In The State of Texas the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners (TBCE) and the Texas Chiropractic Association (TCA) got themselves into some legal trouble by repeated attempts to expand the scope of practice by issuing numerous BOARD RULES over a period of years. The Texas Medical Association finally stepped in and sued the TBCE. They won that lawsuit and the judge in the case struck down a number of the RULES the board adopted stating they exceeded the scope of practice in the STATUTE.
The TBCE is made up of the following chiropractors and lay people:
- President: Mark Bronson, D.C.
- Vice President: Kenya S. Woodruff, J.D.
- Secretary Treasurer: Karen Campion, D.C.
- Member: Amy Nicole Gonzalez, D.C
- Member: Nicholas Baucum, D.C.
- Member: John H. Riggs, D.C.
- Member: Michael P. Henry, D.C.
- Public Member: Gus Ramirez
- Public Member: John W. Steinberg
Of the six (6) chiropractors on the TBCE four (4) of them are dues paying members of the Texas Chiropractic Association and the American Chiropractic Association.
- Mark Bronson DC, DABCO – ACA and TCA Member
- Karen Campion DC – ACA and TCA Member
- John Riggs DC, FACO – ACA and TCA Member
- Michael Henry DC – ACA and TCA Member
Both the TBCE and the TCA have been engaged in an active legislative agenda to expand the scope of chiropractic in the state of Texas for many years. The American Chiropractic Association has filed Amicus Briefs in the related lawsuit on behalf of the TCA and the TCA is an affiliate of the ACA.
The ACA is well known for its support and active participation in scope expansion efforts across the United States, including Medicare.
Now, the Texas Chiropractic Association, the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, Parker University and Texas Chiropractic College have joined together in and ad campaign arguing that the Texas Medical Association is “challenging the authority of a chiropractor to render a diagnosis”.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The judges in the TMA case against the board merely invalidated the changes in the RULES made by the TBCE. In the end, the chiropractic profession in Texas lost nothing since what they attempted to add to the rules never existed in the scope.
Now the TCA is engaging in in a scare campaign directed at subluxation centered chiropractors and telling them that they will not be able to diagnose subluxation in an attempt to garner increased membership in the TCA and financial support for their legal battles with the TMA.
Legal battles that the board and the TCA themselves created in the first place.
The reality is that the diagnosis of subluxation remains as it always has in the STATUTE and nothing in the legal wrangling related to the rules has changed that.
In TEXAS a person practices chiropractic under this chapter if the person:
- Uses objective or subjective means to analyze, examine, or evaluate the biomechanical condition of the spine and musculoskeletal system of the human body;
- Performs nonsurgical, non-incisive procedures, including adjustment and manipulation, to improve the subluxation complex or the biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system;
- Represents to the public that the person is a chiropractor;
- Uses the term “chiropractic”, “chiropractor”, “doctor of chiropractic”, “DC”, or any derivative of those terms or initials in connection with the person’s name.
What is really happening in Texas is an attempt by active market players (Board Members) working in concert with state and national trade associations to affect the practice of the chiropractic profession by expanding the scope to suit their own agenda. These actions may be bringing harm to those practitioners who wish to practice within the statute.
Chiropractors are urged to investigate beyond the claims, press releases and fear mongering being put out by the TCA, ACA, Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, Parker University, Texas Chiropractic College and Chiropractic Economics magazine.
