The prosecution of cutting-edge Doctor of Osteopathy Wilbert C. (Cal) Streeter is probably the very first case where the credibility of the “quackbuster” operation was questioned at the Federal Prosecutor level–and found wanting. The entire case against Streeter was based upon the premises about health care put forward by the Federation of States Medical Boards (FSMB) annual meeting in Chicago in 1996. There, a major program was presented, supposedly on how to combat “Health Fraud.” Really, the meeting was an attempt to deflect the government’s interest away from then–Attorney General Janet Reno’s definition of “Health Fraud,” as “over-billing, false-coding, MD kickbacks, etc.,” and push it towards a different focus–Alternative Medicine. That plan, put forward at the Chicago FSMB meeting, was called the “Plan of ‘96,” and although it caused some damage, in the end it failed. One of the first victims of the “Plan of’96″ was a large patient group in northern Indiana, an area that also stretched beyond the state to include the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The patients of Cal Streeter, DO, were one day suddenly deprived of the cutting-edge services of their physician.

Now, the “Cal Streeter Story” is ripping apart health care regulation in Indiana–and it needs to be ripped apart. A few months ago, an Indiana Court ordered the State Medical Board, using very strong language, to restore Streeter’s license to practice medicine immediately. The Board, clearly defying the Indiana Court, waited a full 90 days to restore the license, then filed an appeal with the State Appellate Court over the restoration order. The State Appeals Court rejected the Medical Board’s appeal rather abruptly, refusing, as it were, to even look at the Board’s case and making it clear that, no matter what the Board, itself, thinks or wants, “the law is the law …” In the end, the courts made it clear that the Indiana State Medical Board had absolutely no right whatsoever even to question Cal Streeter’s ability to practice medicine over the issues they presented. The Indiana Courts have spoken.

In response, the people of Indiana are also beginning to speak loudly. And they are asking questions: How did this happen to their doctor? Who abused the Indiana regulatory system? What was done to manipulate the system? And where exactly did this manipulation take place? Most importantly, the question why comes to the forefront–as in, why was this action taken in the first place?–and that question–line is just beginning. For it’s time to pay the piper. No longer, in America, can the assault against cutting–edge health practices go without cost to the attacker.