When does one profession get to tell another profession what to do?

I don’t usually get into politics. However, where my patients’ rights of healthcare choice are concerned, it’s time to mobilize NOW, whether you’re a patient or a doctor, or someone with a friend or loved one under a doctor’s care.

What we have going on boils down to a private trade organization (the TX Medical Association, or TMA) attempting to tell the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners (they regulate us and are also known by their initials TBCE or Chiropractic Board) what to do and how to practice. The Chiropractic Board is allowing 2 measly lawyers to completely re-write our scope of practice (which ultimately states what we can and cannot do under our chiropractic license). Neither of them have heard of Functional Medicine. Neither of them practice chiropractic. Neither of them understand natural approaches to health. And yet, these *2* people hold the health of 22 million Texans at stake, in their hands.

Frankly, we’re a little worried. Right now, we enjoy multiple avenues of helping our patients – adjusting any joint in the body, doing muscle work, brain-based neurological therapies, Functional Neurology, ordering diagnostic lab testing and recommending supplements, and let’s face it – we get people better, doing things no other healthcare profession bothers to do.

However, the TMA is being given too much power.  After losing a lawsuit against the TBCE last summer, they have refused to give up and allow us to practice within the rules we currently have.  The judge last summer ruled that the TMA may not sue the TBCE anymore, but stipulated that the TBCE must get their act together and define our scope (rules we play by) a little more clearly.  Fair enough.  However, the Chiropractic Board has gone about it all wrong.  In fact, one of these two measly lawyers mentioned the option of “negotiating” with the TMA! (Hint: this never works in our favor; the outcome will NOT be good.)

What all this means is, in one fell swoop, overnight, they can reduce us to a mere FRACTION of our chiropractic medical education, allowing us to adjust the SPINE ONLY, no ankles, shoulders, wrists, hips or ribs!) and ONLY in cases of back pain (no athletic performance or senior/elderly fall prevention). They would remove our ability to even recommend nutritional supplements to our patients. No more Functional Medicine. No more autoimmune disease management. Those of you with Hashimoto’s, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, and fibromyalgia should be ESPECIALLY concerned.

What this will do is force the best (chiropractic) doctors in the state to move elsewhere. This will severely restrict your choice of doctors among whoever is left over. This will also severely restrict your ability to receive sound nutritional advice.

The time to act is NOW. Make your voice be heard. If this passes, please know that you’re always welcome to come see us in New Mexico, where they have just given chiropractic doctors EXPANDED rights to care for their patients – and I envision many Texan patients doing just that!