Michigan Association Claims Chiropractors are Primary Care Physicians

According to a Press Release from the Michigan Association of Chiropractors (MAC) they are currently pushing House Bill 4712 which would allow physical therapists to accept a prescription from a chiropractor. Currently, chiropractors are the only physician group in Michigan from which PTs cannot accept a prescription.

According to the MAC, the Michigan Physical Therapy Association, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Detroit Regional Chamber, and Michigan Manufacturers Association are opposed to the bill arguing: 

• Chiropractors have a limited scope of practice that will compromise public safety if allowed to prescribe physical therapy
• PTs and DCs are "economic competitors" who compete for the same "consumers," and allowing DCs to be "gatekeepers" over their competition is anticompetitive
• Allowing DCs to prescribe PT will lead to "unnecessary utilization"
• The "unintended consequence" of HB 4712 will be higher health care costs 

In response, the MCA is urging chiropractors to contact Michigan House of Representatives members. They instruct chiropractors to tell their legislators the following: 

• Chiropractors are educated and trained to act as portal-of-entry, primary care physicians.
• Michigan's chiropractic scope of practice is not limited to the spine.
• HB 4712 was developed and introduced to provide patients with the most cost-effective, time-efficient, and outcome-optimizing pathway to needed care.
• Enacting HB 4712 will serve to decrease health care costs. 

According to the law in Michigan: 

"Practice of chiropractic" means that discipline within the healing arts that deals with the human nervous system and the musculoskeletal system and their interrelationship with other body systems. Practice of chiropractic includes the following: 

The diagnosis of human conditions and disorders of the human musculoskeletal and nervous systems as they relate to subluxations, misalignments, and joint dysfunctions. These diagnoses shall be for the purpose of detecting and correcting those conditions and disorders or offering advice to seek treatment from other health professionals in order to restore and maintain health.

A review of the law in Michigan did not reveal any reference to chiropractors as “Primary Care Physicians” despite what the MCA is urging chiropractors to tell legislators. 

The contention that chiropractors are trained and educated as primary care physicians has been promoted by several organized groups, organizations, and trade associations within chiropractic.  

These groups, professional organizations and schools are referred to as the Chiropractic Cartel because they enjoy a monopoly on the educational and licensing functions of the entire chiropractic profession throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.

The Chiropractic Cartel includes mostly members of the so-called “Chiropractic Summit” group which has as one of its goals the establishment of chiropractic as the practice of primary care as chiropractic physicians.