Second Location Coming Soon!!

Second Location Coming Soon!!

When I opened Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic four years ago in August of 2012 I sought to bring about a combination of the best quality care and most convenient hours for injured citizens of Baltimore City. I hoped that the community would recognize the value in the quality of care that I provided and would reward me with the opportunity to take care of more and more injured patients, whether they just woke up with a stiff neck or back, were injured in social sports, or whether they were injured in a Baltimore auto accident and had whiplash symptoms.

As the referrals grew, so did our staff. We took on more support staff, front desk receptionists, a chiropractic assistant and even a new chiropractor. We recently completed an office expansion to take on another first floor at 2005 Eastern Avenue for medical co-treatment and in-house billing.

At this point it became clear to me that my original mission- to treat and help as many patients as I could was not finished even though we were outgrowing our space. There was an entire market of the community that expressed interest in becoming patients but that could not physically get to our location in southeast Baltimore. After carefully monitoring where these phone calls were coming from for over a year, I decided to take action and bring our services closer to where they may be needed the most.

It is with great pleasure that I announce the location of our second location: Northwest Baltimore City at 6810 Park Heights Ave. #C4, Baltimore, MD 21215. The grand opening date has not yet been determined, as I have to take time to rehab the property in order to live up to my expectations and to that of our current and future patients. I am getting the keys today, and I expect a rehab to take approximately 8-12 weeks.

As for Southeast Baltimore and Fells Point, business will continue as usual. Drs. Erica Wise D.C. and Manpreet Keith D.C. will continue to provide excellent care for acute musculoskeletal conditions. Dr. Gulitz will be available for hands-on patient care on Fridays at that location moving forward.

With the deepest level of respect and appreciation we want to say thank you for supporting us and for allowing us to take care of the citizens of this great community. It has truly been an honor and a privilege. We look forward to helping more people moving forward.

Dr. Gulitz

Diminished Value Claims Following Baltimore Auto Accidents

As a Baltimore Chiropractor that spends the majority of my time treating patients injured in Baltimore auto accident injuries I have become an expert in not only treating injuries sustained in Baltimore auto accidents (headaches, neck pain, mid back pain, lower back pain, radiating neck pain, radiating leg pain, etc.) but also in understanding how to navigate the process of recovery from injury to settlement/judgement.

One of the least well understood or discussed areas following a Baltimore auto accident injury is the diminished value claim. An injured party whose motor vehicle was struck through no fault of their own can recover from the adverse insurance company the “diminished value” of their motor vehicle following the crash.

It’s actually pretty simple. Let’s say you are driving a car worth $15,000. After it gets rear ended the adverse insurance party has to pay to get it fixed. Let’s say it’s fixed and its physically indistinguishable from how it looked before the Baltimore auto accident. Even in these instances, it is worth less than it would have been had it never been involved in a crash to begin with. In these instances, the non-faulted party can demand from the at-fault insurance company enough money to “bridge the gap” between what it is now worth and what it would have been worth had it never been hit. Maybe the car is only worth $10,000 after it is fixed up. The non-faulted party can make a claim against the adverse insurance for $5,000 of diminished value. If they are successful in recovering the $5,000 in diminished value they can either keep the money if the car is already paid off and they want to continue to drive it, or they can use the money towards a down payment for their next vehicle if they do not want to continue to drive the car after the crash.

The reason why diminished value claims are not well understood is because it typically costs individuals more to bring the lawsuit/demand for the diminished value claim than it is worth. For instance, using the example above, the person making the diminished value claim would need to hire an expert to write a report detailing the diminished value for their vehicle. Between the cost of hiring an expert, demanding money from the adverse insurance company, and potentially suing in small claims court, even those who are aware that they can demand this money do not have the time, energy, or expertise to pursue it correctly.

Fortunately for Baltimore auto accident injury patients, Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic can act as a resource for those looking to make diminished value claims. We can refer you to professionals who can help you produce diminished value claims to present to the adverse insurance company. Typically the fees for our Baltimore auto accident injury patients are contingent – that is just like with a personal injury claim where no money has to be paid out upfront, diminished value claims are usually contingent as well. While diminished value claims have nothing to do with healing and recovery, they are nevertheless an important part of recovering and being made whole again following a Baltimore auto accident injury.

