A careful examination of recent legislation provides a profound insight on how health care will be delivered in the future and on how chiropractic will look in the decades ahead. The current level of unemployment in our nation is low to none. Practically the entire country is employed. Private insurance carriers no longer hold the purse strings of reimbursement. The era of the stranglehold of Managed Care on the treatment that patients receive is rapidly entering its twilight. With the adoption of new legislation, mandatory requirements will be placed upon industry to deliver health care, ergonomic training and workplace safety, with steep financial penalties for noncompliance. Chiropractors who do not recognize this will, unfortunately, not be invited to the table to participate in this dramatic, sweeping trend.
Those doctors who become proficient at delivering cost-effective care to our nation’s workforce will be at the forefront of this trend. The mastery of active treatment protocols and objective documentation through computerized diagnostic testing and outcome assessment tools will directly affect chiropractors’ ability to effectively function in the health care marketplace of tomorrow. The American Disabilities Act and Occupational Safety & Health Administration legislation combine in such a manner that the way in which chiropractors will deliver care in the future could virtually become mandated.
As a profession, chiropractors must act now to have their houses in order, so that, as these changes sweep across the nation in the months and years ahead, chiropractic will be positioned to capture the lion’s share of this extremely valuable market.