President Bush Signs
Bill to Include Doctors of Chiropractic in National Health Service Corps Program
After nearly two years of effort by the American Chiropractic Association and
the Association of Chiropractic Colleges, President Bush signed S. 1533 into
law on Oct. 26. The legislation, known as the Health Care Safety Net Improvement
Act, will, for the first time ever, make doctors of chiropractic eligible to
participate in the National Health Service Corps’ student loan reimbursement
program—a move the ACA is hailing as a significant victory for chiropractic
students and the profession as a whole.
The NHSC is a federally funded program which allows, under certain circumstances,
health care professionals engaged in the delivery of primary care services to
be reimbursed for student loans in return for establishing and maintaining their
practices in geographic areas designated as “medically underserved”
by the federal government.
This new legislation will allow doctors of chiropractic to take part in a three-year
pilot program. After the three-year test period, Congress would review the results
of the program and consider making the chiropractic profession a permanent fixture
in the program. The president’s favorable action came as part of a long-planned
overhaul of federal legislation currently governing the operations of the NHSC
program.
Wal-Mart Eliminates Employee Chiropractic Benefits
Despite convincing evidence that chiropractic care gets workers back on the
job more quickly and less expensively than treatments provided by other health
care practitioners, Wal-Mart has announced that it will eliminate chiropractic
benefits for its employees beginning Jan. 1, 2003.
Upon learning of this decision, leaders in the chiropractic industry including
American Chiropractic Association President Daryl D. Wills, DC, sent a letter
to Wal-Mart President H. Lee Scott calling the new policy a “discriminatory”
one that “creates harm to employees and the public Wal-Mart insures,”
and urged Scott to allow Wal-Mart officials to participate in a meeting with
ACA representatives, as ACA is “committed to seeing a chiropractic core
insurance benefit reinstated.”
NYCC’s 13th Annual Convention Revisits Ground Zero
The New York Chiropractic Council kicked off its 13th annual convention Nov.
15, 2002, on board the dinner cruise ship, Mystique, and honored the efforts
of police officers, firefighters and other rescue/relief workers who contributed
to the aid on 9/11 and in the following months.
The night’s ceremony took hundreds of chiropractors under the Brooklyn
Bridge to the safe harbor just outside the Ground Zero site where there was
a moment of silence, followed by bagpipers playing “Amazing Grace.”
Sergeant David Wadler of the New York City Police Department read a letter written
by Raymond W. Kelly, commissioner of the New York Police Department, which thanked
the chiropractors who served unselfishly at Ground Zero. The ship eventually
docked after circling the Statue of Liberty.
The New York Chiropractic Council convention ran from Saturday morning through
Sunday morning with dynamic speakers that included Drs. Jim Sigafoose, Bob Braile,
Tedd Koren, C.J. Mertz, Dave Jackson and Patrick Gentempo Jr. Saturday night’s
banquet began with a pictorial tribute to Sept. 11 and the chiropractors who
came to New York and Washington, D.C., to serve chiropractic at the devastated
sites of the Pentagon and Ground Zero.
The slide show was followed by the reading of a letter from former mayor Rudolph
Giuliani. Several chiropractors from around the country then detailed their
experience while serving at Ground Zero, including Dr. Tom Musto who was at
the site with his adjusting table within moments of the tragedy.
The night progressed as Dr. D.D. Humber and Ron Hendrickson of the ICA awarded
a special plaque to Dr. Ellen Coyne, president emeritus of the council for organizing
the chiropractic relief effort. Dr. John F. Przybylak, the convention’s
master of ceremonies and western New York district president received the Council’s
“Beacon Award,” New York’s most coveted chiropractic honor for
New York’s Chiropractor of the Year.
Next year’s New York Classic Convention will be held Dec. 12-14.
Breastfeeding Increasing In the New Millennium
Ross Laboratories conducted a large, national survey designed to determine patterns
of milk feeding during infancy with over 700,000 participants who were asked
to recall the type of milk fed to their infant in the hospital and during each
month of age.
In 2001, the prevalence of the initiation of breastfeeding and breastfeeding
to six months of age in the United States reached their highest levels recorded
to date, 69.5 and 32.5 percent, respectively, across all socio-demographic groups,
but were greater among groups that have been historically less likely to breastfeed:
women including teenage mothers and minorities.
If increases in breastfeeding continue at the current rate, approximately two
percent each year, the United States should meet or exceed the Healthy People
2010 goal of 75 percent for the early postpartum period.
However, the goal for the Healthy People 2010 program (a U.S. government health
initiative) for continued breastfeeding to five to six months of age (50 percent)
may not be reached in every subgroup. To ensure that these goals are achieved,
educational and promotional strategies for breastfeeding must be continued to
support mothers who are young, less educated and participating in governmental
assistance programs.
