Requires the availability of and reimbursement for chiropractic care under the workers' compensation law to be provided on the same basis as care by a physician

BILL NUMBER:S3681

Title of bill

An act to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to chiropractic care

Purpose or general idea of bill

This bill would end years of the most blatant discriminatory regulation against the consumers of chiropractic. Doctors of chiropractor have been paid one flat fee for all treatment services rendered to an injured worker for 31 years while all other providers including non-doctor providers are paid for virtually every service they perform. Doctors of Chiropractic are mandated by statute to provide the same level of care to an injured worker as that of a private patient but are not reimbursed for the services. Doctors of Chiropractic are given only a flat "limited office visit" fee. No other state has a separate and distinct Workers' Compensation fee schedule/for Doctors of Chiropractic. Doctors of Chiropractic are not even reimbursed for a main staple of their practice, spinal adjustments. (AKA spinal manipulation). This policy forces health care consumers to consult additional providers for these services. This legislation would recognize that chiropractors provide a variety of services and to clarify that the workers' compen- sation system must pay for the individual modalities employed by chiro- practors in rendering primary health care services to injured workers.

Summary of specific provisions

Amends the Workers' Compensation Law to provide that the Workers' Compensation Board must reimburse chiropractors for individual services and modalities lawfully rendered by chiropractors in treatment of an injured worker. Section 4 sets forth the effective date of this amend- ment.

Justification

In rendering care, chiropractors, like all other primary care practitioners, engage in a number of individual diagnostic and treatment services and modalities. Most other primary care providers are compensated by the Workers' Compensation System for each discrete service rendered in diagnosing and treating injured workers. For exam- ple, both the medical and physical therapy fee schedule under Workers' Compensation is a number of pages long, listing and compensating the full range of individual medical services employed in caring for injured workers. Although Workers' Compensation ostensibly recognize the panoply of chiropractic services, the fee schedule confines payment to office visits. However, there is no recognition that a variety of individual chiropractic modalities are routinely employed in accurately diagnosing and treating injured workers. This bill recognizes the full scope of chiropractic services and directs the Board to pay for individual diag- nostic and treatment services and modalities rendered.

Prior legislative history

2005-2012 - Died in Labor Committee.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

January 1, 2014.