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Historic Summit Seeks Collective Solutions
to Chiropractic’s Urgent Challenges
Representatives from twenty-four chiropractic organizations, including membership organizations, educational institutions, research and public education foundations, gathered in Washington, DC on February 27, 2008 to seek common solutions to the new and daunting challenges looming before the chiropractic profession in the months immediately ahead. This second and expanded Summit gathering took place under the auspices of a broad-based Steering Committee comprised of representatives of the four major participating organizations, including:
- Dr. Carl Cleveland III, President, Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC)
- Dr. John Maltby, President, International Chiropractors Association (ICA)
- Dr. Jerry DeGrado, President, Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA)
- Dr. Lewis Bazakos, American Chiropractic Association, Former Chairman of the Board (ACA)
The February 27th Summit was preceded by seven conference calls involving the Steering Committee and additional participants, with the goal of developing a body of recommendations for consideration of the full group of participants.
Dr. Lewis Bazakos, who serves as Chairman of the Summit, told the group at the very outset of the day’s deliberations, “What Summit 1 realized and acknowledged is that as a profession we have limited resources. Folks, we need each other. We must pool our resources, they must cross organizational lines, decisions must be based on what the profession thinks is important and not individuals. As Thomas Huxley said, ‘It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance. We must look at things as they can be.’”
Out of a commitment to explore all possible ways and means to mobilize the chiropractic profession on behalf of collective action, the representatives of the participating organizations spent a full day in intensive and wide-ranging talks, seeking to examine emerging threats and challenges facing the profession, establishing a list of priority issues and then examining possible action plans.
By unanimous consent, the initial focus of the Summit discussion was on Medicare and the upcoming national debate on system-wide health reform. In-depth presentations were made by the government relations staff of the ACA, the ICA and the ACC. All three organizations’ presentations were in complete agreement on the intensity of the upcoming national health care debate and massive challenges chiropractic will be facing. These two closely related issues will require a new political mobilization of all segments of the profession, from students to practitioners, and above all patients and their families, to secure for chiropractic a rightful role in addressing the nation’s health care challenges.
With the financial viability of the Medicare program in the daily news headlines and with soaring healthcare costs dominating the domestic political dialogue, there is little doubt that when a new Presidential Administration and a new Congress take office in January of 2009, national health and Medicare reform are going to be in the forefront of the nation’s legislative agenda. In those debates, chiropractic must be prepared to defend and promote the unique contribution the profession can make, not only to the individual health and well being of millions of citizens of all ages, but to the greater financial health of the nation’s health care economy.
Summit participants took part in several rounds of breakout sessions in which designated groups sought to develop agreement on specific challenges and possible responses. Key concepts in that dialogue included how resources are to be marshaled, how the profession is to be kept informed and above all, how individual doctors, students, families and patients can be deployed in a new and unprecedented grass-roots political action campaign to press chiropractic concerns and initiatives with legislators and other key public policy makers. Going into great detail, the round-table segments identified more than one hundred issues and topics, and digested those concepts down into two dozen possible action issues. Key among those action issues were:
· Marshalling resources of all kinds, from money to unique and valuable skills,
· The establishment and effective deployment of doctor-patient- chiropractic supporter database that would deliver a powerful stream of messages to legislators on chiropractic’s behalf,
· Mobilizing lobbying personnel, materials and a coordinated strategic lobbying plan,
· Generating a stream of positive media messages about chiropractic to better educate consumers and motivate policymakers,
· Build strong new alliances with other organizations, including allied health professions and consumer groups, especially senior citizens’ organizations.
The action issue which all agreed was most urgent was the development and presentation of one message to the profession, the public, the media and ultimately to public policy decision-makers. “The Summit’s activities are intended as a profession-wide initiative with no boundaries of individual philosophy, organizational membership or personal differenced,” states Carl S. Cleveland III, DC, a member of the Summit Steering Committee and President of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges. “The profession may never have a greater opportunity for victory in influencing healthcare reform.”
A central theme throughout the Summit discussions was the urgent need to reach and mobilize every individual doctor of chiropractic in the nation and for everyone who has a stake in chiropractic’s future to assume a new sense of personal responsibility in shaping the outcome of the political challenges ahead. "With the current climate in health care and the national issues facing us as a profession, it has never been more critical to speak with a unified voice. The State Associations are ready for a collaborative effort." states Dr. R. Jerry DeGrado, a member of the Summit Committee and President of the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations. Chiropractic’s critics and competitors, with far deeper pockets and great political strength can only be countered through grass-roots organization and a full mobilization of the entire profession.
“The chiropractic profession must act now to be ready to address both emerging challenges as well as new opportunities in national health policy,” said Dr. Stephen Welsh, ICA representative. “This is possible if collective action efforts are anchored in a spirit of mutual respect, an objective assessment of the political landscape, and a determination to do what is right for the entire chiropractic profession. In this process, ICA will be a willing and dedicated partner.”
At the February Summit, and in all subsequent dialogue, all organizations present agreed to abide by the “St. Louis Principles,” a code of conduct developed by COCSA designed to foster positive, respectful and meaningful dialogue within the profession. Those principles are:
a. Respect personal differences in style and substance,
b. Participate openly and honestly,
c. Remain true to our decisions and not make promises we can not keep,
d. Respect professional differences that can exist within the chiropractic scope and practice as outlined in the ACC paradigm
e. Air our differences inside this forum and not in public,
f. Hold ourselves and each other to the highest standards of accountability and integrity as expected by the members and constituents we represent,
g. All public communications regarding the Chiropractic Summit require mutual agreement.
Planning for regular follow-up sessions is under way, and working groups are acting on key developmental issues in order to assist the collective Summit effort to be as productive as possible, as quickly as possible.
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