Minnesota Session Laws - 1983, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1983 

                        CHAPTER 346--S.F.No. 159
 an act relating to occupations and professions; 
regulating chiropractic practice; providing for the 
management of expenditures and revenues of the board; 
providing grounds for revocation, suspension, or 
refusal to renew licenses; providing for the payment 
of costs of disciplinary proceedings; authorizing 
temporary license suspensions; providing rulemaking 
authority to the board; creating a legislative study 
commission; amending Minnesota Statutes 1982, sections 
148.01; 148.06; 148.07, subdivision 2; 148.08, by 
adding a subdivision; and 148.10, subdivisions 1, 3, 
and by adding a subdivision. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.01, is 
amended to read: 
    148.01 [CHIROPRACTIC.] 
    Subdivision 1.  For the purposes of sections 148.01 to 
148.10, "chiropractic" is hereby defined as being the science of 
adjusting any abnormal articulations of the human body, 
especially those of the spinal column, for the purpose of giving 
freedom of action to impinged nerves that may cause pain or 
deranged function.  
    Subd. 2.  The practice of chiropractic is hereby declared 
not to be the practice of medicine, surgery, or osteopathy.  
    Subd. 3.  Chiropractic practice includes those noninvasive 
means of clinical, physical, and laboratory measures and 
analytical xray of the bones of the skeleton which are necessary 
to make a determination of the presence or absence of a 
chiropractic condition.  The practice of chiropractic may 
include procedures which are used to prepare the patient for 
chiropractic adjustment or to complement the chiropractic 
adjustment.  The procedures may not be used as independent 
therapies or separately from chiropractic adjustment.  No device 
which utilizes heat or sound shall be used in the treatment of a 
chiropractic condition unless it has been approved by the 
Federal Communications Commission.  No device shall be used 
above the neck of the patient.  Any chiropractor who utilizes 
procedures in violation of this subdivision shall be guilty of 
professional misconduct unprofessional conduct and subject to 
disciplinary procedures pursuant according to section 148.10. 
    Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.06, is 
amended to read:  
    148.06 [APPLICATION; EXAMINATION; LICENSE; FEE.] 
    Subdivision 1.  [LICENSE REQUIRED; QUALIFICATIONS.] No 
person shall practice chiropractic in this state without first 
being licensed by the state board of chiropractic examiners.  
The applicant shall have earned at least one-half of all 
academic credits required for awarding of a baccalaureate degree 
from the university of Minnesota, or other university, college 
or community college of equal standing, in subject matter 
determined by the board, and taken a four-year resident course 
of at least eight months each in a school or college of 
chiropractic that is fully accredited by, or has accreditation 
status with, the council on chiropractic education or fully 
accredited by an agency approved by the United States office of 
education or their successors.  The board may recommend a 
two-year prechiropractic course of instruction to any 
university, college or community college which in its judgment 
would satisfy the academic prerequisite for licensure as 
established by this section. 
    An examination for a license shall be in writing and shall 
include testing in: 
    (a) The basic sciences including but not limited to 
anatomy, physiology, bacteriology, pathology, hygiene, and 
chemistry as related to the human body or mind; 
    (b) The clinical sciences including but not limited to the 
science and art of chiropractic, chiropractic physiotherapy, 
diagnosis, roentgenology and nutrition; and 
    (c) Professional ethics and any other subjects that the 
board may deem advisable. 
    The board may consider a valid certificate of examination 
from the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners as evidence of 
compliance with the written examination requirements of this 
subdivision.  The applicant shall be required to give practical 
demonstration in vertebral palpation, nerve tracing, adjusting 
and any other subject that the board may deem advisable.  A 
license, counter-signed by the members of the board and 
authenticated by the seal thereof, shall be granted to each 
applicant who correctly answers 75 percent of the questions 
propounded in each of the subjects required by this subdivision 
and meets the standards of practical demonstration established 
by the board.  Each application shall be accompanied by a fee 
set by the board.  The fee shall not be returned in the event of 
failure to pass, but the applicant may, within one year, present 
himself for examination without the payment of an additional 
fee.  The board may grant a license to an applicant who holds a 
valid license to practice chiropractic issued by the appropriate 
licensing board of another state or country, provided the 
applicant meets the other requirements of this section and 
satisfactorily passes the practical examination before the board.
    Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.07, 
subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 2.  [EXPENSES.] The expenses of administering 
sections 148.01 to 148.101 shall be paid from the appropriation 
made to the state board of chiropractic examiners.  Expenditures 
and revenues must be managed in accordance with the statewide 
accounting principles and requirements of the commissioner of 
finance.  
    Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.08, is 
amended by adding a subdivision to read:  
    Subd. 3.  [RULES.] The board of chiropractic examiners 
shall promulgate rules necessary to administer sections 148.01 
to 148.101 to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the 
public, including rules governing the practice of chiropractic 
and defining any terms, whether or not used in sections 148.01 
to 148.101, if the definitions are not inconsistent with the 
provisions of sections 148.01 to 148.101.  
