Reflecting on the Past Year

By ACA President Robert C. Jones, DC, APC

It’s hard to believe how quickly a year goes by! Over the past 12 months, I have had the honor of serving as ACA president and with that the privilege of meeting many ACA members. Through our collective efforts as an association, I’m pleased to report that our voice is stronger than ever, thanks in large part to the overall health of ACA and because of the real progress we have made.

Our work has created tangible support for chiropractic in Medicare through H.R. 3654, the Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act.  Wherever I travelled, there was unanimous consent for parity within Medicare for the chiropractic physician. We’re closer than ever to providing Medicare patients with non-narcotic, non-opioid options for treating pain and neuromusculoskeletal biomechanical dysfunction in a manner that is consistent with the top of our education—just like every other physician-level provider in Medicare.

Every day, chiropractic care is becoming less of an alternative option or “last option” and more of a first choice for patients, and this is the result of ACA’s commitment to collaboration with other professions, evidence-based practices and integration into present and evolving healthcare delivery systems. It’s because we put patients first.

In the past year, ACA furthered its footprint in TRICARE by having, for the first time, a House and Senate bill introduced simultaneously. We expanded content in Learn ACA, an online, distance-learning platform where our profession’s greatest minds can pass on their knowledge to members. And ACA member Christine Goertz, DC, PhD, was appointed to a three-year term as chair of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors, established in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act to fund research to help patients, caregivers, and health practitioners make evidence-based, patient-centered healthcare decisions.

Internally, ACA has enjoyed yet another year of financial stability and membership growth. There was a time when that wasn’t always the case.  The unity cultivated between ACA’s House of Delegates (HOD) and the Board of Governors has culminated in plans for the next several years to continue our progress. Now our sights are set much higher! Our HOD as well as ACA’s vast network of dedicated volunteers who serve on committees, task forces, boards, student chapters and groups are efficient, effective and diverse, and it’s already paying off.

Our voice not only is stronger, it is THE voice of chiropractic in the United States, and it’s more powerful than it has ever been.