Independent medical examiners no longer required to be licensed medical doctors

January 26, 2012

Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Oklahoma State Chiropractic Independent Physicians' Association, declaring laws requiring independent medical examiners to be licensed medical doctors or doctors of osteopathy to be unconstitutional. The Chiropractic Association claimed injustice due to the exclusion from the workers' compensation system.

The following is a quote from the supreme court ruling:

"We find the legislature, by the exclusion of not only chiropractors, but also podiatrists, dentists, and optometrists, have created a suspect special class. We also find that there is neither a distinctive characteristic upon which this different treatment is reasonably founded nor one which furnishes a practical and real basis for discrimination between the groups within the classes. Therefore, the distinction becomes arbitrary and without relation to the subject matter. We therefore find that the portions of the statutes that exclude all physicians other than medical doctors or doctors of osteopathy, including the definition of “qualified independent medical examiner” in § 308(39), to be unconstitutional."

• For further information on this case, see: Oklahoma State Chiropractic Independent Physicians Assoc. v. The Honorable Mary Fallin, No. 109807 (Okla. 12/20/11)