THE NOMINEES
Ronald C. Evans, DC, FACO, FICC: "The importance of the opportunity for the chiropractic profession to expand its role in health care delivery for active duty military personnel and their dependents cannot be overemphasized."
Peter Ferguson, DC: "The committee's composition was clearly designed to bring a broad yet balanced understanding of the profession to the chiropractic demonstration project."
George Goodman, DC: "This is an excellent opportunity for the profession to extend its level of professional care."
Rick McMichael, DC: "Our nation's veterans and military personnel deserve the very best of health care available today."
Reed Phillips, DC, PhD: "We will be working hard to insure that the chiropractic profession is appropriately represented and the research methodology is appropriate."
Five representatives of the chiropractic profession have been nominated to become part of the overseeing committee of the Department of Defense's three-year chiropractic health care demonstration project, the outcome of which will be pivotal to chiropractic's future in military health care.
Recent letters from Stephen Joseph, MD, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, went out to the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC); the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE); the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA); the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards (FCLB); and the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER); The letters asked each organization to select one representative for consideration as a committee member to oversee the chiropractic demonstration project.
The nominations are:
ACC -- George Goodman, DC
CCE -- Reed Phillips, DC, PhD
COCSA -- Rick McMichael, DC
FCER -- Ronald Evans, DC, FACO, FICC
FCLB -- Peter Ferguson, DC
The committee overseeing the demonstration project will also include the comptroller general of the United States (or designee from the general accounting office); the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs (or designee); the surgeons general of the army, air force, navy (or designees).
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 1995 stipulates that the Department of Defense (DOD) establish a chiropractic demonstration project at 10 military facilities. The demonstration project will be conducted from 1995 through 1997. By January 30, 1995, the secretary of defense must submit his report on the demonstration project, including the treatment facilities to be used and the plan of how the demonstration project will be conducted. By May 1, 1995, the secretary must submit a plan for evaluating the project.
The overseeing committee will grant professional practice privileges to the chiropractors at the treatment facilities participating in the program, and the preparation of reports and evaluations.
The impetus for the demonstration project is the result of a senate committee report that stated:
"The committee continues to be deeply concerned that, despite the committee's strong support for commissioning chiropractors in the military, the Department of Defense has failed to comply with recommendations of the committee to undertake a demonstration.
"The committee intends that the Department conduct a demonstration that will make chiropractic health care available to military beneficiaries and will provide an opportunity to evaluate the benefit of chiropractic care to the military health care system. The results of this demonstration should provide a basis for determining the future of chiropractic care in the military health care system."
It was this senate report that recommended that the DOD choose representatives from the ACC, CCE, COCSA, FCER, and the FCLB.
The Nominees
FCER Nominee: Ronald Evans, DC, FACO, FICC, is the chairman of the Iowa Board of Chiropractic Examiners. He maintains a private practice in Des Moines. He was recently elected a trustee of the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, and was appointed to the RAND consensus panel for the study of the appropriateness of manipulative care for the cervical spine.
Dr. Evans was appointed by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to the Iowa Health Reform Council. He's been the recipient of the "Chiropractic Orthopedist of the Year" and the "Distinguished Service" awards from the American College of Chiropractic Orthopedists.
FCLB Nominee: Peter Ferguson, DC, of Canton, Ohio, is the chairman of the executive board of the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards, and was president of the Ohio State Board of Chiropractic Examiners seven of the eight years he was on the board. He is also on the board of directors of the Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Chiropractic Education, and was on the 15-member advisory cabinet of Ohio Governor Richard Celests (1981-89).
ACC Nominee: George Goodman, DC, FICC, is the president of Logan College of Chiropractic (since 1993). Dr. Goodman has been on the Logan faculty for the past 25 years. He was Logan's vp of chiropractic affairs for 10 years, a clinic director, and originated the school of postgraduate education. He's been a member of the board of director of the Council on Chiropractic Education since 1986.
COCSA Nominee: Rick McMichael, DC, is the immediate past president of the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations. He is the past chairman of the board, president and vp of the Ohio State Chiropractic Association, and is in his second term as an Ohio delegate to the ACA. He is the planning and budget committee chairman of the Chiropractic Centennial Foundation. Dr. McMichael was also a commission member of the Mercy Center Consensus Conference.
CCE Nominee: Reed Phillips, DC, DACBR, PhD (medical sociology), has been the president of Los Angeles College of Chiropractic since 1990. He was on the steering committee and a commission member of the Mercy Center Consensus Conference. He was named "Researcher of the Year" by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research, 1990. He has been on the editorial review board of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics since 1986.
Stephen Joseph, MD, assistant secretary of assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, one of the monitors of the project for the DOD, said the "addition of a new category of uniformed health professionals to the active force would be especially challenging for the military departments in this time of military personnel drawdown."
Despite these concerns, he noted the mandate from Congress to direct the secretaries of the military departments to submit to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees (by April 1, 1994) "detailed plans how their departments would approach the initial commissioning of chiropractors and how they would maintain a career chiropractic force of commissioned officers.
Dr. Joseph said he had "followed over many years the battles between chiropractic and allopathic medicine," but did not consider himself an expert on the issue. "I know that studies have shown that chiropractic services provide both real and perceived health benefits for specified conditions. Whether or not, especially in these times of constrained resources and necessary trade-offs, chiropractic is a cost-effective military medical resource is a question that I do not feel prepared to answer until I have an opportunity to review the forthcoming service plans."
Contrasting the senate committee report with the recent articles in the Navy Times and the Air Force Times, it is evident that the Pentagon is not kindly disposed to making chiropractic care available in the armed services. Both articles include a comment from an unidentified defense health official: "The question is do we provide another service because people like it even though it has no appreciable decrease on demand for traditional services?"
Congress has told the DOD to go forth with this project. It's human nature not to like being told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, but this is just what the senate report did, not to mention Congress passing a bill that allows DCs to be commissioned officers.
The five chiropractic nominees to the demonstration project have a tough job ahead. They'll have to overcome hostility and fight every inch of the way to give chiropractic a fair trial on the military's home court.
