Save the Chiropractic Profession
September 14th, 2010 // 8:00 am @ dr_oz // 10 Comments
If you are a consistent reader of my blog, then you know I have had other posts in regards to where the profession is headed. Well, the time has come. CCE is about to take us another huge step toward extinction. That is if we let them. The chiropractic world is starting to crumble! This is a call to action for every chiropractor to let the CCE know where you stand. If you don’t then the CCE is going to be telling us all where we stand, and that is in the medical profession! Separate and distinct is where we need to stand. What is so complicated about that? Have they closed down the medical schools so chiropractors have to start providing drugs and medicine? It is time to take a stand. Other chiropractors throughout the history of the profession have taken stands to preserve the profession, now it’s our turn.
I am pasting a copy of an email I received that explains very simply what we all need to do.
Action Needed to Respond to CCE’s Proposed Revisions for Practice
***Comments must be received in the CCE Administrative Office
by September 24, 2010
The CCE has a few proposals that will drastically affect the future of chiropractic. Your simple, prompt action is needed. Dr. Gerry Clum has succinctly summarized the CCE proposal in the following clipping from his positional paper found at www.lifewest.edu/ccerevisions.shtml
Dr. Clum sums up these following concerns:
The items in the new CCE revision indicate an attempt to move the profession:
a. Toward the Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine perspective
b. Away from the use of the term subluxation
c. Toward the inclusion of drug therapy
d. Away from being a drugless discipline
e. Toward a generalized common definition of primary care as used in primary medicine.
f. Away from any definition of chiropractic and what a chiropractor does.
So, what do we need to do?
Print out the document at this link: http://www.cce-usa.org/uploads/COUNCIL_Form_16_-_Proposed_Revision_to_Standards_FILL-IN_FORM.pdf , put your comments on it and fax it to the number at the bottom of the form.
THIS SMALL EFFORT CAN CONTRIBUTE TOWARD SAVING OUR PROFESSION.
Here is the easiest way to fill out the attached form
Field 1) Please indicate you are a FIELD PRACTITIONER (DC)
Field 2) You can LEAVE BLANK
Field 3) Add your own general comments (see points a-f from Dr. Clum’s clip above)…be specific and clear
Field 4) You can LEAVE BLANK
Field 5) Add your personal information
PLEASE ACT AND FORWARD THIS TO YOUR MAILING LIST
One doctor has shared his response as an example:
I typed this out and this is how I responded. I struggled to get it into the test box provided, but was able to copy and paste it into field 3 on the form. Hope this facilitates an overwhelming response to these proposals.
I oppose the changes to the Standards For Doctor of Chiropractic programs as it attempts to move the profession: 1) Toward the Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine perspective; 2) Away from the any use of the term subluxation; 3) Toward the inclusion of drug therapy; 4) Away from a drugless discipline; 5) Towards a generalized common definition of primary care as used in primary care medicine; 6) Away from any definition of chiropractic or what a chiropractor does.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION TODAY.
This is simple. The battle is going to get bigger and nastier. We need to start right now, don’t wait! We need 10,000-20,000 chiropractors to send this to the CCE so we can get their attention. Please take 5 minutes of your time today as it may preserve the chiropractic profession for generations to come! Also, please pass this on to every chiropractor you know. I am getting it to every chiropractor that I can, please do the same if you want to keep our profession!
SEPARATE AND DISTINCT! SEPARATE AND DISTINCT! SEPARATE AND DISTINCT!
Category : Blog &Chiropractic Profession &Featured Works &Uncategorized
Dr Mike 1
1 year ago
Best move the profession will ever make…full suport for prescribing.
dr_oz
1 year ago
Dr. Mike,
Appreciate your stance in the debate, but the point is that it won’t be the same profession, it will be a different profession using the name chiropractic. Similar to what happened to Osteopathy. They still award the degree, but Osteopathy is essentially no different from the medical profession now. The principles of Osteopathy have been swallowed up and faintly exist if at all. I have no problem if someone wants to get a medical degree to practice medicine, just as a chiropractic degree should allow you to practice chiropractic. Both should be available and obtainable, but kept separate and distinct.
Dr. Osborne
Dr. Patrick MacNamara
1 year ago
If this doesn’t wake up our profession, then I don’t know what will! If we lose our foundation, we not only lose our way but will lose our identity as a profession forever. Thank you, Dr. OZ, for keeping us informed on this urgent situation!
Dr. Wanda Neville
1 year ago
Dr. Osborne,
Thank you so much for alerting us to this perilous situation we are in. I love chiropractic and I love being a chiropractor. I would hate to have that taken away from us. Nothing against medicine, but if I personally wanted to prescribe medicine, I would have gone to medical school! My prayer is that all chiropractors get on board and let their voices be heard against the CCE recommendations, or we will lose our precious distinct identity.
