I went to the same doctor that has been giving me my third class for my Basic Med. I was his first and he knows me so seemed okay doing it. Here is Iowa quite a few chiropractors do commercial drivers license physicals for truck drivers and a friend got his Basic Med there with no problems. Might see if Michigan chiro's are approved.

All this searching for a doc who will do Basic Med is sort of self defeating, isn't it? Wasn't the entire point of the program to allow you to use your own family doc? Thankfully, my family doc is happy to do this for me. It's interesting that others won't.

Both I and my hangar neighbor would like to have used/use our primary care physician but I think one of the problems we have here is that most medical service is provided by large corporations who own and operate almost all of the hospitals and medical clinics. Doing Basic Med physicals does not fit their corporate business plan and as such they do not have insurance nor do they authorize the doctors that work for them to do Basic Med physicals. My primary care physician was very apologetic for not being able to help me with this as were the office manager at the local clinic I visit and the doctor that is an AME and in charge of the occupational health department for their group. They wanted to help me, they were not allowed to by the people they work for. I hope this gets sorted out before my four years are up but as of today i am not optimistic that I will have the Basic Med option available when it is time to renew.


Tim

My primary care doc agreed to do the Basic Med deal as part of my annual checkup.

Before that happened, I was visiting a friend who happens to be an AME, and he said said let’s do a basic med deal.

MTV

Tim, did you see my post about Iowa chiropractors? If they are certified to do truck DOT physicals, they can do basic med. My AME that just did my Basic Med is part of a large hospital group so I'd ask what is so different about Iowa and Mich.? I'd go to the head cheese of that place your doc is a part of and ask what their problem is.

One other thing, my AME charged $205 for my 3rd class a couple of years ago and for some reason I got a rebate for $30 a few weeks later in the mail. In Dec when I got my Basic Med he charged the same $205 knowing it was for 4 yrs. My friend that went to the chiropractor said I
should have gone there since that lady only charged him $100, the same as a DOT physical usually cost him.

180Marty, I did see your post and if I don't see my neighbor at the airport tomorrow I plan to call him with your suggestion. Thank you, I had not thought about chiropractors being licensed by the state as physicians. Since most of them are independent they won't have to answer to a manager. The AME who is in charge of occupational medicine for Spectrum Health, which owns and operates most of the hospitals and health clinics in west Michigan, is about as high up the management list as I could get. By the way he really wanted to help me, called me back on a Saturday morning while he was on vacation, we talked about it for about twenty minutes and he said it just wasn't his choice. Some of their clinics are no longer doing DOT physicals either and truck drivers are having to go to the hospital to get a physical. Just a totally disappointing situation for those looking for a simpler, equally safe option to keep flying.

Tim

One thing to keep in mind when getting a Basic Med exam from your primary care doc is that most of those folks don't have eye exam equipment. Simple to have the eye portion of the exam done by an Optometrist or an eye doctor, and take that info with you to the exam.

MTV

The FAA don't care what state, (I called em). Oregon on the other hand doesn't want your favorite doc, (me!*), practicing medicine in their state without an Oregon license. (about $979 dollars and a bunch of paperwork).
ps. We can work it out!


* If not, disregard the working it out part.