ICA President Stephen Welsh Encourages Support of ACA Medicare Scope Expansion & Drug Bill

The President of the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) Stephen Welsh DC encouraged chiropractic leaders to support the American Chiropractic Association's Medicare Scope Expansion & Drug Bill stating there was nothing to be lost by asking for support of both what the ICA is proposing and the Bill that the ACA has already submitted.

The shocking statement from the President of the ICA came during the July 24, 2019 ICA Leadership Line with Welsh and ICA's Acting Executive Director and Director of Government Relations Beth Clay.

During the call a participant asked the following question:

Question:

"Has the ICA reached out to COCSA Congress of Chiropractic state Associations to ask them to mobilize their state associations"

Answer by Stephen Welsh ICA President:

"I'll give an answer to that. There is a, the next Summit meeting is in Orlando Florida in August and the issue of Medicare legislation is going to be on the agenda and the ACA is, I beleive, is being invited to present their Bill and the ICA will be presenting their parameters and we'll be basically petitioning the representatives of the Chiro Congress, I think is how they're calling themselves now. Again, it's not necessarily an either or - okay, but we're gonna encourage them to encourage the state associations in essence to support both Bills. There's nothing to be gained, okay, by trying to force anybody to choose sides and say you have to pick one or you have to pick the other. Our pitch is - this is our framework, we expect to get our bill in, when it gets in, you know, we would appreciate your support. Allright?"

CLICK HERE to hear the audio

There are several disturbing things in Welsh's answer with the most concerning to ICA Members that the President of the ICA is telling its membership that it supports both its own Bill (which by the way does not yet exist) and the ACA's Bill.

Welsh refers to the ICA's "parameters" for a Bill which he laid out during the Chiropractic Summit meeting held this month in Orlando during the Florida Chiropractic Association (FCA) Convention. The FCA is a full supporter of the ACA and its agenda.

The meeting of the Chiropractic Summit group included several representatives of the Chiropractic Cartel including the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards, the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners, the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines & Practice Parameters and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges. The President of Life Chiropractic College West - Ron Oberstein and Life University Board of Trustees Member - Tom Klapp were also in attendance.

The move by the ICA to refrain from directly opposing the ACA and to actually support the ACA's Bill and to encourage all state associations to do the same is unheard of in the history of the ICA. Clearly the ACA knows now - directly from the mouth of the ICA President - that they can move ahead without the ICA and the members of the Chiropractic Summit interfering with their efforts. In fact - the ACA will have the ICA's support.

The support to the ACA is further evidenced by the fact that the ICA has no alternative Medicare Bill to promote - though it has been talking about one for many months and claims to have a draft. It refuses to show the draft to its members and instead refers to broad outlines it claims are based on consultation with the entire profession - as opposed to the membership of the ICA it is supposed to represent.

In an announcement by Welsh and the ICA recently sent to its members regarding the ICA's "parameters" for its own Bill, Welsh refers to "chiropractic physicians" repeatedly in both the announcement and the Powerpoint accompanying it that was presented to the Summit Group.

It has long been a goal of the ACA, CCE and the rest of the Cartel to embed "chiropractic physician" language in accreditation standards, regulatory law and health policy.

The use of this term so easily slipped in by the ICA despite the fact that the term does not appear in any of the ICA's organizing documents or policy statements is a clear sign of support for those efforts and a misrepresentation of the ICA's values.

The ICA will no doubt claim that chiropractors are already considered "physicians" under Medicare and that is why they used the term. However, "physician" could simply be replaced by "chiropractor" and "chiropractic services" in any Medicare overhaul if that was what they really wanted.

The use of "physician" however is a sore point in all of these debates since chiropractors who are dependent on third party pay believe that being able to call themselves a physician increases their scope, increases third party billings, and elevates them to a higher status than simply calling themselves a "chiropractor".

Despite Welsh's plea for states to support the ACA's Bill, several state organizations have already released statements directly opposing it including ICA Affiliated organizations such as the Florida Chiropractic Society and the Connecticut Chiropractic Council.

ICA members have been expressing their concerns about the direction of the ICA for some time now and the ICA has put pressure on those members to not speak out including barring members from their private Facebook Group and putting pressure on the Representative Assembly to keep in line. This latest move to support the ACA and not oppose it on such fundamental issues to the ICA's values has even supporters of Welsh scratching their heads in disbelief.