Chiropractor
1 year ago
Docs,
I see your point, but in order for us to continue practice chiropractic we do need to join the medical profession. A lot of our colleagues are out of job, give up our profession, one guy I know he has become a manicurist and buff ladies nail. I am sure Osteopath would never regret because they are all set wit financially. To be able to prescribe does not mean we will prescribe, but we do it as needed, why we have to send patient out to get simple pain medication. I am sure if we don’t change we will be extinct. Thank You
dr_oz
1 year ago
Thanks for your comments doc. Yes it seems that acceptance into the medical profession would help us, but like you said, Osteopath’s today may not regret it because they are all set financially, but does Osteopathy actually exist today?? I can’t find it if it does. They are now medical doctors not accepted Osteopaths practicing Osteopathy inside the medical profession. That’s what scares me, because it is exactly what will happen to chiropractic. We are fooling ourselves to think we will stay separate and distinct on the “inside”.
David
1 year ago
Reality: The problem is that the Chiropractic Profession has been separate and distinct for over 115 years and still is suffering prejudice and attacks. It would be nice if the profession could rely on the same positional logic from the other health care professions and stakeholders. But, this is not reality. The facts are that the Chiropractic Professions is treated with unfair bias (majority percentage) from all other health care professionals and entities. Insurance do not compensate the same, visits are limited, the profession is often target more intently by prosecutor headhunters for unfounded fraud investigations, etc. Many states prevent the Chiropractors from even calling themselves “physicians” claiming public protection interests.
The current state of Chiropractic will not change due to the persistent climate of professional bias and secondary gain issues (such as with pharmaceutical companies and insurance industry). In fact, it has only gotten worse in the last two decades. Why do you even think this discussion exists?
I am not advocating for such a direct merge that occurred with Osteopathy, however, some type of mutually amicable association would eliminate much of the animosity, negative propaganda, and lies. The current path has never manifested into the spirit of cooperation that the population deserves.
Regarding the doomsday prediction of the extinction of Chiropractic:
Any medical doctor or osteopath can choose what type of practice to run in regards to how conservative or invasive they will be. For example, not every medical doctor/clinic does surgery or other more aggressive procedures. Medical doctors could choose to treat naturally with no medications if it aligned with their treatment philosophy. Nobody would challenge or question them even. In fact, a medical doctor or osteopath can essentially practice as a Chiropractor with the only probable differentiation being the CPT code they use to describe what they did (i.e. OMT versus CMT).
So, if the current Chiropractic distinction went the way of the dodo bird, it is clear that all chiropractically minded individuals would still be able to practice as they so choose according to their philosophy. Nobody can currently force an MD or DO to prescribe or do surgery. Therefore, with the proposed CCE changes, still the more aggressive or invasive procedures would be left up to only those individuals who desired to do so.
Chiropractic would most probably survive with professional associations and Diplomate programs the same as any current specialty in the medical profession. Not everyone is a neurologist, or orthopedists, or cardiologists, etc. There are different individuals who will always branch to different fields of interests, including Chiropractic.
dr_oz
1 year ago
Dr. Thorton,
Thank you for your in depth look at and thought process. I agree with all you are saying except for the fact that I don’t believe for one minute that those that “choose” to practice chiropracTIC would be able to survive. If you think that the problems with other health care providers and insurance companies is bad now, give them another way to snuff us out by creating a medical/chiropractor. And if you look at history, there were Osteopaths that were completely against the merger, had their own association, and were going to stay true to being osteopaths, but where that go??? Will the schools and CCE cater to the students that wish to be chiropracTORs and be trained as such?? So I understand that those of us who are practicing now would still have the choice to practice the way we want, but what about the next generation?? That is why the term is always out there that we are only one generation away from extinction.
In a perfect world all you say makes complete sense, however what we see has been done against chiropracTIC and continues to be done against chiropracTIC will get worse if we continue
down the same road. And then will our grandchildren have the ability to choose? Or will chiropractic be another word like osteopathy?
Dr McHorse, DC
7 months ago
If I wanted to deal drugs, I would be an M.D. I went into the chiropractic profession because of what it stands for. No drugs, or surgery to actually fix the problems with a person instead of covering up symptoms with drugs and causing more side effects to the pt than the condition they are taking the drugs for. If a doc wants to prescribe meds, then fine…go back and get a D.O or M.D. degree, or even a dang Nurse Practitioner degree! Chiropractic has always been and always will (I pray) be drug free. I use the term subluxation because that’s what is causing the nerve interference…
My grandpa was an Osteopath, but he graduated in 1931, so he did what we do, until they got ‘buried’ in the AMA and now a D.O. means nothing different than an M.D. I think he would be proud of my accomplishments of obtaining a DC degree and doing what he used to do.
I JUST had a person call in and ask if I could prescribe her some more Vicodin, because she has Fibromyalgia and she is running low on her ‘scrip’…I’m glad I don’t have prescription rights…I would rather have someone ‘addicted’ to getting adjusting (Which is good for you) than be addicted to a drug!!!
dr_oz
6 months ago
Doc,
Well said, there are avenues and the choices available for those who would like to prescribe drugs. If you don’t like the profession of chiropracTIC then you are free to go do something else, no problem. But don’t try to change chiropractic to what you think it should be. That profession has already been created and is failing. Go be part of that while chiropractic is allowed to be the profession it is supposed to be.