How Will Chiropractic Fare in the Reform of Health Care?
In this environment, it is clear that doctors of chiropractic need to be “playing” on all fronts at all times. Should Congress decide to create a public option, it is likely that it will be based on the Medicare program or the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (BC/BS FEHBP).

A Jan. 1 policy change by BC/BS, however, removed doctors of chiropractic from the classification of “physician” in the FEHBP. According to ACA President Glenn Manceaux, DC, “The action is intended to diminish DCs’ standing in national healthcare reform, and it is intended to forever change the practice of chiropractic and the manner in which we serve our patients.” 

We are also confronting the May 2009 OIG report titled “Inappropriate Payments for Chiropractic Services.” The results of this OIG report are only slightly better than those of the report released in 2005. We need it to be dramatically better. If we don't correct our problems with documentation, we risk chiropractic becoming an “add-on” service that can be easily dropped. Although ACA has compiled a rebuttal to the report, the timing of the report’s release could not be much worse for the profession. It is one more strike against us during the national healthcare reform conversation.

Act Now to Protect Your Future
At the recent fifth Chiropractic Summit in Washington, D.C., leaders from the Senate and House of Representatives laid out a sobering picture of the future of health care and the urgent need for action. To date, the deliberations surrounding healthcare reform have taken place behind closed doors, but it is critical that chiropractic’s message is heard.

All chiropractic professionals and supporters must contact their legislators to ensure that chiropractic is included in the healthcare reform and in any national healthcare plan. While we are outnumbered and lack the resources of our medical counterparts, we have the power to leverage, in a combined grass-roots effort, the influence of the millions of Americans who consider chiropractic care an essential component of their health care.

Through www.ChiroVoice.org, the ACA has initiated an urgent, unprecedented campaign to empower and engage support for chiropractic. Using a secure national database of chiropractic patient contact information, the ACA can launch a targeted congressional education campaign that underscores the efficacy, cost-effectiveness and safety of essential chiropractic services.

According to the chairman of the ACA Board of Governors, John Gentile, DC, ACA and NCLAF urgently need the support of the entire chiropractic profession to fight back against the recent unprecedented assaults on both doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic patients. It is more important then ever before for doctors of chiropractic to make a contribution to NCLAF in order to provide the resources needed to take on the forces assembled against our profession. This is not a drill!

For more details on how you can donate to NCLAF, visit www.acatoday.org/nclaf. 

Dr. Mark Sanna is an NCLAF board member, a member of the ACA’s Governors Advisory Cabinet and the CEO of Breakthrough Coaching.