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The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) today announced that it has rolled out the pilot phase of its patient advocacy network enabling an initial group of nearly 400 doctors of chiropractic to introduce their patients to a specially-designed Internet portal. This preliminary phase will ensure the network’s full functionality prior to its official launch on Jan. 5, 2009.

The advocacy network is one piece in an ambitious campaign to mobilize chiropractic patients and supporters in a coordinated effort to lobby Congress and the new Obama administration in support of Americans' expanded access to services provided by doctors of chiropractic.  The national grassroots campaign will utilize modern electronic methods to quickly and effectively deploy chiropractic’s voice when needed on Capitol Hill. 

In making the announcement to ACA’s House of Delegates, association President Glenn Manceaux, DC, said the best way to ensure a positive outcome for chiropractic in national health care and Medicare reform is to mobilize the grassroots power and influence of chiropractic patients. 

“Strengthening the voice of chiropractic will positively impact not only our patients, but all aspects of our profession,” Dr. Manceaux said. “ACA recognizes that there are many stakeholders in the profession: practitioners and their staff members, students, faculty, product and service vendors, trade media, and especially, our patients. Using ACA’s advocacy network, we hope to engage as many of these groups as possible because each has a constituency that responds uniquely to its respective call to action.

“To ensure that the profession’s goal of full-scope inclusion becomes a reality, ACA is not only providing leadership to this initiative but is also collaborating with those organizations involved in the Chiropractic Summit,” he continued.

All doctors of chiropractic will receive special instructions and information about ways they and their patients can participate in the campaign via the January issue of ACA News. Further, the ACA will promote the program through ongoing conference calls with state chiropractic associations, and in January will host a series of teleseminars open to all doctors of chiropractic to share additional information and answer questions. ACA officials assure doctors that data collection efforts will be fully HIPAA compliant and that patient information will not be shared with any third parties.

Association leaders laid the groundwork for this project nearly two years ago when the House of Delegates approved a new association management system, capable of housing a national database of patient contact information that can be matched with individual members of Congress.  The patient mobilization campaign was developed over the last several months by the ACA Board of Governors, Legislative Commission, and Political Action Committee (PAC) Board. Details were finalized during a joint Legislative Commission-PAC meeting at ACA headquarters Nov. 14-15, 2008.

Watch ACA publications and the association’s Web site for more information as it becomes available.