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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 23, 1999

Senator Conrad Urges Colleagues to Support Medicare Resolution, S. Con. Res. 32

ARLINGTON, VA - In a letter to the United States Senate, Sen. Kent Conrad, (D-ND) along with original cosponsors, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Charles Grassley (R-IA), urged the Senate to support Senate Concurrent Resolution 32 (S. Con. Res. 32) regarding the intent of Congress that chiropractic services should be guaranteed as a choice to beneficiaries under the Medicare+Choice program.

This effort to bolster support from the Senate comes a month after the June 3, 1999 letter by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) to Donna Shalala, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, expressing his concern about the April 12, 1999 report entitled, Chiropractic Services in Medicare Managed Care. The purpose of the report was to examine chiropractic utilization by Medicare Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs): ACA's position remains that the report is based on survey information from 1991 that omits key information regarding the current status of chiropractic utilization by Medicare HMOs. However, even the outdated 1991 data illustrates HCFA's total statement stonewalling of Congressional intent to allow senior citizens to obtain covered chiropractic services.

Senate Concurrent Resolution (S. Con. Res. 32) is a companion to House Concurrent Resolution 62 introduced by Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY). These concurrent resolutions urge the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to correct its failure to enforce the law mandating chiropractic services in the Medicare program.

A portion of the "Dear Colleague" letter to all members of the Senate encouraging them to cosponsor S. Con. Res. 32, is as follows:

We ask you to join us in supporting Senate Concurrent Resolution 32, which will help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries participating in the Medicare+Choice program will continue to have access to the types of medical care they need. Regrettably, the current Medicare+Choice regulations do not ensure that beneficiaries will receive coverage for chiropractic services as they do under traditional Medicare.

As you are aware, Congress protected Medicare beneficiaries in the new Medicare+Choice program by including a provision in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) that required each plan to "provide those items and services...for which benefits are available under Part A and B." As a covered service under Part B of the Medicare program, chiropractic care, i.e., treatment by means of manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation is a unique chiropractic service and that it is the unequivocal intent of Congress that this service should be guaranteed as a choice for beneficiaries in the Medicare+Choice program. Our resolution also helps make certain that beneficiaries in managed care plans will have the ability to choose treatment by a doctor of chiropractic.

We urge our colleagues in the Senate to join us in correcting HCFA's misinterpretation of the Congressional intent regarding chiropractic services in the new Medicare+Choice program by cosponsoring Senate Concurrent Resolution 32. Congress should ensure that senior citizens have access to cost-effective chiropractic care in the Medicare+Choice program.

Sincerely,

Kent Conrad
Tom Harkin
Charles Grassley
Orrin Hatch

The American Chiropractic Association, the largest chiropractic organization in the country, provides lobbying, public relations, professional and educational opportunities for doctors of chiropractic, funds research regarding chiropractic and health issues and offers leadership for the advancement of the profession. The ACA promotes the highest standards of ethics and patient care, contributing to the health and well-being of millions of chiropractic patients.


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