American Chiropractic Association Responds To New Kaiser Policy Excluding Cervical Manipulation
American Chiropractic Association Responds To New Kaiser Policy Excluding Cervical Manipulation
Source chiroeco.com
Kaiser Permanente Mid Atlantic States and Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group recently revised their Chiropractic Manipulation Medical Coverage Policy to exclude cervical Chiropractic Manipulative Treatment (CMT).
The revised policy states, “Given the paucity of data related to beneficial effects of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine and the real potential for catastrophic adverse events, it was decided to exclude chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine from coverage.”
Last week, ACA sent a letter to Kaiser outlining the extensive data that supports cervical spinal manipulation as both beneficial and safe. The association also released the following statement:
“The American Chiropractic Association is aware that Kaiser Permanente Mid Atlantic States and Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group have revised their Chiropractic Manipulation Medical Coverage Policy to exclude cervical Chiropractic Manipulative Treatment (CMT) from coverage.
This restriction, if allowed to stand, will be harmful to chiropractic patients and doctors. We have contacted Kaiser to express our grave concern over this change, and we await its reply. ACA will expend every effort to encourage Kaiser to reverse this new restriction, and we will keep our members and the profession informed along the way.” – ACA President, Dr. Rick McMichael
Retired general crusades for chiropractic care
Source The Daytona Beach News-Journal
PORT ORANGE — Tucked in retired Brig. Gen. Becky Halstead’s briefcase are several dog tags listing the names of men and women who “didn’t make it home.”
Halstead, 51, the first woman to command in combat at the strategic level, said Wednesday she carries the tags she had engraved of the people who died and served under her command in the U.S. Army as a reminder of “the sacrifices they made.”
“I don’t ever want to forget,” Halstead told more than 100 college students at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Port Orange.
She told the story while talking to students about leadership and principles she thinks are important to live by such as serving others, having a positive attitude, being dedicated and disciplined.
Halstead, who spent 27 years in the military and served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 after previously serving in Afghanistan, also is the first female graduate of West Point to be promoted to general. She now heads her own consulting company. (more…)
Chiropractor helps PGA players work through their aches and pains
Source Observer-Dispatch
by FRAN PERRITANO
Tom LaFountain hails from a very athletic family, so it would be natural that his career is somehow connected to sports. LaFountain is a chiropractic orthopedist who practices in Utica, but he also has been a member of the PGA sports medicine team since 1997. He has worked with some famous golfers including Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, Davis Love, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Question: You’ve been involved as a chiropractor on the PGA Tour since 1997. How did that come about?
Answer: I had worked for seven years for the U.S. Speedskating Team and had done the Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France, in 1992 and Lillihammar, Norway, in 1994. I became friends with a physical therapist who worked on the U.S. Luge team. He left to work with the PGA Tour after the 1992 Olympics. In 1997, he called me and said that they needed someone to work on the PGA Tour that had a specialty in spinal problems, and that he thought that I would be a good fit. I did a trial tournament at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, signed on and have been there since. (more…)
TMA v TBCE–TRIAL UPDATE.
Source Texas Chiropractic Association
This situation was reported on in a previous article.
August 16th Trial Date POSTPONED
On Wednesday, July 7, 2010, two matters were heard in the TMA v. TBCE lawsuit…
In the first matter, the TMA and the TMB questioned the TCA’s “standing” to be a party in the suit – they claimed Doctors of Chiropractic have no legal interest in the position taken by the Texas Medical Board under its act about what constitutes the unauthorized practice of medicine. TCA responded with legal argument and testimony on all the reasons why Doctors of Chiropractic would be significantly affected by the outcome in this lawsuit, including being threatened with criminal action, civil action, TBCE discipline, and potentially being shut down if diagnosis is ruled to be exclusive to medical doctors. TCA presented testimony on all of the ways in which the profession and the public would be harmed by the position being taken by the TMA and TMB. The TMA and TMB backed off from any claim that TCA cannot defend the TBCE scope of practice rule. The Judge has yet to rule on the TCA’s standing to challenge the Texas Medical Board’s statute.
The second motion was the TMA’s and TMB’s motion to strike TCA’s request for a jury trial. After extensive argument, the Judge directed the parties to submit questions of law regarding diagnosis to him in a process of cross-briefing that will not be complete for a month. The Judge indicated that, once all the legal questions are resolved, if a disputed question of fact remains, he would not deprive TCA of a jury trial. He did not expressly rule on the motion to strike.
TBCE and TCA attorneys, including appellate attorney former Texas Supreme Court Justice Tom Phillips, felt that the proceeding was productive and not unfavorable.
New Research Chair
From The Canadian Chiropractic Association Update
The Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation (CCRF) is pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Bruno has been awarded the new and distinguished Research Chair in Neuromusculoskeletal Health in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina.
The Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies is located in the $32 million Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport, which opened in 2004. The Centre has outstanding laboratory and research facilities, which includes the fully equipped Neuromechanical Research Centre and houses the Allied Health Centre. The $500,000 investment in this Chair builds on CCRF’s research capacity program across Canada.