Click here to download the transcript.
Click here to download the ACA Medicare 2021 pdf.
Click here to download the HR2654 Office Poster.
Click here to download the ACA_Cost Effectiveness of Chiropractic pdf.
Click here to download the ACA IssueBrief_Medicare_April2021 pdf.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Good afternoon. Um, my name is Justin Sprandel II, I’m a 39 year in practice chiropractic physician in Ohio. Today. I am going, uh, first of all, I want to thank ChiroSecure for inviting me on their show today. And, uh, I have talked previously regarding treating veterans in the community, uh, treated, we’ve talked about the opioid epidemic. And today I’m going to talk about the House Bill 2654, um, Medicare Reform Act. And let’s go to the next slide.
Okay. The, the bills is, uh, HR 26 54 is actually titled the chiropractic Medicare coverage modernization act. Next slide, please. This action step by the American chiropractic association is most important action step for Medicare beneficiaries seeking non-pharmaceutical chiropractic treatment in our profession. In my opinion, next slide. This is a bill introduced in the us house of representatives that will allow Medicare recipients to fully access chiropractic care, full scope. Medicare covers most services performed by chiropractic physicians when performed by MDs, DOs and physical therapists, restricted chiropractic treatment coverage has been a discriminary action for Medicare for the past 50 years. All we are requesting is to have coverage for chiropractic treatment that we are trained and authorized to do.
I attended a, the American chiropractic Everest, uh, Marion chiropractic advocacy day on may six, 2021. It was in my opinion was very positive step by the ACA. They were well organized. The ACA resources were just awesome. Um, I had four zoom, 20-30 minute video meetings with legal AIDS from three representatives. And one Senator. Uh, my take from the, from the meetings was they were very receptive to what we’re talking about. However, they don’t have any idea what we do. They don’t have any idea that we can, we can prevent the prescription re reliance. Um, so our, our big chore across the country in my opinion, is to educate. And when you educate our legislators and we need it, and I think the most, the second group is to educate the employers. All right, next slide, please. Now the, um, what is lost in all the conversation is that the opioid overdose deaths are surging in Ohio and across our nation during the months with COVID-19, the pandemic has exacerbated the opioid crisis, but nobody knows, or maybe nobody cares on August 14th, 2020, the AMA submitted an updated report.
It States that as the COVID-19 global pandemic continues, so does the nation’s opioid epidemic. Next slide, actually in February of 2021, the opioid overdoses were determined to be 30% higher or 29% higher in 20. Then before the epidemic. Now, a year ago in 2019, there was more than 70,000 lives lost to drug overdoses in 2019, according to the national Institute of drug abuse. Now, um, recently in here in Ohio, our attorney, Ohio attorney general David Yost, uh, made two interesting statements. I thought were interesting. Uh, the opiod epidemic, he States that the opiod epidemic claim moral Highlands in a three-month period in 2020 than any other time during the, the epidemic began, he stated that the opiate overdoses may have taken a back seat in our minds last year because of COVID-19, but make no mistake, Highlands are dying at a devastating rate because of opioid overdoses. And I think this is, um, I think it’s true in all the States nationwide. Um, so the opioid epidemic is increasing. However, the Medicaid, the Medicare system has continued to ignore the current health status, opioid prescription drug reliance of their beneficiaries, and they have ignored state and national guidelines recommend the use of non-pharmaceutical treatment for acute subacute and chronic pain and dysfunction.
Now, several of the guidelines and they state the federal drug administration, they state that none pharmaceutical therapies, including chiropractic complaint, important role in imaging pain for in managing pain, the centers of disease control and prevention stated that extensive evidence suggests some benefits of non-pharmaceutical and non opioid pharmaceutical treatments compared with long-term opioid therapy and with less harm us department of defense States that chiropractic management shows significant improvement and high patient satisfaction. The joint commission, hospitals, they that non-pharmaceutical strategies, including chiropractic have a role state attorney generals have stated that when patients seek treatment for chronic pain doctors should be encouraged to explore non opioid alternatives, including physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic care. Now the American board of family medicine States that for Medicare patients with back and or neck pain availability of chiropractic care reduces the number of primary care physician visits resulting in an annual savings of $83.5 million.
