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Purpose of this Study

The purpose of this study is to assess changes in Health-Related Quality of Life over a 12 month period for chiropractic patients who do, or do not participate in wellness care. It is being conducted in the offices of U.S. chiropractors who are members of the Integrated Chiropractic Outcomes Network (ICON).

For this study, we define chiropractic wellness care as a course of long-term care provided to a patient who is either asymptomatic or whose original presenting complaint has been resolved or stabilized, and is provided for the purpose of preventing disease, optimizing function, and supporting the patient’s wellness-related activities and/or minimizing recurrences of previous complaints.

Cheryl Hawk, DC, PhD, Michael Schneider, DC, PhD, Marion Willard Evans Jr., DC, PhD, MCHES, Daniel Redwood, DC
Consensus Process to Develop a Best-Practice Document on the Role of Chiropractic Care in Health Promotion, Disease Prevention, and Wellness
J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2012 (Sep); 35 (7): 556-567

Study Design

Baseline data are collected in practitioners’ offices; follow-up is conducted by the central office at Logan, by phone and email. Each doctor enrolls 5 consecutive new patients. New patients of any age are eligible! Data are collected at 4 points: first visit and 1, 6 and 12 months later. Outcomes are assessed primarily via questions from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Patients are entered in a drawing for a $100 gift card when they complete the follow-up.

You may also want to review our:

Maintenance Care, Wellness and Chiropractic Page

The Evolution of Chiropractic in Health Care

The scientific merit of spinal dysfunction and therapeutic benefits of spinal manipulation for neuromusculoskeletal conditions were challenged in the early days of chiropractic. Manipulation has been generally accepted for back pain, neck pain, sciatica, joint problems, sprains, strains, osteoarthritis, herniated discs and other musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.

On April 5, 2012, the Third Court of Appeals of Texas issued a 58-page opinion in Cause No. 03-10-673-CV – the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners (TBCE) and the Texas Chiropractic Association (TCA) vs. the Texas Medical Association (TMA), the Texas Medical Board (TMB) and the State of Texas.

According to an April 6, 2012 communication by the Texas Chiropractic Association [1], the case presented three questions for the court:

Here’s what the Court of Appeals had to say in the matter:

By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer

A large Danish registry study found that the risks of thrombotic stroke or myocardial infarction (MI) roughly doubled in women taking oral contraceptives with low-to-moderate doses of ethinyl estradiol.

Note that the overall number of thrombotic strokes or MIs was small.

The relative risks of thrombotic stroke and myocardial infarction (MI) are higher among users of hormonal contraception, although absolute risks remain low, a Danish study showed.

Use of oral contraceptives combining low-to-moderate doses of ethinyl estradiol and various progestins was associated with up to 2.3 times the risks of thrombotic stroke or MI compared with non-use, according to Øjvind Lidegaard, DrMedSci, of Copenhagen University Hospital, and colleagues.

The type of progestin in the pill had little effect on the risks, the researchers reported in the June 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

To put the risk in perspective, they estimated that among 10,000 women taking a pill combining desogestrel with ethinyl estradiol at a dose of 20 μg for 1 year, two will have arterial thrombosis and seven will have venous thrombosis.

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The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress has been a busy little beaver in 2011, promoting our profession in the print media.

You might be interested in looking at some of the materials they have produced: (in Adobe Acrobat format)

A $275 Billion Better Option to Back Surgery Chiropractic Care Delivers — and Saves Stay In The Game— a word from Jerry Rice Be All You Can Be — a word from Becky Halstead

Acting on behalf of concerned members in New Mexico and out of concern for the integrity and credibility of the chiropractic profession at large, on December 21, 2011 the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) filed an extensive memorandum in support of a motion to stay what is being held to be illegal actions on the part of that state’s Board of Chiropractic Examiners. In its memorandum of explanation, ICA’s attorneys argued that it was important for the court to carefully consider the urgent issues of the letter of the law and the protection of both the public and chiropractic practitioners and prevent the “New Mexico Board of Chiropractic Examiners from implementing its new rule establishing an advanced practice formulary to include dangerous drugs and drugs to be administered by injection…and implementing its new rules establishing a certain course of training to certify advanced practice chiropractic physicians to administer and prescribe dangerous drugs and drugs to be administered by injection” because such actions were outside their authority under the law.

On August 30, 2011, at an official rulemaking hearing and meeting, the New Mexico Chiropractic Board adopted new rules to greatly expand the chiropractic formulary to include certain dangerous drugs and drugs to be administered by injection that had not been approved by either the New Mexico Medical or Pharmacy Boards as specifically required by state law. At that same hearing, lawyers representing the State of New Mexico were very clear in their advice that the Board was acting outside their authority and should not proceed. The Chiropractic Board ignored those admonitions and acted to adopt a new formulary anyway.

ICA representatives were present at both the August and December Board meetings and, in concert with New Mexico DCs, urged the Board to act only within the rules established by statute but to no avail. At their meeting of December 13, 2011, the New Mexico Chiropractic Board denied all requests to stay the implementation of the new rules pending appeal. ICA received official documentation of the New Mexico Chiropractic Board’s official denial of a request to stay the controversial rules on January 5, 2012. Having exhausted all administrative remedies, ICA is seeking the protection of the courts in the face of the Board’s questionable actions.

