According to an announcement sent out by the Florida Chiropractic Association (FCA), the FCA Lobby Team states it is responsible for having amemdments added to both House and Senate Bills that would allow certain health care providers to enter into direct agreements with consumers to provide primary care. According to the FCA, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, (NFIB), has been lobbying for the bill as far back as four legislative sessions ago.
According to the FCA, the bill as originally filed did not include chiropractic and the FCA lobbied for an amendment including chiropractic in the definition of primary care provider.
The legislation specifies that direct primary care agreements (sometimes called medical retainer agreements) do not constitute insurance, thereby freeing doctors and patients from the requirements and regulations under the state insurance code. The bill also stipulates that a primary care provider or an agent of a primary care provider is not required to obtain a certificate of authority or license under the Florida Insurance Code to market, sell, or offer to sell a direct primary care
The attorney for the Florida Chiropractic Association, Paul Lambert, told the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine back in the summer of 2015 that the FCA was working on language to position chiropractors as primary care providers in the state.
The statements by the FCA attorney were made during a legislative workshop on June 5, 2015. The Workshop was scheduled for the Board of Chiropractic Medicine to consider, and hear public comment on, a package of legislative changes being proposed in the state.
The changes included proposals to deal with the treatment of animals by chiropractors, removal of outdated language making graduation from a school accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education mandatory to gain licensure in the state, removal of statutory obstacles for graduates of foreign chiropractic programs to gain licensure in the state, and removal of the term “medicine” to describe the practice of chiropractic among other items.
Controlling elements within the chiropractic profession have for decades sought to position chiropractic as the practice of primary care even though the actual educational training that chiropractors receive does not allow chiropractors to fulfill the attributes of an actual primary care provider.
Many chiropractors confuse "portal of entry" provider" with "primary care provider" and leaders of chiropractic schools and chiropractic trade organizations seeking widespread scope expansion and drug rights use this ignorance to advance their agenda.
Such deception has duped many of the traditional, conservative chiropractic trade organizations and individual chiropractors into supporting such efforts thinking they would lose direct access and certain benefits under third party pay.
If the Senate bill passes, then efforts to stop the chiropractic scope expansion in Florida will have failed. The addition of drugs into the practice of chiropractic will be the logical next step and with the designation of primary care provider it will be that much easier.
