News – Page 19 – Chiropractic Resource Organization

Postponement of Medicare Pay Cut Is Stripped From The Jobs Bill

By Frank M. Painter|February 19, 2010|Medicare, News|

Postponement of Medicare Pay Cut Is Stripped From The Jobs Bill

Physicians continue to hope for a reprieve from the proposed 21.2% Medicare pay cut scheduled to begin on March 1, as another legislative solution to the reimbursement crisis fizzled this week in a hyperpolarized Congress.

A jobs-creation bill, crafted by Senate Democrats and Republicans earlier this week, originally would have delayed the massive cut to October 1, but this provision and many others were stripped out within days as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) shrank the bill’s cost from $85 billion to an estimated $15 billion.

Now Congress has only 2 weeks to pass legislation that would avert the 21.2% reduction in Medicare reimbursement. Organized medicine warns that if the cuts go through, physicians will turn away new Medicare patients or even drop out of the system instead of going broke on paltry fees. The average physician depends on Medicare for 31% of his or her revenue, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

As in the past, this does not mean that every service will be reduced. In fact, the E&M codes (99201-05 and 99211-15) which medical physicians use to code virtually every visit, has continued to climb in reimbursement by 3-5% yearly, while Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation (SMT) has continued to decline, year after year. (more…)

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Chiropractic Care Is MORE Than an Oil Change!

By Frank M. Painter|February 17, 2010|Education, News, Research|

Chiropractic Care Is MORE Than an Oil Change!

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: A Chiro.Org Editorial

The Jan 25 issue of Newsweek contains an especially insulting article, titled “It’s Not My Fault“, in which the author laments: “And every time massage, acupuncture, or chiropractic care is added to the list of covered treatments, premiums go up. Nobody expects to have car insurance that covers an oil change.”

Well, thanks Mr. Rosenkranz for the wake-up call, what were my patients thinking, expecting insurance to pay for their chiropractic care??? (more…)

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Medical Physicians Ignore Low Back Pain Guidelines

By Frank M. Painter|February 11, 2010|Guidelines, Low Back Pain, News|

Medical Physicians Ignore Low Back Pain Guidelines

The Chiro.Org Blog

SOURCE: ChiroACCESS

A February 2010 study of 3,533 general practice low back pain patients found that many providers are not following their own evidence based guidelines. [1] Guidelines do provide the overall best evidence but are not meant to be a cookbook approach to care. There is also a need for flexibility so the physician can deviate from guidelines when the specific needs and desires of the patient dictate. In addition, the clinical judgment of the physician may override the guidelines when in a particular patient’s case they are inappropriate.

There is, however, reason for concern when risky and or expensive unneeded procedures are used. The medical guideline for acute low back pain call for advice and analgesics, but 80% of the 3,533 patients in this study were not given advise and 82% were not given analgesics. More harmful medications that are not recommended in the guidelines were prescribed, with 37% getting anti-inflammatory drugs and ~20% opiods. (more…)

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Organized Medicine Attempts To Deny Chiropractors Right To Diagnose in Texas

By Frank M. Painter|February 4, 2010|News|

Organized Medicine Attempts To Deny Chiropractors Right To Diagnose in Texas

The Chiro.Org Blog

The AMA has joined the TMA (Texas Medical Association) in trying to challenge Texas chiropractor’s “right” to diagnose. They are doing this under the guise of trying to halt expansions of the scope of practice of various alternative pratitioners. The AMA News web site currently brags that they are involved in fighting more than 300 scope-increasing bills around the country. (more…)

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Announcement

By Frank M. Painter|February 3, 2010|News|

The members of Chiro.Org’s Board met last night for our yearly Board meeting.

To celebrate our almost 15 years of success, we decided to donate $2500 towards chiropractic research. This year’s gifts includes a $1250. contribution to AECC (Anglo European College of Chiropractic’s Research Department), to further basic chiropractic research, and another $1250 to the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association to support research demonstrating the benefits of chiropractic care for children. (more…)

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Lancet Retracts Controversial Autism Paper

By John Wiens DC|February 3, 2010|News|

Retraction of 1998 Wakefield Study May Not Sway Those Who Fear Vaccine-Autism Link
Source ABC News

It was the scientific paper that served as a central pillar for the idea that vaccination could increase children’s risk of developing autism.

Now, with a formal retraction from the Lancet, the medical journal which in 1998 published this piece of research by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, most researchers will view the study as if it had never been published in the first place.

In a statement explaining its retraction of Wakefield’s paper, the Lancet said: “Following the judgment of the U.K. General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practice Panel on Jan. 28, 2010, it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect … in particular, the claims in the original paper that children were ‘consecutively referred’ and that investigations were ‘approved’ by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record.” (more…)

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