treatments?
About one half of ND training and practice is in homeopathy, which they put to good use. Homeopathy is the bread and butter of the trade and NDs often sell expensive little bottles of the holy water or holy pills (there is nothing in them but water and/or alcohol and sometimes sugar) from their offices. But homeopathy is now being exposed for the silly, preposterous scam that it is. After a series of blistering critiques and exposes, the British Health Service has finally come into the 21st Century and moved to stop reimbursements for homeopathic holy water and consultations.

Meanwhile HMSA is doing its best to further integrate quackery and fraud into mainstream healthcare. This raises serious ethical and legal questions about criminal and civil liability for complicity and conspiracy to defraud. What did they know and when did they know it? I have been explaining to all the relevant health professionals, legislators, and regulators for 20 years that naturopathy is an opportunistic, eclectic collection of claptrap that adds up to systematic quackery and criminal fraud.
What about when an ND diagnoses an alleged disease that MDs don’t recognize (say, yeast hypersensitivity syndrome), using unproved diagnostic devices and methods that have no scientific basis, followed by treatments with pharmaceutical anti-fungals, dozens of mega-nutrients, herbal drugs and other dangerous nostrums? Should the ND be compensated for these worthless services and products?
Did HMSA deciders learn anything about naturopathy before they got cozy with it? Do they know, for example, that many NDs use computerized diagnostic gadgets that magically analyze a patient’s vibrations to find the appropriate homeopathic and herbal remedies for that person with those symptoms at that time?

A medical doctor who uses such an unapproved and fraudulent device could lose her license, be fined and even go to prison. But it’s okay for NDs because it’s their standard of care to use all kinds of unproved diagnostic methods and treatments, and to lie to their clients about them. Because they are licensed and have their own standard of care they are exempt from anti-fraud, consumer-protection laws.
Finally, suppose the NDs who are chosen to be PCPs refer their patients to other NDs, and to chiropractors, acupuncturists, energy healers and other pretenders rather than to properly-trained medical doctors. Help! Is there an adult in the house? Who will be liable for the unnecessary injuries and deaths? Do NDs pay insurance premiums commensurate with their increasing responsibilities (and irresponsibility) and consequent potential to harm clients?


And will it ever be possible to hold an ND criminally or civilly accountable for grave injury when their standard of care necessarily results in bad medicine and malpractice? Naturopathy, like tobacco, is legal and, like tobacco, is hazardous to your health when used as directed. But unlike tobacco, it carries no warning label. As with tobacco in the old days, the media promote naturopathy through ads and propaganda disguised as journalism, and refuse to investigate its dirty underbelly.
If you think I’m exaggerating about the absurdity and dangers of naturopathy, see for yourself by reading a naturopathic text that is popular with the ND/student/client community, Better Health Through Natural Healing: How to Get Well Without Drugs or Surgery by Ross Trattler, ND, who used to live on Maui. This 600-page book is proof that NDs get downright medieval on their clients. It recommends all the nonsense cited here and a great deal more. Neither Trattler nor his publisher has responded to my repeated requests for references to support the bizarre prescriptions and claims. None are provided in the book.

It is too costly, health-wise and financially, to indulge everybody’s favorite fantasy about how the body works. The emergence of a plethora of imaginary alternative physiologies to justify the alternative medicines is so far beyond absurd that an adequate expletive for this rot has yet to be coined. Being proudly eclectic, NDs embrace them all -- acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal drugs, spine cracking, megavitamins -- anything they can make money on. It is clear that health-care outcomes will continue to deteriorate while costs rise until we abandon the separate but equal standard of care nonsense and apply one standard to all healthcare practices and claims. That standard must be science-based and evidence-based. In other words, let's get real already. 


Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretoldBarbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com.