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By: Bobby Gibson, Director of Operations

United Healthcare (UHC) and Aetna recently sent out notices to providers detailing their new Multiple Therapy Reduction policies. These policies reduce the reimbursement for the practice expense portion of the relative value units (RVUs) for certain therapies beyond the first therapy billed. The rationale is that there is duplication of the practice expense portion of the RVU.

UHC and Aetna are following the lead of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) after it initiated a similar policy on Jan. 1, 2011. CMS originally proposed a reduction of the second and any subsequent therapy practice expense portions by 50 percent. When that policy was proposed, ACA partnered with other provider organizations to contact Congress to oppose the policy. Due to the large amount of opposition, CMS decided to lessen the reduction to 20 percent rather than the proposed 50 percent.

UHC’s policy will affect claims with a date of service on or after March 1, 2012 and will affect claims paid by United. It will not affect claims on any plans in which Optum processes or pays the claims or plans in which providers are paid a flat per diem visit fee. Aetna’s policy took effect November 14, 2011, and to the best of our knowledge affects all Aetna plans. To illustrate how this policy will play out, we have created the following hypothetical example:

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By Claudia Anrig, DC

I would like to start this article by welcoming Dr. Brian Kelly and congratulating him as the new president of Life Chiropractic College West.

Dr. Kelly, for those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you yet, can you share some of your experiences from your tenure as president of New Zealand College of Chiropractic (NZCC)?

I was practicing full time in Melbourne, Australia, for 11 years, and was invited to join the Board of Trustees of the NZ College. Two years later an opportunity arose to apply for the presidency. Little did I think I would ever work in education! I was president for eight years (2003-2011) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

During this time, enrollment grew, we achieved accreditation with the CCE (Australasia), developed a meaningful research department and moved to a new campus. This was achieved while maintaining a vitalistic approach to chiropractic.

At NZCC you had a strong emphasis on research; why do you consider research such an important component of chiropractic?

A profession is defined (in part) by its unique body of knowledge. In fact chiropractic is a philosophy, art and science. Unless a profession continually works at answering great research questions, it may not evolve or have the same level of credibility as those that do. For example, imagine finding out better ways of taking care of patients? That alone would be one reason to do research. To this end, I served on the board of the Australian Spinal Research Foundation for 11 years. We raised funds and gave grants to chiropractic researchers.

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(Davenport, Iowa) In honor of the first chiropractic adjustment on Sept. 18, 1895, in downtown Davenport, the City of Davenport has issued a proclamation naming September 18 as “Chiropractic Awareness Day.” The first Chiropractic Awareness Day will be celebrated at 12 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, which also is the day Palmer College of Chiropractic recognizes the founding of the chiropractic profession and the College at its annual Founder”s Day.

During this first celebration, Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba will read the proclamation in the courtyard of the B.J. and Mabel Palmer Residence at 8th and Brady streets in Davenport, followed by remarks by Palmer President Donald Kern, D.C., and Non-profit Chiropractic Organization (NPCO) President Joshua Heines.

Tours of the B.J. and Mabel Palmer Residence will be available following the remarks. Parking is available in the Vickie Anne Palmer Hall parking lot at 7th and Brady streets, Davenport. Current Palmer student Joshua Heines founded NPCO in Davenport, and came to Palmer with the idea for a Chiropractic Awareness Day.

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Dr. Alcantara is one of the rising stars in chiropractic pediatric research. He received his Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry at the University of Calgary and graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic West in 1995. Prior to his appointment as Research Director of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA), he was on the research faculty at Palmer West and Life West. He lectures internationally on pediatric chiropractic and has numerous peer-reviewed publications and a contributing author in textbooks such as Pediatric Chiropractic, Somatovisceral Aspects of Chiropractic and Fundamentals of Chiropractic.

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August 15, 2011 — In an effort strongly supported by the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), 15 members of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee have requested that the Department of Defense (DoD) address disparities in its treatment of doctors of chiropractic.

In an Aug. 5 letter to Dr. Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the bipartisan group noted that pay and job classification disparities have resulted in doctors of chiropractic (DCs) who treat patients at military treatment facilities (MTFs) being compensated at much lower rates than providers with comparable, or even lesser, training, skill sets and responsibilities. They urged Woodson to examine the more equitable system used by the Department of Veteran Affairs health care system to integrate chiropractic and adopt a similar approach.

The group also pointed out that institutional bias against doctors of chiropractic among DoD health care officials has resulted in the active-duty military patient population having greater difficulty accessing chiropractic care and in unnecessary restrictions placed on DCs in performing their services. To address this, the legislators asked Woodson to evaluate the current supervisory procedures of DCs and to give serious consideration to having a DC as the chiropractic service leader for each branch of the military, as is the case with other specialty groups in TRICARE, the military’s health care system.

“I would like to thank congressmen Mike Rogers and Dave Loebsack for spearheading this effort,” said ACA President Dr. Rick A. McMichael. “The benefit provided by doctors of chiropractic to our brave men and women in uniform is integral to their recovery from injuries and their overall health and well-being. Impeding DCs from providing this care is a disservice to our troops.”

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~ George Bernard Shaw

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