http://www.twitter.com/acaonthehillSummer is often a time in Washington where the business of government seems to slow down as everyone starts to look forward to the August recess and dreads the oncoming heat and humidity.  However, this year is a change from years past, as not only has Washington pretty much been spared oppressive temperatures, but the Senate has decided to stick around most of August and the Trump Administration has issued a proposal, and a final regulation, that could very well shape healthcare policy for years to come.

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) received news recently that the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) discovered inappropriate Medicare payments to chiropractors between 2013-2016 caused by a delay on the part of CMS to implement claims processing edits that automatically deny non-covered services. A few media outlets picked up on the report, focusing on the payments, not surprisingly. But there’s more to this story. The OIG report actually found that CMS’s billing edits were largely successful in preventing improper payments, and that most of improper payments were made prior to CMS finally implementing its edits in 2014.

On June 19, the U.S. Department of Labor released a long-awaited final rule expanding the availability of alternative insurance plans that do not need to meet the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s benefit requirements.  The rule was handed down despite deep concerns from consumer advocates, state officials and physician groups, including the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). The rule will extend so-called “association health plans,” which allow insurance companies to skirt benefit requirements and other parts of the 2010 law.

*Member-Exclusive Content* A bill combining the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) seven community care programs easily cleared the Senate May 23 with a vote of 92-5. Included among the programs is the Veterans Choice Program, which allows veterans to seek care from private providers, including chiropractors. The bill also eliminates previous requirements for accessing outside services. While this is a promising development, the American Chiropractic Association will closely monitor resulting regulations and implementation in consideration of past issues chiropractors have experienced with the Veterans Choice Program.

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In her open letter to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Healthcare, ACA Senior Scientific Advisor Christine Goertz, DC, PhD, offers suggestions to NCCIH on how to meet some of today's pressing healthcare challenges and, in particular, how complementary and integrative health care can play a role. She writes, "We desperately need a healthcare delivery system 1) that is able to consistently provide evidence-based, patient-centered care to the right individual at the right time, 2) for which the patient care trajectory for chronic conditions begins with the safest, most conservative, effective option available and, 3) that empowers patients and providers with the knowledge and tools they need to make informed decisions that are deeply rooted in disease prevention and health promotion. Much work lies ahead in identifying how CIH practices can best contribute to this effort."