Some six months after the Tennessee Department of Health filed notice of charges against a popular health-care guru, author and radio/TV personality for advertising and providing services "outside the scope of practice for a chiropractic physician" and "misleading the public about his true qualifications or lack thereof," Asa Andrew signed an agreed order to surrender his chiropractic license.
In the 21-count charging document, Andrew, who's received the gold-standard imprimatur of popular faith-based finance author Dave Ramsey, was accused of the "advertisement of a chiropractic business in which untrue or misleading statements are made," for "invading a field of practice" in which he isn't licensed, for practicing naturopathy in Tennessee — which is illegal — and for the "misuse of Titles."
Dated Thursday, the order says Andrew "agrees that cause exists to discipline his license" and that he "marketed himself through various media distributed in various markets (including publishing the book, Empowering Your Health, and appearing on radio and television shows) without disclosing the fact that he was a chiropractic physician." At first flatly denying the allegations in his answer to the notice of charges, Andrew now "concedes that the public may have been misled by the aforementioned omission," the order says. Andrew still denies he provided medical services "outside his scope of practice," but admits the state's proof might prove otherwise.
Andrew characterizes himself as a "board-certified physician" in his book, though he's never been registered in Tennessee as a medical doctor. You may remember a Scene cover story published back in September, where we spoke with more than 20 current and former employees of his Center for Natural Medicine in Belle Meade. Among other things, many of them said obfuscating Andrew's credentials was a matter of office policy.
According to the order, he's banned from engaging in any sort of activity that could be "construed as practicing medicine or naturopathy," and must pay $5,000 in penalties, in addition to any costs incurred during the investigation.
Andrew, for his part, could not be reached at his office by the time of this posting. His attorney, John Floyd, tells Pith he decided not to contest the charges because "he wants to pursue some other interests." Floyd said he wasn't sure what those interests were.