Next, next slide. Now, as we all know, Medicare is the basis of all third party payers across the country, whether you’re a member of a national or state association, not, we have to all work together to push this through. We have to start a grassroots course of action. Everybody needs to be involved. We need to contact legislators. We need to contact as many people as we can to educate them as to the benefit of what we do. Now. The ACA has great information that was provided to us during that the advocacy day and next slide, please. They included a patient flyer, an office poster. They had a four page, um, chiropractic common sense strategy for fighting opioid abuse. This is very awesome. Um, uh, F or PDF. They also have listed tremendous research research, uh, um, articles for us to use for the meaning. Uh, next slide please.
Uh, the other additional information they had, they had talking points, they had an issue brief, and they also had an awesome two page cost effective efficient option for Medicare patients. All right, next slide. Now I’m submitting an example of an email I sent to legislator last year. It was the same issue with a different number, but, um, legislators need to hear or see the story or know the story because based upon my conversations with the, with the four groups on the sixth, they didn’t have no idea what’s going on. And it’s important to show up, tell them what actually a true life story. But this patient was referred to me by a local pain management medical position. He was a 47 year old disabled male. He said chronic lower back pain for several, several years. He’s also been diagnosed with Ms. His past history was, um, medical history was just phenomenal.
He was prescribed Vicodin Percocet for 14 years. He’s said injection therapy. You said trigger point injections and epidurals. He was prescribed medical marijuana in 2019. Now in June of 2020, a spine stimulator with 16 leads has been, was surgically placed in his lumbar spinal region. A second spine stimulator had been recommended for a cervical spine, which was not, not completed yet. Um, I asked him how much benefit it has all these treatments been, and he says the treatment was minimal and it was very short-term benefit. Right? Next plate. Next slide, please. Now is that my understanding that these spine stimulators are about $66,000 a piece sure. Could have treated this patient for a lot less cost. Um, but it was what was bad is I, I was leery to adjust this, this patient and based upon no coverage with either Medicare or minute or Medicaid, I couldn’t help the patient because he had no other way of paying for our services.
And so I, well, this is a good case for a pain management is trying to, um, use it a pharmaceutical treatment of mine. I couldn’t use it because this patient in the way of paying for his bills. So, um, I’m sure he had a restart back to the spine stimulator and burn medications. Um, the story was they listened to this story very well. So anyway, this, this, I provide this to give you all an idea of, uh, what the send to these legislators, um, with, with emails is pretty good to send things to them. And, uh, the response has always been pretty well. I mean, they definitely responded to my emails. I have a tendency to be long on my emails anyway. Okay. Next slide. So anyway, our chiropractic solution is for the third-party payers, Medicare and Medicaid to acknowledge the treatment recommendations for national state groups and increased coverage for evidence-based non-pharmaceutical chiropractic treatment chiropractic treatment and acupuncture reduces and can eliminate reliance upon opioid, prescription medications, injections, and surgery, which prevents additional health problems, prevents drug addiction, and even experiencing life threatening situations.
All right, next slide please.
So our solution is every DC across the country needs to be engaged. Every local chiropractic district has to make this a priority. Every state association has to be involved. Every national association has to make this a primary focus of their associations. There I am in enrolled in two organizations, the American chiropractic association, which put together this program for us and the other, um, association is the foundation for chiropractic progress. They have just tremendous information. They have, they have white papers, they have Instagrams, they’ll do anything. He asked for them. Um, they have just, they have the most material that we can all use and we can do it on a local level. All right, next next slide. So, anyway, um, my, my presentation is kind of short and sweet this time, but basically my focus is to all of us has to be involved. We just can’t let another group take care of the situation. The more we get involved more, the more we get this done, um, it really will provide benefit to our Medicare recipients. So get involved if you have any questions, send it to me. And I thank you for your time today. You all have a good day.
Thank you.
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