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KCA NEWS FLASH

  • Board of Healing Arts Votes Unanimously to Reconsider “Chiropractic Physician” Issue.

    After receiving a second letter from the KCA explaining that the Board’s August, 2008 decision to disallow the use of “chiropractic physician” in Kansas was in grave error, and that legal action might be necessary to resolve the issue, the Board of Healing Arts members all voted to put the issue back on its August, 2009 meeting agenda. KCA members and staff expect to be heard again at that meeting on the importance of this decision to the chiropractic profession and to its patients around the state.

    Faced with a 12-3 Board vote last August against the use of the term, KCA went to work researching the issue and made a 45-minute presentation to the Board in April, explaining that there is no evidence of confusion on the part of the public about the difference between a chiropractic physician and a medical doctor. In addition, KCA had found that the legal analysis presented last year to the Board needed to be updated given statutory changes that had occurred. At the end of this presentation the Board voted 7-7 on a motion to reconsider the issue – a moral victory for KCA, but not enough to change the state policy back to where it had been.

    KCA then delivered another letter to the Board outlining its arguments again: 1) no harm to the public, 2) risk of adverse insurance company reactions, 3) possible loss ofconfidence through public perception of the chiropractic profession, and 4) the need for updated legal analysis. A motion was then planned for the June 12 Board meeting to bring the issue for a re-vote by a member who had not been present at the previous Board meeting, but an agreement was reached among members to do a full reconsideration of the issue at the Board’s next meeting in August. While this progress has been slow, KCA leadership is convinced that we will prevail in our campaign to reinstate the use of the “chiropractic physician” terminology in Kansas. We are working very hard to avoid legal action in this situation. More coming in August!

 

  • Board of Healing Arts Rescinds “Chiropractic Physician” Policy.

    According to members of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, the long-standing Board resolution allowing doctors of chiropractic in Kansas to use the term “chiropractic physician” has been rescinded. Although the majority of Board members initially opposed changing the current policy at their meeting Saturday, legal advice submitted by the agency staff convinced members that the Board was open to legal liability with the current policy. Use of the term in Kansas has been a subject of debate and litigation for years, with a court order against the use of the term coming in 1992. The current Board resolution allowing use was established in 1995.

    The KCA and its legal counsel were not informed of this action before it occurred and did not have an opportunity to comment.

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1334 South Topeka Blvd, Topeka KS 66612-1878 .  KCA@kansaschiro.com