Dr. McCarthy is passionate about advocating for patients and the chiropractic profession. Organizations she supports include:
Advocacy
- Foundation for Chiropractic Progress – not-for-profit educational organization advocating the benefits of chiropractic through positive press.
- Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance – community of doctors committed to using best available evidence, professional experience, and clinical knowledge to help patients enjoy healthy, active lives.
- American Chiropractic Association – the largest professional chiropractic organization in the United States, working hand in hand with other health care professionals, lobbying for pro-chiropractic legislation and policies, supporting meaningful research, and using that research to inform treatment practices.
ACTION NEEDED
Medicare’s coverage of chiropractic needs work (see below)
To correct this disparity, the Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act, legislation to allow Medicare beneficiaries full access to current services chiropractors are allowed to provide under their state licensure, was introduced in both the House and the Senate in the 117th Congress. The House bill, H.R. 2654, garnered 155 bipartisan cosponsors, and the Senate bill, S. 4042, collected six bipartisan cosponsors.
Similar legislation is expected to soon be reintroduced in the 118th Congress. We urge members of the House and the Senate to become cosponsors of this legislation once it is reintroduced.
Needed legislation would not add any new reimbursable services to Medicare that are not already covered services and delivered by existing providers. Legislation simply seeks a modification of existing statutes to ensure that Doctors of Chiropractic are allowed to furnish and order existing covered services, which they are currently permitted to do under state law in all 50 states.
For Additional Information Please Contact:
The American Chiropractic Association Department of Public Policy and Advocacy
(703) 812-0228
ppa@acatoday.org
www.acatoday.org
Learn more about Medicare & Chiropractic below.
Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act (HR 2654 / S 4042)
Providing access to chiropractic services in Medicare removes barriers to care, levels the playing field for physicians, supports beneficiaries.
- Medicare arbitrarily limits seniors’ access to chiropractic services
Since 1972, Medicare has limited the services doctors of chiropractic (DCs) are allowed to provide or order for their patients. This limitation has persisted for over 50 years with no scientific or valid policy basis.
- Medicare policy is an unlevel playing field for chiropractors treating their patients
DCs are currently not allowed to furnish existing covered Medicare services that fall within their scopes of practice to their patients. This artificial limitation restricts chiropractors from providing their patients a continuity of care as they age into Medicare, putting beneficiaries at a distinct health disadvantage.
- Patients face delays, higher health care costs to obtain covered Medicare chiropractic services
Beneficiaries seeking to obtain chiropractic care, MUST FIRST obtain certain services from another provider in order to have them covered by Medicare. This requires the beneficiary to experience delays, inconveniences, and the added expense (copays, time, travel, etc.) of seeing a second provider when such visits are unnecessary.
If a DC determines that the beneficiary needs an x-ray, laboratory test or other diagnostic procedure, current policy does not even allow DCs to “order” those covered services, and thus, in those instances further unnecessary visits and beneficiary expenses are required in order to obtain the needed “order” from a second Medicare provider who will often turn around (especially in the case of diagnostic imaging, for example) and order the service from a third Medicare provider.
- Patients could face more costly or higher-risk procedures that often are unnecessary
Because Medicare’s chiropractic policy is stuck in 1970-era health policy, patients are, in effect, channeled to other providers whose standard treatment regimen may involve the use of drugs, spinal injections, or surgery for a range of spinal conditions. Chiropractic care has shown to be a less costly and safer alternative in many of these situations and are routinely covered by private insurance and Medicaid.
- Chiropractic services part of the answer to the opioid scourge
As policymakers seek to prevent the use of unnecessary drugs and surgery, DCs are poised to assist in the opioid effort by lowering the reliance on those drugs, especially in cases related to spinal related pain. To the extent that current policy arbitrarily restricts access to chiropractic services, it exacerbates these problems.
- Medicare policy ignores appropriate state licensing authority of health care providers
Doctors of chiropractic are licensed in all 50 states as portal-of-entry providers who treat the “whole body” and whose scope of practice as defined by state law in every state, allows for the provisioning of a broad range of services. A typical state scope recognizes the ability and training of DCs to examine, diagnose, treat, and refer.
- Correcting current Medicare policy as it relates to chiropractic services would add no new services (not currently covered) by Medicare
Needed legislation would not add any new reimbursable services to Medicare that are not already covered services and delivered by existing providers. Legislation simply seeks a modification of existing statutes to ensure that Doctors of Chiropractic are allowed to furnish and order existing covered services, which they are currently permitted to do under state law in all 50 states.