I was duped. Life Aligned Wellness Center (formerly Discover Chiropractic) offers several plans to bring the price per adjustment down. The plans are structured so that you get a total number of adjustments and a certain number of adjustments are free. When I had the initial exam with Dr. Cox, I had some trepidation about signing up for one of the plans because I didn't know if he could make my back better. He assured me he could, and if he didn't, he would refund my money for the adjustments I didn't use. This assurance was enough to get me to sign up.
What he *didn't* tell me is that the plan backloads the free adjustments. Let's say, for example, you get the 48 adjustment plan. With that plan 14 adjustments are free. Now if you used half (24) of your treatments and decided it wasn't working and wanted a refund, you should get half your money back, right? Wrong! You will get a fraction of your money back because with the 14 free adjustments being backloaded, you actually only have 10 adjustments left! That's a very sneaky and dishonest way to give a money back guarantee.
Also during the initial exam, I questioned how just spinal adjustments could bring me back into alignment when it is my muscles that are holding me out of alignment. He told me he would also give me exercises to do along with the adjustments. During the 6 months I was getting adjusted by Dr. Cox, he never gave me any exercises.
He also structures the adjustment sessions communally. This means your adjustments happen in a room with everyone else that showed up to be adjusted. He does these communal adjustments in a small window of time. This maximizes his profit, of course, but what if you have questions you want to ask in private? And how is he possibly focusing on your problem when he is switching between people as he's adjusting you? Literally, he does an adjustment, moves to 2 or 3 other people, and then comes back for more adjusting on you.
In the end, this practice is all smoke and mirrors. They try to make it look scientific with their tests (that have no scientific basis). A couple hours after being adjusted you go right back to the way you were before. The communal adjustments are just a way to maximize profit.
This is not an honest chiropractor and I do not recommend him.
UPDATE: 10/24/2014
This article could have been written specifically about Dr. Cox:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/questions-and-answers-about-chiropractic-the-bottom-line/
UPDATE: 02/07/2015
This is in response to Dr. Cox's reply to my review:
You claim to have 2000 patients. Maybe you have seen 2000 patients over the lifetime of the practice, but clearly you do not have 2000 *active* patients. Let's say you have one tenth of that, so 200 *active* patients. You wanted to see me twice a week, but I'll be generous and say you see them once a week. If you saw patients 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with no lunch/bathroom breaks and no vacations or holidays, you would have to see 40 patients a day and each one would get 12 minutes of your time. No wonder you do the communal adjustments! You need to get them in and out as fast as you can.
Regarding your assertion that I did not voice my concerns. Perhaps your receptionist, Jamie, did not take good notes. I did indeed voice my concerns to her. In fact, I called her back specifically just to voice my concerns on at least one occasion.
You state that you are bound by law regarding free adjustments. However, you present the plans as "discounted" plans. I chose the 48 adjustments and 4 progress exams (52 sessions total) option, for which I paid $2860 minus a $990 "discount" for an average of $38 per session (total $1870). The full price per session is listed as $55 per session. All of those figures come directly from your paperwork presented to me. Since I also keep meticulous records, I have the document, and I added it to the photos.
I used 28 sessions total so I should get a refund for 24 sessions at the average $38 per session cost (total $912), right? Nope. I got one refund for $85 and another for $245 for a total of $330, which is 6 sessions at the full price $55 per session. The remaining money I paid went to the 28 sessions at the full $55 price per session (total $1540). Do you see a discount in there? Neither do I. In reality, the plans aren't discounted at all. The patient is paying full price per session and you're tacking "free" sessions onto the end. If the patient decides the treatment isn't working, you've already made sure you got paid at full price and the patient is none the wiser.
Regarding doing adjustments on healthy children and NEWBORNS... that should scare the you know what out of people!
UPDATE: 02/23/2015
Dr. Cox had my photo of the "discounted" plans removed. read more
