Excerpt: Chiropractors Significant Points
* Job prospects should be good; employment is expected to grow faster than average because of increasing consumer demand for alternative health care.
* Chiropractors must be licensed, requiring 2 to 4 years of undergraduate education, the completion of a 4-year chiropractic college course, and passing scores on national and State examinations.
* About 52 percent of chiropractors were self employed.
* Earnings are relatively low in the beginning but increase as the practice grows.
Employment
Chiropractors held about 53,000 jobs in 2006. Most chiropractors work in a solo practice, although some are in group practice or work for other chiropractors. A small number teach, conduct research at chiropractic institutions, or work in hospitals and clinics. Approximately 52 percent of chiropractors were self employed.
Many chiropractors are located in small communities. However, the distribution of chiropractors is not geographically uniform. This occurs primarily because new chiropractors frequently establish their practices in close proximity to one of the few chiropractic educational institutions. Current ConditionsChiropractors held about 53,000 jobs in 2006. Most chiropractors work in a solo practice, although some are in group practice or work for other chiropractors. A small number teach, conduct research at chiropractic institutions, or work in hospitals and clinics. Approximately 52 percent of chiropractors were self employed. Many chiropractors are located in small communities. However, the distribution of chiropractors is not geographically uniform. This occurs primarily because new chiropractors frequently establish their practices in close proximity to one of the few chiropractic educational institutions.Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos071.htm------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt:Chiropractic Malpractice Claims May Be Down Slightly, But DCs Should Still Remain Vigilant of Their Patients’ Needs and Rights Amid the cacophony of rising malpractice rates affecting so many health care practitioners, chiropractic remains a sea of calm. “While high-risk medical specialties are paying as much as $200,000 to $250,000 and more in premiums, doctors of chiropractic, practicing a noninvasive specialty, generally have rates lower than $5,000,” says Lawrence Wyatt, DC, DACBR, a member of the faculty at Texas Chiropractic College and author of the Handbook of Clinical Chiropractic Care (now in its second edition), who frequently testifies as an expert witness in chiropractic malpractice cases. “Rates for doctors of chiropractic have remained reasonably steady in the past few years,” agrees Louis Sportelli, DC, president of NCMIC Chiropractic Solutions, the nation’s largest provider of chiropractic malpractice coverage. “In fact, the number of malpractice cases has declined slightly.”Source: http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=1967-------------------------------------------------------------The Future of Chiropractic Revisited: 2005 to 2015http://www.altfutures.com/pubs/Future%20of%20Chiropractic%20Revisted%20v1.pdf-------------------------------------------------------------Excerpt:The central element of chiropractic is the practitioner's belief that the nervous system holds the key to maintenance of a healthy balance in the body. Practitioners believe that their manipulations of the spine can prevent disease and promote well-being. Doctors of chiropractic (DCs) believe that a patient's susceptibility to disease increases when homeostasis, or a healthy balance, in the body is disrupted by the misalignment of vertebrae. Chiropractors use gentle manual pressure to correct such misalignments, or subluxations. Chiropractors also use muscle massage and ultrasound stimulation of deep tissue. Although doctors of medicine, as represented by the American Medical Association (AMA), long have suggested that chiropractic is something that falls far short of medicine, in recent years anti-chiropractic rhetoric from the AMA has diminished significantly. Indeed, some medical doctors today grudgingly acknowledge that there definitely is a place for chiropractic, particularly in the treatment of chronic back and neck pain and headaches. For their part, most chiropractors unhesitatingly refer certain patients to medical doctors if they feel the latter are best equipped to deal with those patients' ailments. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there were approximately 50,000 active chiropractic licenses in the United States in 2000. Some of the DCs not currently in active practice on their own may teach, conduct research for chiropractic colleges, or work in hospitals. Chiropractors may be self-employed or salaried, with those self-employed usually earning more. According to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the average income in 2000 for all chiropractors, including self-employed, was about $81,500 after expenses. Median annual earnings of salaried chiropractors were $67,030 in 2000. A chiropractor's income may be influenced by a number of factors, including experience, characteristics, qualifications, and geographic location. Based on a poll conducted by the Gallup organization in the early 1990s, the ACA estimates that about 10 percent of the adult American population visits a chiropractor every year. Assuming that this figure has remained relatively static, that would mean that 27 to 28 million Americans use chiropractic services each year. The American Chiropractic Association reported more than 60,000 active chiropractic licenses in the United States in 2005. There were an estimated 42,083 chiropractic offices scattered throughout the United States employing approximately 130,548 people. Chiropractors reported combined revenues of almost $6.2 billion in 2005. Chiropractors located in California contributed $951.4 million, for 14.6 percent of the market. Other dominant states included New York with 2,684 practitioners; Florida (2,479); Pennsylvania (2,255); and New Jersey (1,824). Although nothing new in the chiropractic marketplace, some members of Congress introduced The Healthcare Truth and Transparency Act (H.R. 5688) in an effort to discredit chiropractors as non-medical physicians and suppress competition in the medical community once again. Other targeted health professionals included the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the American Podiatric Medical Association, and the American Optometric Association. Adding injury to insult, "àthe bill directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to bring charges against individuals who falsely claim to be medical doctors, and calls on FTC to identify instances where any State public policy has permitted health care providers to 'misrepresent' oneself as a medical doctor, an action which could serve as a direct attack against states recognizing DCs as chiropractic physicians." Thus, the ACA joined a coalition of non-medical doctors to counterattack the opposition, namely medical doctors, in an effort to either "modify" or strike (H.R. 5288) all together. Meanwhile, the AMA established its own coalition. The Coalition for Healthcare Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency (CHART) sought to ensure the bill became a law. The ACA anticipated the enactment of the new bill prior to the November 2006 elections. Despite earlier legislation that called for chiropractic care for U.S. veterans, there were only 30 out of 154 facilities across the United States that had a chiropractor on staff as of 2006. "Congress recognized these deficiencies in a series of statutes (including Public Law 108-170 and Public Law 107-135) that established a permanent chiropractic benefit within the VA health care system and authorized VA facilities to hire doctors of chiropractic to provide care for veterans; however, the implementation has been slow." Thus, newly introduced legislation (H.R. 5202) further directed the federal government to establish deadlines requiring chief VA medical facilities to have a chiropractor on staff at a minimum of 75 of the 154 facilities by 2008, and for the remaining chief facilities no later than 2010. The outlook for the chiropractic field was positive heading into the late 2000s. Treatments have become more accepted in the United States, and more Americans continue to prefer alternative health care to avoid drugs and costly surgery. Reports suggested 22.5 million people will seek chiropractic services in 2006 alone.Source: "Offices and Clinics of Chiropractors." Encyclopedia of American Industries. Gale,2008. Reproduced in Business and Company Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.:Gale Group. 2009. University of Texas At San Antonio, John Peace Library. San Antonio, TX. 27 May 2009
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