After a colorful two-term administration, President Clinton has signed the legislation that holds much promise for incorporating chiropractic as a permanent part of military health care. It specifically requires: "Not later than March 31, 2001, the Secretary of Defense shall complete development of a plan to provide chiropractic health care services and benefits, as a permanent part of the Defense Health Program (including the TRICARE program), for all members of the uniformed services who are entitled to care under section1074(a) of title 10, United States Code*
The law, which is part of the huge National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2001, requires that full implementation of the chiropractic benefit be phased in over a five-year period throughout the three military services.
ACA Chairman Dr. J. Michael Flynn called the bill the "biggest chiropractic legislative victory in 26 years." ACA officials noted that the passage of the legislation required years of effort and persistence by their organization and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges, despite powerful opposition by the Department of Defense and various medical groups.
*See "Congress Passes Historic Chiropractic Legislation" in the November 15 issue, and "Three Li'l Words" in this issue.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
