December 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 12
7,400 send letters
Members act to prevent primary care status for chiropractorsThousands of AAFP members joined forces with AAFP leaders and brought an end to legislative language that would have given primary care provider status to chiropractors in Veterans Affairs health care facilities.
When the House Veterans Affairs Committee approved H.R. 2792 -- the Disabled Veterans Service Dog and Health Care Improvement Act of 2001 -- on Oct. 10, the Academy quickly alerted family physicians, as well as legislators, to the bill's objectionable language. The bill would have required VA hospitals to let veterans designate chiropractors as primary care providers.
AAFP members acted immediately, as evidenced by the more than 7,400 letters and e-mails they sent to Congress from the Speak Out: AAFP Legislative Action Center at http://capitol.aafp.org/. The letters and e-mails strongly objected to the bill.
"We saw a danger to patients," said President Warren Jones, M.D., of Ridgeland, Miss. "And we took action. It's our role -- as the AAFP and family physicians -- to advocate patient-centered issues. Our impact was tremendous."
Some Senate leaders since have said publicly they will not pass the legislation with language giving primary care provider status to chiropractors. A mid-November proposal from Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., omits such language. However, the proposal does call for a four-year pilot program involving chiropractors at 80 VA facilities in 25 states.
The major problem in granting chiropractors primary care provider status, Jones said, is that chiropractors are not qualified in primary care. Their training does not include the breadth or depth of medical education required of a primary care physician as defined by major medical organizations such as the Institute of Medicine.
"I knew early on that it would take a broad coalition to fight this issue," Jones said. The Academy became a "coalition manager" and recruited other medical organizations and veterans' groups to fight the language about chiropractors in primary care.
On Oct. 17, the coalition sent a letter strongly opposing the chiropractor designation in H.R. 2792 to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. Joining the Academy in signing the letter were the AMA and four osteopathic medical organizations.
On Nov. 8, another coalition letter stating opposition to H.R. 2792 was sent to Daschle. It was signed by the AAFP, AMA, the Vietnam Veterans of America and 14 other medical organizations.
At press time, Congress was expected to complete its work soon on the legislation, a version stripped of the provision about chiropractors as primary care providers.
"The issue here was very clear, and the message from members was equally as powerful," said Kevin Burke, director of the AAFP Government Relations Division. "We wanted to prevent a change in the VA system. Our efforts accomplished exactly what we intended.
"It happened because of the strength of our response. This is a complete success!"
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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