New Vehicle Seat and Head Restraint Designs are Reducing Neck Injuries in
Rear-End Crashes
New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that some
new designs of seats and head restraints are reducing neck injuries among car
occupants involved in rear-end crashes. This is the first U.S. study to measure
the effectiveness in real-world crashes of some of the innovative designs that
manufacturers are beginning to introduce.
Nationwide, Progressive and State Farm insurance companies supplied claims data
for the study and participated in the research.
For a long time, most of the head restraints in passenger vehicles weren’t
high enough or close enough to the backs of many occupants’ heads to provide
effective protection against neck injury in rear-end crashes. Recently, many
automakers have been redesigning head restraints and seatbacks, in most cases
by improving restraint geometry and in other cases by adding features intended
to reduce neck injury risk dynamically during crashes.
NASS Learns About Chiropractic
For the first time, the National American Spine Society sponsored a session
on spinal manipulation at a meeting in late October in Montreal. Speaking to
a ballroom filled with over 2,000 surgeons and other specialists, Scott Haldeman,
DC, Ph.D., MD, and John Triano, DC, Ph.D., talked about the potential benefits
of spinal manipulation.
The chiropractors were part of a panel of speakers; the others on the panel
were NASS members who had experience working with chiropractors who gave their
perspective on working with chiropractors.
Fishing for Fewer Strokes
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association points
to fish intake, and specifically the presence of the long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated
fatty acid (also known as an essential fatty acid), as a method of stroke reduction
for men. The study surveyed 43,671 men ages 40 to 75 and found that fish intake
of one to three times per month “significantly” lowered the ischemic
stroke rate. The study was not, however, able to correlate a higher intake quantity
(five-plus fish-based meals per month) with an even-greater decrease in the
stroke rate. The omega-3 supplement is a commonly available nutritional supplement.
NIH Announces Institute of Medicine Study of Complementary and Alternative
Medicine
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and 16 Federal
co-sponsors announce the launch of an Institute of Medicine study of the scientific
and policy implications of the use of complementary and alternative medicine
by the American public. The $1 million, nearly two-year study, will be conducted
by the IOM, a component of the National Academies.
The IOM will assemble a panel of approximately 16 experts from a broad range
of CAM and conventional disciplines, such as behavioral medicine, internal medicine,
nursing, epidemiology, pharmacology, health care research and administration,
and education. During the course of the study, the IOM panel will assess research
findings, hold workshops and invite speakers to address the panel.
“Americans use CAM therapies in record numbers,” said NCCAM Director
Stephen E. Straus, M.D. “The IOM’s report will give us a clearer understanding
of the scope of CAM use by Americans, as well as CAM’s public health impact
and scientific and policy issues that will better inform our research decisions.”
What are the methodological difficulties in evaluating some CAM therapies? How
are the different CAM professions regulated in the United States? What is the
current situation for coverage of CAM by insurers and other third parties? What
are the policy and regulatory issues regarding licensing and certifying CAM
practitioners?
The answers to these questions and the information generated by the IOM panel
of leading scholars drawn from both conventional medicine and CAM, and from
education, should serve to complement the recommendations of the White House
Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy released earlier
this year.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and a Host of Chiropractic and Fitness Stars to Headline
ICA’s 11th Annual Symposium on Natural Fitness
The ICA and its Council on Fitness and Sports Health Science once again presents
its dynamic Symposium on Natural Fitness in Columbus, Ohio, in conjunction with
the Arnold Schwarzenegger Fitness Weekend and Expo Feb. 27 and March 1-2.
The ICA’s 11th Annual Symposium on Natural Fitness with Arnold Schwarzenegger
will feature the same kind of exciting, star-packed, innovative program in conjunction
with Arnold’s Fitness Weekend that has made it a highlight of the chiropractic
calendar for the past decade.
Invited speakers include world fitness champion, legendary bodybuilder and six-time
Ms. Olympia winner, Cory Everson, corporate fitness expert Doug Caporrino, and
NFL team chiropractor for the Baltimore Ravens Dr. Doug Miller.
For more information, contact the ICA at (800) 423-4690.
Occupational Accident Insurance Available to U.S. Chiropractors
After months of searching the insurance market nationwide and hard negotiations
with one of the nation’s top carriers, the International Chiropractors’
Association recently announced that availability of a new occupational accident
insurance program that will provide chiropractors throughout the United States
with much needed injury coverage and disability income benefits in the event
of any work-related accident.
AIG, one of the nation’s AAA-rated carriers, is offering doctors of chiropractic
a new policy that will provide up to $2,000 per month in disability income and
up to $500,000 in health care expenses. This program, which is exclusively for
chiropractors, offers accident health care expenses up to $500,000; disability
income up to $500 per week; a $50,000, lump sum accidental death benefit; a
survivor income benefit of $100,000 ($1,000 per week); and a $150,000, lump
sum paralysis benefit.
For information, contact Self-Funded Alternatives at (800) 535-7086.
© Copyright 2002 Today's Chiropractic