The Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act (H.R. 2654), legislation that would ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have full access to all the services a chiropractor can provide under his or her state’s chiropractic scope of practice, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 19, 2021.
H.R. 2654 is bipartisan legislation that would allow the nation’s more than 63 million Medicare beneficiaries to receive the full range of chiropractic care, not just manual manipulation of the spine to correct subluxation, as has been the case since 1972. Email your U.S. representative TODAY and ask him or her to co-sponsor H.R. 2654, the Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act. The link will take you to a form where you simply enter your contact information and email message text will automatically be generated for you. You can edit the message or submit it as is.
H.R. 2654 was reintroduced by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) on April 19, 2021. H.R. 2654 would allow Medicare beneficiaries access to the chiropractic profession’s broad-based, non-drug approach to pain management, which includes manual manipulation of the spine and extremities, evaluation and management services, diagnostic imaging and utilization of other non-drug approaches that have become an important strategy in national efforts to stem the epidemic of prescription opioid overuse and abuse.
To best serve their senior patients, chiropractic physicians must be allowed to practice and be reimbursed to the fullest extent of their licensure, training and competencies. Since the chiropractic profession was first included in Medicare in 1972, Doctors of Chiropractic (DC) and their patients have been burdened by arbitrary limitations that lack any scientific or sound policy justification. Research demonstrating positive patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness resulting from chiropractic care have advanced private coverage and state licensure to meet patient needs.
The federal Medicare program, which serves as a model for private insurance plans, currently serves more than 63 million individuals. Various projections forecast the number of people age 65 or older increasing by about one-third over the next decade. Chiropractic inclusion in Medicare was established in 1972 and has seen little change since then, other than elimination of the X-ray requirement in 1997.
Download this poster to display in your office. Your patients can easily participate in this project by scanning the QR code, so they can email their congressman as well.