STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
June 16, 1975
Robert H. Hayes, M.D.
Secretary, Department of Health
Office Building No.2
Pierre, South Dakota 57501
OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 75-109
Authority of chiropractic physicians to perform diagnostic tests and procedures and/or treatment
Dear Doctor Hayes:
You have submitted the following factual situation.
Insurance companies requests as to whether chiropractic physicians should be reimbursed for diagnostic laboratory tests or diagnostic procedures are most often referred to my office. My duties include that I be a reference point in the health industry. When it appears that the public's health is in jeopardy then it is my duty to act to preserve and protect the public's health.
Based upon the above factual situation you have asked several questions:
1. Does the law allow a chiropractor to perform laboratory procedures or tests and/or diagnostic procedures (such as proctoscopic examinations, etc.)?
2. Can a chiropractor legally insert an instrument through the surface of the body (the skin surface)?
SDCL 36-2-2 prohibits anyone from diagnosing or treating the sick who does not hold a license or certificate issued under the laws of South Dakota authorizing such person to practice the healing art covered by such license, and "subject to the limitations provided by the laws of the state of South Dakota for issuance of such license or certificate for the practice thereunder.”
SDCL 36-5, the Legislature has provided for the licensing of chiropractors. It thereby necessarily follows that chiropractors so licensed are authorized to treat the sick only to the extent authorized by their chiropractic license.
The Legislature has defined the scope of practice of chiropractors in SDCL 36-5-1 as follows:
Chiropractic is hereby defined to be the science of locating and removing the cause of any abnormal transmission of nerve energy including diagnostic and externally applied mechanical measures incident thereto. Chiropractors shall not be entitled to practice obstetrics or treat communicable diseases.
The answer to your first question is therefore found in the statute. Those diagnostic measures incident to the practice of chiropractic can be used by chiropractors. Also as the statute limits the scope of their practice to "locating and removing the cause of any abnormal transmission of nerve energy" the diagnostic measures used would have to lend themselves to this limited purpose. For me to attempt to list those laboratory procedures or tests and/or diagnostic procedures that a chiropractor can utilize seems foolhardy, and I decline to answer this question in such specifics. It is a matter best left to the Legislature, the medical profession and the courts.
The answer to your second question is NO. SDCL 36-5-1, which defines the scope of chiropractic, limits the use of mechanical measures to those that are externally applied. As stated previously in this opinion, one who practices a healing art must hold a valid license or certificate authorizing the licensee to practice that particular healing art covered by such license. For a chiropractor to use other than externally applied mechanical measures in the locating and removing of abnormal transmissions of nerve energy would subject a chiropractor to the penalties provided in SDCL 36-4-8.
SDCL 36-4-8 provides in part as follows:
Any person who shall practice ... surgery, obstetrics or any of the branches thereof, in this state, without having obtained a license and caused the same to be recorded as required by this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
The severing or penetrating of the tissues of human beings for the diagnosis or treatment of human ills are acts that have therefore been reserved to physicians and surgeons licensed under SDCL 36-4. Therefore, chiropractors can use only externally applied mechanical measures in their work.
Respectfully submitted,
William Janklow
Attorney General
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