A Call to All C.A.s (And the docs who support them.)

I recently received a letter from the ACA (American Chiropractic Association) telling me that my membership will be revoked after August 31, 2008 unless I “associate” with a doctor who is a member. To be honest this was quite a shock. The ACA is a great resource for profession related news, publications and seminars etc. In all fairness to them, I was simply a “chiropractic assistant” member. I didn’t pay $600.00 per year, as do doctors or vendors who wish to join. However, since I am a chiropractic assistant, I joined as a chiropractic assistant. Someone within the organization realized that I was able to use the same resources that the doctors who pay $600.00 per year use, thought this wasn’t *fair* and brought it up with the membership VP and they decided to revoke my membership and that of any other chiropractic assistant who has a similar membership. They are now eliminating the chiropractic assistant fee, and plan to offer a “complimentary” membership to those C.A.s who wish to use their doctor’s memberships. This is frustrating to me, and I have begun a dialogue with other chiropractic assistants and even doctors and find that many feel as I do.  The ACA had just recently enlarged their chiropractic assistant’s resource area.

There are many chiropractic assistants who choose to be “career” C.A.s; that is, they may move from doctor to doctor at times, but stay within the profession.  There are others who feel that regardless of whom they work for, they want to have control over their professional memberships.  Is it right to have to rely on someone else for such an important resource? This could appear a bit discriminatory in nature as most C.A.s are female, while the majority of doctors are male. But I am sure that this was not the intent. There are C.A.s who work remotely often with more than one doctor, and so which doctor should provide her a membership? As I began to investigate I realized that there are many state chiropractic associations that have a similar structure. They, like the ACA, have great resources available for the C.A.s within their jurisdiction, but they limit the membership to doctors but allow their chiropractic assistants to use the benefits as an attached member. The disturbing part of this is that chiropractic assistants need to have the ability to obtain these resources on their own. Each C.A. needs to understand the rules and regulations of the profession independent of any doctor for whom they work. I am urging you all to do this. This is why I started this blog. Know your state’s rules and regulations so that you are compliant. Urge your doctor to be compliant with the rules and regulations of course, but most importantly, you do it! How can we be compliant if we are denied access to the resources? What if we are associated with a doctor whose dues lapse, or they decide they don’t want to join *that* association, or for some other reason are not a member. Simply put, we need to be able to have our own membership if they offer C.A. resources for anyone.

I have written a letter to the ACA, and have collected letters and signatures of support. My suggestion is to offer a standalone membership within any national or state organization that has chiropractic assistant benefits available. I proposed that the standalone membership fee be reasonable, but fair. We will not get referrals or have voting rights, but we will have the ability to use the resources, attend seminars and buy products at a reduced rate. I proposed something along the lines of a fee approximately ¼ of the doctor’s fees since our average salaries run at approximately ¼ that of the average doctor’s salaries.
I am still waiting to hear back from the ACA, and I have every confidence that they will in fact allow some form of standalone membership if they realize that we are serious about this. I am in the process of forming a committee of chiropractic assistants who are willing to work to see that chiropractic assistants get the benefits that we truly need with any organization that has C.A. resources available, at a fair price without the need to associate with a doctor. If you would like to help, whether to simply sign a letter of support, or in some other capacity, please contact me at practicalca@practicalpracticing.com and stay tuned to this site for more on this story.

And I will go one step further and urge all C.A.s to join and support your state and national associations where you have the opportunity. Stop by http://practicalpracticing.com/default_files/CAresources.htm as I will post an organization list that offers national benefits for chiropractic assistants. You can help by contacting your state’s association to verify the types of memberships that they offer, and I will add them to the list.

Thanks for all of the support! Please feel free to share your comments and thoughts on this story in the comments section.

Practically Yours,

the PracticalCA