ACA Governmental Relations Team Winning the Game for Sports DCs
LEGISLATION
Keith Overland
John Falardeau
HR 921, the Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act, authored by Representative Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), is federal legislation that would ensure that sports health professionals are properly covered by their malpractice insurance while traveling with athletic teams to another state. Outside of Washington, this legislation is more commonly known as the “travel to treat” bill.
For decades, doctors of chiropractic and other healthcare providers who traveled with sports teams out of state often lacked liability coverage as soon as they crossed the state line. HR 921 recently passed in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and it is moving toward consideration in the full House of Representatives.
This is good news for the chiropractic profession and for our patients. This outcome would not have occurred without extraordinary effort by the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) government relations team.
Unfortunately, the original iteration of HR 921 defined covered providers as just “physicians and athletic trainers.” While DCs are considered physicians in more than 30 states, the original definition would have omitted DCs from being covered in states where we are not defined as such. That is when ACA went to work.
Shortly after being introduced, ACA lobbyists met with Guthrie’s staff to discuss amending the bill to include doctors of chiropractic. To highlight the importance of the issue in the congressman’s home state, the ACA partnered with the Kentucky Association of Chiropractors, which fired off a letter in
■ "For decades, doctors of chiropractic and other healthcare providers who traveled with sports teams out of state often lacked liability coverage as soon as they crossed the state line. 5 5
support of the bill that also urged Guthrie to amend the bill to make the provider definition more encompassing.
Over months, ACA lobbyists continued to monitor the bill, talk with stakeholders, and discuss options to ensure that all DCs were eligible to be covered under the bill. In June, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce finally started to move the bill through the legislative process.
Seeing that there was now a finite time to amend the bill, the ACA enlisted the help of two local sports DCs—Dr. Jay Greenstein, CEO of Sport and Spine Companies, and Dr. Alan Sokoloff, team DC for the Baltimore Ravens. In a meeting with committee staff, Drs. Greenstein and Sokoloff expressed concern that leaving DCs off the list of eligible providers hurts the athletes most of all, and it would, in many cases, separate team members from the most experienced doctors they work with while at “home.”
As a result of these lobbying efforts, congressional committee staff recommended that the bill’s language define eligible providers to be physicians, athletic trainers, and “other licensed health care professional who is licensed to practice in the
primary State.” The addition of this language ensures that all DCs will now be eligible to have their liability insurance travel with them when they accompany a sports team to another state.
In June, HR 921 passed the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health, and in July, the full committee passed the bill as well. On September 12th, the House of Representatives passed HR 921 unanimously. The next stop is the Senate, which must pass the bill before it goes to the White House for the president’s signature. Be assured that the ACA will be working to ensure that the House language stays intact throughout the process.
In addition to working with the bill’s author, Guthrie, ACA members, and staff also communicated with Health subcommittee chairman Representative Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), Representative Gene Green (D-Texas), Energy and Commerce chairman Representative Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and Representative Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) to make it possible for team DCs from across the country to travel anywhere with their teams.
This scenario is just one current example of the importance of a strong and effective national association. Even as members are at their offices working with patients, the ACA is ensuring that doctors of chiropractic and their patients’ voices are heard on Capitol Hill on a daily basis. The ACA is currently working on other initiatives, including Medicare reform; enhanced access to chiropractic in VA hospitals; adding chiropractic coverage for families and retirees of the armed forces; and
opportunities for new graduates to work in a variety of federal healthcare programs.
The final steps for the “travel to treat “ bill to become law should be right around the comer, but a lot of “pounding the pavement” in Washington is still required.
If y ou are a member of the ACA, you can help move this initiative forward with a donation to the AC A PAC at www.acatoday. org/PAC. If you are not an ACA member, you can still help legislative efforts to advance the profession at www.acatoday. org/NCFAF. For more information on ACA advocacy efforts, please visit www.acatoday.org
Dr Keith Overland is a former president of the ACA. He is currently chairman of the legislative committee and serves on the ACAPAC. He also serves on the steering committee of the chiropractic summit. He has been honored as 2014 ACA chiropractor of the year and has been an advocate for a patients freedom of choice in health care for over 35 years. He has a practice in Norwalk CT and can be contacted at doco57(xfaol.com
John Falardeau is a SVP at the ACA. At ACA, John is responsible for developing policy and formulating strategy on matters relating to federal and private health care systems. John began his Washington career in 1985 as an aide on Capitol Hill serving two members of Congress from New York.
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