Rondberg & RCS Scam
Undoubtedly, the position to be envied in healthcare today is that of the middleman—the CEOs of MCOs or the vendors who profit dearly. Forget about those at the ends of the system—the patients and providers—since the big money rests in the middle. Recall the CEO of UnitedHealthcare earned $158 million last year (nearly $3 million per week), and it’s obvious we DCs are just the work mules for the Massa slave drivers!
I’m also astonished at the money our chiro vendors seem to have. The F4CP was given a million dollar donation each by FootLevelers and NCMIC, which is about the only way to raise enough money to fund a national PR program since most DCs are broke nowadays.
Now we read that Terry Wrongberg, the dictator for life of the sham WCA, has given $760,000 to the phony RCS patient solicitation program, a revival of his past VSRI scheme that earned him over a million dollars before the Alabama state AG gave him a cease and desist order (I mistakenly wrote last time it was the fed govt, but was corrected by Dan Osborne that it was Alabama instead.)
TR’s enormous gift to the RCS program raises many questions:
- How does TR earn so much to give away? I can’t believe his tiny WCA of 300 suckers, err, members, supports this level of funding, nor can I imagine his yellow free tabloid would earn this much. Perhaps his CBS malpractice company makes more than we think, but definitely the place to be now is an Evil Vendor!.
- Why is this necessary? Has the massive advertising effort by TR failed to recruit enough suckers, err, participants into this scheme? If it were so successful, why the need to inject 3/4ths of a million in this scam?
- Why has the chiro community failed to support this sham effort? Perhaps many recall his VSRI effort that made him millions but soiled the image of many DCs when it was exposed as a tacky patient recruitment scheme without any true scientific merit.
- If this were a successful program, TR would be bragging about the numbers of DC’s they have in this program and already be putting display ads of DC’s bragging how many patients they see because of being an RCS designated sucker, err, “ researcher.” Why this lack of promotion?
- This RCS program could make TR more money than his VSRI, which only charged a couple of thousand for telephone solicitation. This RCS program will cost each sucker, err, “researcher” a cool $14,000, which equates to $1.4 million for each 100 suckers, err, “researchers” who sign up. Is it any wonder TR is promoting this so hard when there’s so much money to be made?
Remember the movie “Mississippi Burning” when Gene Hackman told William Defoe “the rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide”? Well, the rattlesnakes in the WCA and RCS are starting to commit suicide with this research scam to prove the Big Hypothetical that chiro cures everything, ya folla?
“We are specifically looking for concrete and incontrovertible proof that chiropractic care has long-term benefits for all people. That means proving that it strengthens immune function, improves quality of life, and helps elevate levels of wellness.”
“The hypothesis being proved by RCS is that chiropractic has a significant, positive and far-reaching impact on health and wellness for people of all ages,” stated Dr. Jackson.
“The hypothesis being proved by RCS” Wait a moment. Isn’t this backwards in that research is supposed to lead to conclusions, not visa versa where you start with your hoped-for conclusions then seek to find the proof? Of course, this latest Wrongberg scam is not true research, but just another patient solicitation scam veiled as research to “save the profession” as Matt McCoy often implies in his appeals for suckers, err, “researchers.”
Oddly, Jackson cannot understand why anyone would be suspect of this scam.
Not surprisingly, a small fringe element within the profession [wrong: the vast majority of ethical DCs is not a fringe element] immediately attacked the program, based primarily on their assumption that Rondberg was involved [why else would he give free ads in his yellow rag or donate ungodly amounts of money if he didn’t have a hand in profiting. This is the same role he takes with his CBS insurance company—pretending to not be involved as he makes plenty]. “Dr. Rondberg has been our most generous and enthusiastic supporter,” Jackson admitted. “But he is not an officer of the company nor does he play any part in the running of RCS. [why don’t we believe this?] Making chiropractic research into a political football because of personal or philosophical differences is deplorable [wrong: it’s a matter of ethics and legalities]. Would these people prefer to destroy chiropractic rather than join RCS in supporting subluxation based chiropractic research [Okay, stop laughing. Again, demagoguery is the cornerstone of their argument: if you’re not with us, then you’re against sub-based chiropracT
IC]? Is there hatred and fear of principled chiropractic that intense?” [No, just the dislike of scam artists like TR and Jackson, just like the hatred of phony educators like Big $id, ya folla?]
So, if you don’t join this scam, then you’re on the “small fringe element” who “prefer to destroy chiropractic rather than join RCS in supporting subluxation based chiropractic research.” Gimme a break. Any ethical DC, especially researchers, knows full well this RCS is a back asswords scam that may make millions for them, but prove nothing. Just as we saw with the VSRI scam years ago, the only one who benefited was TR, not the profession or those field docs who were ordered to cease and desist.
Indeed, if TR and his cronies were truly interested in research, they could donate their money to FCER or the Palmer Research Center or to any of the chiro colleges instead. But this RCS is a shameless attempt to profit by seducing well meaning, but naïve, “researchers” into a program that is nothing more than an unethical patient solicitation scam.
Enjoy,
JCS