Accused Utah chiropractor takes alleged diabetes cure on the road
Brandon Babcock, a Utah chiropractor accused of exploiting elderly diabetes patients, is taking his show on the road.
The 37-year-old has been traveling to Idaho, Florida and Arizona and holding free seminars in hotels — dinner included — where he touts a nutritional program to reverse Type II diabetes. That's according to a report filed by police in Chandler, a suburb of Tempe, Ariz., who cited Babcock on May 18 for selling supplements without a city permit.
Neither Babcock, nor his lawyer, responded to attempts to reach them for comment.
The citation is a misdemeanor offense. It's unclear what bearing it will have on his criminal case in Utah, which is set for a pretrial conference next Monday.
Babcock had his chiropractic license suspended and is out on $200,000 bail awaiting trial on charges he swindled thousands of dollars from elderly Utahns with a scheme to cure their diabetes.
Operating under the The Integrated Health Center of Utah and Functional Endocrinology Institute of Utah, the chiropractor hosted dinner or lunch seminars and "free consultations" where he hawked "hidden secrets" for fighting diabetes, supplements and a diet. Clients were told they could opt out within 30 days.
Instead, Babcock allegedly applied for loans in the victims' names through JPMorgan Chase Health Advance or GE Capital Retail Bank's CareCredit. Some victims said they didn't know they were signing up for the accounts. Others said they tried to opt out but Babcock refused and required them to pay him $500 for "exit interviews," other office visits or for supplements used.
Babcock kept a lower profile in Arizona where each of his seminars drew up to 120 attendees. He didn't publish his name in newspaper ads, promoting them instead under Diabetes Solutions, a Utah company registered to Tavah J. Babcock.
He told police he was not a licensed or practicing chiropractor, but providing free consultation during which time clients could purchase ClearVite Supplements from him. Those who enrolled were charged $500 using a point-of-sale device at the hotel.
"This is just diet nutritional counseling. That's all it is. It's like a Jenny Craig program for diabetes,"a police report quotes Babcock saying.
But a nurse who sat through one of the seminars told police Babcock portrayed himself as a chiropractor. He has not applied for a chiropractor's license in Arizona, according to the state's medical board.
At the seminar, he divulged little about the nutritional program, promising to describe it in greater detail in one-on-one consultations, the police report says. He passed out forms asking attendees to list their names, addresses, dates of birth, employer information and medications.
Diabetes Solutions is currently no longer scheduling seminars in Arizona, but its toll free number remains active.
In Utah, regulators suspended Babcock's chiropractic physician license, saying he endangered the physical and fiscal health of his patients. He recommended that some quit taking their medicines and pressured them into his program by telling them that they could die, have their legs cut off or go blind, the emergency order says.
He was ordered to immediately stop seeing patients until the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) holds a formal hearing to consider whether to revoke or reinstate his license.
A hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
"The division and Mr. Babcock have agreed to continue the license suspension pending the outcome of his criminal case," said DOPL spokeswoman Jennifer Bolton.
kstewart@sltrib.com
Twitter: @kirstendstewart —
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