If you have been injured as a result of a Baltimore auto accident injury, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic. We would be happy to help!

Dr. Gulitz

New Baltimore Chiropractor To Join Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic

The team at Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic is pleased to announce the addition of a new provider in Fells Point. Dr. Manpreet Keith D.C. will be joining the team this week, alongside Dr. Marc Gulitz D.C. and Dr. Erica Wise D.C. She will help us in our quest to provide the best chiropractic care for those in Baltimore city that have suffered from auto accident injuries (headaches, neck pain, mid back pain, lower back pain) as well as the everyday aches and pains sustained by weekend warriors.

Dr. Keith is a graduate of VCU (Richmond, Virginia), where she received her bachelor of Science in Psychology with a concentration in pre-health sciences. She attended Life Chiropractic College West (Hayward, California) and graduated in December of 2013. Since graduating, Dr. Keith has spent time becoming duly licensed in Virginia and Maryland, and planning a wedding. She was recently married. She has also spent time working in other Chiropractic clinics in Baltimore City. Ultimately she admits that they were just not a good fit for her treatment style.

Dr. Keith will be seeing patients during Dr. Gulitz’s normally scheduled hours which are as follows:

Monday: 3p-7p

Tuesday: 9a-1p 3p-7p

Wednesday: 3p-7p

Thursday: 9a-1p 3p-7p

She will be working closely alongside Drs. Gulitz and Wise over the next few weeks as she gets up to speed on how we do things here. We feel that the addition of a new provider will help us to spend more time without patients, ultimately improving clinical outcomes and customer service. Feel free to come by and say hi when you are in the neighborhood and say hello to Dr. Keith!

Dr. Gulitz

Slip and Fall (Premises Liability) and No-Fault Medical Coverage

As my avid blog followers are already well aware, I am a Baltimore chiropractor that spends the majority of my time treating personal injury clients that usually include motor vehicle collision injuries and worker’s compensation injuries. One form of personal injury that we see from time to time is a “slip and fall” injury, otherwise known as premises liability.

Stated basically, every commercial property must carry liability insurance to make sure to protect themselves against a loss that occurs on their property. They have to carry certain limits of liability (typically in excess of 1 million dollars) to make sure that if someone were to be injured on their property that they would not lose the business. With such large limits of liability it is not surprising that large retails are often the target of opportunistic criminals who want to take advantage of the insurance to file false claims.

One less known component of these liability insurances is known as Med Pay. It is a non-fault benefit available to non-employees that happen to be injured on another’s property. In fact, if you review your own home owner’s policy there is likely a small med pay provision on there, typically 5,000 or $10,000.

Here is why the Med Pay no-fault coverage is important. I had a patient about two weeks ago who was at Giant super market. She walked by the milk fridge and slipped and fell back backwards striking her head and lower back. As it turns out she slipped on some leaking refrigerant from the cooler. Unfortunately for this patient she did not have any health insurance coverage available to her. Luckily for her she had a good Baltimore personal injury attorney that understands premises liability. He contacted the grocery store and filed a claim. He was able to determine that Giant does, in fact, offer Med Pay benefits for people injured in their store, regardless of fault. The patient was relieved to find out that she has access to these funds to pay for chiropractic care, physical therapy, x-rays, and a hospital bill. Our office was able to treat this patient since Giant offered a Med Pay benefit as part of their commercial liability package.

There are many nuances to premises liability cases in Baltimore. I do not pretend to be an expert on them, as I spend the majority of my time treating auto accident patients in Baltimore. However, if you have been injured as a result of a slip and fall injury in Baltimore (Baltimore premises liability) you may have benefits available to treat your injuries. If you have questions or are not certain whether or not these benefits may be available to help cover the cost of healthcare associated with your injuries, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We would be happy to offer you a free no-cost, no obligation consultation.

Dr. Gulitz

Why Did You Become A Baltimore Chiropractor?

