Advisory panel nixes VA patient self-referral to chiropractors

Physicians and nonphysician practitioners will share the ability to send veterans for chiropractic care.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Jan. 5, 2004.

Chiropractic care at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs could expand dramatically, if the final recommendations of the VA chiropractic advisory committee are followed.

"Any provider of care in the VA would be able to refer a patient for chiropractic services," said Warren Jones, MD, a member of the advisory committee and immediate past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

This would mean that nurse practitioners and rehabilitation therapists could be making referrals as well as orthopedic surgeons and primary care physicians.

A federal law enacted in December 2001 requires at least one facility in each of the VA's 21 regional health care networks to provide chiropractic care.

The advisory committee gave VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi its final report in November 2003. Expectations were high among those involved in the project that the secretary would take the recommendations seriously and act on them quickly.

"All indications are that the secretary is very tuned in with the committee and is waiting to hear what we have to say," said Reed Phillips, DC, PhD, committee chair.

Dr. Jones said the committee's decisions focused on patient safety and access to care.

"The public law was a good wake- up call for us [physicians]," he said of the growing desire for chiropractic care. The law says there will be chiropractic care [in the Veterans Health Administration] and we had to figure out how to integrate it in a patient-centered and effective way."