    Sec. 5.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.10, 
subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
    Subdivision 1.  [GROUNDS.] The state board of chiropractic 
examiners may refuse to grant, or may revoke, suspend, 
condition, limit, restrict or qualify a license to practice 
chiropractic, or may cause the name of a person licensed to be 
removed from the records in the office of the clerk of the 
district court for: 
    (1) the publishing or distributing, or causing to be 
published or distributed, in newspapers, magazines, directories, 
pamphlets, posters, cards, or in any other manner by 
advertisement, wherein the term "cure" or "guarantee to cure" or 
similar terms are used; which is hereby declared to be 
fraudulent and misleading to the general public; 
    (2) the employment of fraud or deception in applying for a 
license or in passing the examination provided for in section 
148.06; 
    (3) the practice of chiropractic under a false or assumed 
name or the impersonation of another practitioner of like or 
different name; 
    (4) the conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude; 
    (5) habitual intemperance in the use of alcohol or drugs; 
    (6) failure to pay the annual renewal license fee; 
    (7) Advanced physical or mental disability; 
    (8) The revocation or suspension of a license to practice 
chiropractic; or other disciplinary action against the licensee; 
or the denial of an application for a license by the proper 
licensing authority of another state, territory or country; 
    (9) The violation of, or failure to comply with, the 
provisions of sections 148.01 to 148.101, the rules of the state 
board of chiropractic examiners, or a lawful order of the board; 
or 
    (10) Unprofessional conduct.; or 
    (11) Being unable to practice chiropractic with reasonable 
skill and safety to patients by reason of illness, professional 
incompetence, senility, drunkenness, use of drugs, narcotics, 
chemicals or any other type of material, or as a result of any 
mental or physical condition.  If the board has probable cause 
to believe that a person comes within this clause, it shall 
direct the person to submit to a mental or physical 
examination.  For the purpose of this clause, every person 
licensed under this chapter shall be deemed to have given his 
consent to submit to a mental or physical examination when 
directed in writing by the board and further to have waived all 
objections to the admissibility of the examining physicians' 
testimony or examination reports on the ground that the same 
constitute a privileged communication.  Failure of a person to 
submit to such examination when directed shall constitute an 
admission of the allegations against him, unless the failure was 
due to circumstances beyond his control, in which case a default 
and final order may be entered without the taking of testimony 
or presentation of evidence.  A person affected under this 
clause shall at reasonable intervals be afforded an opportunity 
to demonstrate that he can resume the competent practice of 
chiropractic with reasonable skill and safety to patients.  
    In any proceeding under this clause, neither the record of 
proceedings nor the orders entered by the board shall be used 
against a person in any other proceeding.  
    For the purposes of clause (4), conviction shall be deemed 
to include a criminal proceeding in which a finding or verdict 
of guilt is made or returned but the adjudication of guilt is 
either withheld or not entered. 
    For the purposes of clauses (4) and (5), a copy of the 
judgment or proceeding under seal of the clerk of the court or 
of the administrative agency which entered the same shall be 
admissible into evidence without further authentication and 
shall constitute prima facie evidence of its contents. 
    For the purposes of clause (10), unprofessional conduct 
means any unethical, deceptive or deleterious conduct or 
practice harmful to the public, any departure from or the 
failure to conform to the minimal standards of acceptable 
chiropractic practice, or a willful or careless disregard for 
the health, welfare or safety of patients, in any of which cases 
proof of actual injury need not be established.  Unprofessional 
conduct shall include, but not be limited to, the following acts 
of a chiropractor: 
    (a) Gross ignorance of, or incompetence in, the practice of 
chiropractic; 
    (b) Making suggestive, lewd, lascivious or improper 
advances to a patient; 
    (c) Performing unnecessary services; 
    (d) Charging a patient an unconscionable fee or charging 
for services not rendered; 
    (e) Directly or indirectly engaging in threatening, 
dishonest, or misleading fee collection techniques; 
    (f) Perpetrating fraud upon patients, third party payers, 
or others, relating to the practice of chiropractic; and 
    (g) Any other act that the board by rule may define. 
     Sec. 6.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.10, 
subdivision 3, is amended to read: 
    Subd. 3.  [REPRIMAND; PENALTIES; PROBATION.] In addition to 
the other powers granted to the board under this chapter, the 
board may, in connection with any person whom the board, after a 
hearing, adjudges unqualified or whom the board, after a 
hearing, finds to have performed one or more of the acts 
described in subdivision 1: 
    (a) Publicly reprimand or censure the person; and 
    (b) Place the person on probation for the period and upon 
the terms and conditions that the board may prescribe; and 
     (c) Require payment of all costs of proceedings resulting 
in the disciplinary action. 
     Sec. 7.  Minnesota Statutes 1982, section 148.10, is 
amended by adding a subdivision to read: 
    Subd. 4.  [TEMPORARY SUSPENSION.] In addition to any other 
remedy provided by law, the board may, without a hearing, 
temporarily suspend a license for not more than 60 days if the 
board finds that a person has violated a statute or rule which 
the board is empowered to enforce and continued practice by the 
person would create an imminent risk of harm to others.  The 
suspension shall take effect upon written notice to the person, 
specifying the statute or rule violated.  At the time it issues 
the suspension notice, the board shall schedule a disciplinary 
hearing to be held pursuant to the Administrative Procedure 
Act.  The person shall be provided with at least 20 days notice 
of any hearing held pursuant to this subdivision.  
    Sec. 8.  [LEGISLATIVE STUDY COMMISSION.] 
    A legislative study commission is created to study and 
report on the utilization of venipuncture for diagnostic 
purposes in the practice of chiropractic and medicine.  The 
commission shall report its findings to the legislature on 
October 1, 1984.  The commission shall consist of two members of 
the house of representatives appointed by the speaker of the 
house and two members of the senate appointed by the majority 
leader of the senate.  There shall also be two doctors of 
chiropractic and two doctors of medicine, all appointed by their 
respective licensing boards.  
    Sec. 9.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Sections 1 to 8 are effective the day following final 
enactment. 
    Approved June 14, 1983