"Take me to the magic of the moment ...
On a glory night ...
Where the children of tomorrow dream away ...
In the wind of change ..."
—Scorpions: "Winds of Change," 1991.

As I write this, I have just heard the news that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized a proposed rule that will eliminate patient reimbursement for x-rays referred by a chiropractor and ordered by a radiologist or other nontreating physician. DCs will still have the ability to refer the patient to a treating physician and that physician can order the x-rays, but the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has vowed to continue fighting the policy change.

A few years ago, I would have thought that was the end of it—DCs are doomed by a roadblock in obtaining x-rays to better diagnose patients. Now I'm not so sure. In my opinion, the profession has changed, and now DCs with different philosophies are banding together when necessary. I wouldn't be surprised at all if DCs of all stripes did so to protest the CMS decision and achieved some kind of reversal. We've seen this over and over in the past couple of years. The most recent example occurred when—after the chiropractic profession banded together in protest—UnitedHealthcare issued a stay on its policy restricting chiropractic care for adolescents, children, and patients with headaches.

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Change. We have seen quite a bit of it in chiropractic over the past couple of years. A 2-year Medicare Demonstration Project ended this year. The project will hopefully convince Congress to enact permanent legislation to reimburse DCs within Medicare for common services beyond manual manipulation of the spine to correct a subluxation. We've seen the profession come together in the form of association mergers in states such as New Jersey and Michigan. These events were beneficial to the profession, and I hope to see more chiropractic groups decide that they are stronger when they work together in promoting chiropractic.

Chiropractic product suppliers have also undergone change, with Hygenic Corp acquiring Performance Health last year, and more recently, Foot Levelers acquiring FootMaxx.

Chiropractic Products magazine has also undergone changes over the years, most recently this year in becoming the only all-product-focused magazine in the profession. Look for that exclusive all-product coverage to continue into 2008 as we offer the most in-depth chiropractic product coverage you will find.

Daryl Lubinsky