I spent a great weekend at the Maryland Chiropractic Association’s Spring Convention over this past weekend. Along with approximately 80 other Maryland licensed Chiropractors I was able to collect about 12 continuing education credits while listening to some of the best speakers across the nation.

We had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, the president emeritus of Parker University in Texas. He has gone on to to become an international best seller, motivational speaker, and guest on “The Doctors”. He shared with us the story of how he became a Chiropractor and then offered each provider in the room an opportunity to share their story of why they became a chiropractor. He challenged us not to forget why we set out on this path to heal the sick and injured in spite of insurance hurdles and daily gripes that we face each day. Unfortunately I got back from the bathroom break too late to share my story, so I figured I would share it here for all those that are interested.

I was about 19 years old and was just getting into weight lifting with some friends. Like most amateurs I thought that if some weight was good on an exercise, that more would be better. I was naturally strong but I decided to “push it” one day. I was performing an inclined leg press with about 700 pounds on the rack. I had done about 2 or 3 repetitions and on the final one the weight fell back onto me, compressing me like an accordion. I did not take proper precautions and have a spotter to help me. I had to wiggle my way out from underneath the weights. Too embarassed to admit that I was over-doing it, I just took some weight off the machine and continued.

That night I couldn’t sleep. I had tremendous back pain and I started to feel some burning pain into my right hip. I was PANICKED! This was the time before we had internet access at my house (I know I am dating myself with that reference). I decided to do what most people do – I took about 3 weeks off from the gym and the pain worsened. Only now I started to feel some tingling down my leg. Again panicked, I spoke to my “expert” on all health matters, my father. I use the term expert in quotations because my father is not knowledgeable about health and he is not a doctor, he is just my father. He told me that I had to travel about 50 miles by train to get an appointment with an orthopedic specialist at NYU.

It took me another month to get the appointment. I met the provider for approximately four minutes and he did the most cursory exam before declaring that I can take some medications for the rest of my life to help with the pain or I can have surgery. I was dumb founded. I couldn’t believe that one dumb mistake for a minute could cause me to either take medications for the rest of my life or to have sugery. I was just a kid! I asked if there was anything else he could offer me. He recommended that I try 6 weeks of physical therapy (again, 50 miles from my house three times a week). I agreed to that since it seemed like a less invasive approach.

Like so many before me, I committed to everything that the PTs recommended and I did not improve. That’s not to say that I don’t like physical therapy but my condition did not improve with care. I went home distraught and spoke with my parents about it. I told them that according to my orthopedist, I now have to choose between taking pain medications or having surgery at only 19 years old!

Sheepishly my mother chimed in that I should see her chiropractor. I still remember this conversation to this day. My exact response was “I’m not going to see one of your crazy witch doctors!” and I dismissed it. I decided to start a course of pain medications daily. I lasted about three days before I had to stop due to side effects – it made me sweat profusely and gave me bowel problems that I care not to share.

At my whits and and with no else to turn, I decided to go with my mother to her chiropractor. I had exactly zero expectations to feel better but I figured I could not possibly feel any worse. The Chiropractor recommended that I present for treatment 3x/week for two weeks and that he would reassess me.

By the end of the third visit (first week) I was feeling 90 percent better. It was as if a lightbulb went off in my head. How was it possible that I was feeling this good and yet everyone was telling me to get surgery or take pills? Why did no one recommend that I try a Chiropractor?

I am an inquisitive person by nature. I went to my local library (remember those?) and read everything I could about Chiropractors and chiropractic care. I spent evenings and weekends palling around with my chiropractor and I was obsessed from the beginning.

From that moment forward I wanted to help others the way I had been helped. I wanted to make sure that people don’t needlessly take drugs or have surgery. It became my mission and it still is after approximately 8 years in clinical practice. I am able to see this lightbulb go off in some of my patients each day and it drives me to continue to help and tell the chiropractic story. Each day I want to know how many future chiropractors that I will be able to inspire.

If you, or someone else you know, has general questions about Chiropractic care, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We would be happy to help!

Dr. Gulitz