Association calls for comprehensive, time-certain legislative solution that protects Medicare Beneficiaries and eliminates remaining barriers to chiropractic access.

FALLS CHURCH, VA – The International Chiropractors Association (ICA), today reaffirmed

its essential framework for Medicare reform, calling on Congress to enact legislation that fully resolves longstanding barriers to access for Medicare beneficiaries that seek chiropractic care. Medicare has covered chiropractic since 1972, yet vestiges of antitrust-era discrimination remain embedded in the Social Security Act. Chiropractors are recognized as physicians under Medicare statute but continue to be denied equitable reimbursement and practice rights afforded to the other four designated physician types (doctors of medicine or osteopathy, dental surgeons/dentists, podiatrists, optometrists). ICA believes this is unacceptable and correctable. ICA’s Medicare framework calls on Congress to pass legislation to accomplish the following:

➢ Remove the ‘but only’ brackets that restrict reimbursements to the adjustment only; and detail the covered services to ensure that evaluation and management services, including x- ray imaging, are covered services with clear Congressional instruction and required dates of implementation, and the ensured coverage of adjustments of other articulations in the body.

➢ Implement equitable reimbursement rates equal to those of the other physician-level providers.

➢ Correct the Private Contracting (Opt-Out) Provision, restoring to Medicare beneficiaries who use chiropractic the same right to privately contract with their physician that patients of every other Medicare physician type already enjoy.

➢ Keep chiropractic a drug free and surgery profession at the federal level by excluding in statute reimbursements for prescription drugs, biologics and surgery.

➢ Provide a date of enactment so that beneficiaries who have paid into the system for decades receive timely relief — not a multi-year rule making process with uncertain outcomes.

➢ Maintain the current mandate for coverage of the chiropractic adjustment to correct a subluxation, preserving profession-specific terminology in statute.

“Medicare beneficiaries deserve the same rights regardless of which physician they choose,” said Dr. Joseph Betz, President of the ICA. “Informed consent and patient autonomy are not negotiable. Neither is equity. Congress must act with precision and a timeline — not delegate the details to CMS and hope for the best.”

The ICA’s position aligns directly with the goals of the Make America Healthy Again initiative: reducing chronic illness through non-drug, patient-centered, lifestyle-based approaches. Regular chiropractic care is one of the most evidence-supported non-pharmacologic interventions for musculoskeletal and chronic pain conditions. Ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries have full, unimpeded access to chiropractic physicians is essential to that mission.

For complete details on ICA’s Medicare framework and legislative comparison, visit

www.chiropractic.org.

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MEDIA CONTACT: Beth Clay

About the International Chiropractors Association

Founded in 1926 by Dr. B.J. Palmer, the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) is the world’s oldest international chiropractic professional organization — and its most steadfast advocate. With members across the United States and in more than 50 countries, the ICA for a century has fought to secure the rightful place of Doctors of Chiropractic as equal participants in the health care system, championing patient access, informed consent, and the freedom to choose safe, effective, drug-free care. Headquartered in the Washington, D.C. region and active in legislatures and policy forums worldwide, the ICA represents chiropractors, students, educators, and patients who share a common conviction: that whole-person health — built on the body’s innate capacity to heal — is not an alternative to good care. It is good care.

To learn more, visit chiropractic.org