LATEST HEADLINES Headline News and Press Releases ACA Announces Proposed Settlement with Humana New Research 2006 Research Summaries Online CE Spotlights ChiroCredit.com Announces over 500 hours of Online Chiropractic CE Couses Available Chiropractic Board Proposed Rules Florida Board Proposes 6 Rule Changes - Take a moment and put in your input Specialty Certifications Childhood Developmental Disorders ACA Announces Proposed Settlement with Humana Arlington, Va. (Aug. 16, 2006) — Humana has agreed to a class action settlement resolving claims on behalf of chiropractors and other health care providers in Solomon v. Anthem, et. al., pending before Judge Frederico Moreno of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The ACA participated, through its counsel, in the settlement discussions and is a signatory to the proposed class action settlement agreement. If approved by the Court, Humana will pay $3.5 million to fund payments to class member chiropractors and other health care providers as well as fees and costs advanced by class counsel. Plaintiffs in the Solomon action recently filed a motion seeking to add the ACA as a named plaintiff in the Solomon case and requesting that ACN Group, Inc. and United Healthcare Services, Inc. be added as defendants. The case against ACN, United Healthcare Services and all remaining defendants is still pending. In addition to the cash fund described above, terms of the proposed settlement agreement with Humana include: Changes in Humana’s business practices, intended to make its claims editing process more transparent and reduce confusion and disagreement over payments. Online information provided by Humana to help providers understand its payment decisions. More options for chiropractors and other health care providers to challenge Humana payment decisions in the future, if necessary. Independent external reviews to resolve billing disputes. The appointment of an ACA representative to a newly formed Humana health care provider advisory committee, which will provide a means of direct communication on issues and concerns. “We are extremely pleased that Humana has agreed to compensate chiropractors and other non-MD providers for claims that were previously and wrongly denied,” commented ACA President Richard Brassard, DC. “More importantly, however, we are heartened that Humana has committed to improving its business practices in the future and are hopeful that other networks and insurance companies will follow suit. Doing so can only benefit the nation’s health care consumers, who also deserve fair treatment and reimbursement.” TOP 2006 Research Summaries Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine and use among children in South Australia J Paediatr Child Health. 2006 Sep;42(9):538-43. Aim: To determine the use of complementary and alternative medicines and therapies (CAM) and common treatment modalities in children. This is a cross-sectional, population-based survey of 2985 adult and 911 children aged 15 years or less, conducted in South Australia in Spring 2004. The outcome measures are CAM use in children in the previous 12 months. Overall, the 12-month prevalence of CAM use in children was 18.4% (95% confidence interval 15.9-21.0). A wide variety of CAM modalities were used by children including ingestible therapies (33%), chiropractic (34%) and massage (20%). Common reasons for use of CAM were to prevent illness or to maintain health (39%) and for musculoskeletal conditions (22%), respiratory problems (20%) and skin complaints (18%). There was little difference in the use of CAM treatment modality across child ages. Approximately one in five children used CAM in the past 12 months in South Australia. Our findings further highlight the importance of increasing public awareness about the need to inform doctors and primary health-care providers of CAM use in children. Health professionals working with children should ask parents about their children's use of CAM. There is a need for further research examining the safe and judicious use of CAM in children. The Research Abstract of the Month is bought to you by Dean Smith, DC, PhD. TOP ChiroCredit.com Announces over 500 hours of Online Chiropractic CE Couses Now Available (Rocky Hill, CT) www.ChiroCredit.com, the leading provider of Continuing Education Programs by Distanced Based Learning is proud to announce that they have 587 hours of Online Continuing Educaiton Programs for Chiropractors to choose from in over 40 topics. "We have responded to the needs of the Chiropractic profession, providing high quality, clinically relevent continuing education programs offered in a cost effective distance based learning format" stated Paul Powers, DC, CEO. "We continue to listen to our site users and respond by adding topics and content that practicing DC's want. Doctors want more downloadable courses that Doctors can download and view offline and then return for the online component and we have increased live seminars by telephone conference calls to meet that need as well." Amongst the most recent additions to the vast online catalogue of courses are: Nutrition 123 - Nutritional Support for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Nutrition 122 - Nutritional Support for Alzheimer’s disease AIDS 108 - HIV and AIDS Update: Caring for a person with HIV and AIDS AIDS 107 - Information for Health Care Workers AIDS 106 - HIV Facts and Information Wellness 102 - The role of exercise and physical fitness in the management of obesity and overweight Wellness 101 - Epidemiology, etiology and background on obesity Click here to go to ChiroCredit.com and take Courses now TOP Florida Board Proposes 6 Rule Changes - Take a moment and put in your input Chiropractic Rule Changes Proposed by the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine Important Notice In an effort to keep you aprised about Proposed Rule Changes that may affect your practice so you may be able to provide input to the process, we want you to be aware that he Florida Board has 7 Proposed Changes that are currently in the public comment period. This is your opportunity to provide input to the process. Here is a summary of the rules. 1. 64B2-13.004 Continuing Education Summary: This rule change has two issues. First, the rule change will require that of your 40 hours of CE, in addition to hours in risk management, six (6) hours of the forty (40) shall be in the area of record keeping/documentation and coding; and two (2) hours of the forty (40) must be in the area of ethics. Second, the rule will require that when attending a seminar, each time you enter or exit the meeting room you will have to have your attendance certified by the courses registrar. 2. 64B2-13.0045 Continuing Education Course Required for Initial Licensure, Renewal, or Reactivation This rule change requires simply cleans up the language requiring AIDS/HIV course for initial license renewal. 3. 64B2-15.001 Deceptive and Misleading Advertising Prohibited; Policy; Definition This rule change will recognize the International Academy of Clinical Neurology as a Chiropractic Specialities recognized by the Board. 4. 64B2-16.0075 Citations This rule change involves if you don't not meet your continued educaiton requirements. The Board is removing language that would allow up to 6 months to make up the hours. The proposed rule would also change the fines associated with failure to complete your continuing education requirements. Currently, failure to complete less than 10 hours resulted in a $500 fine and this rule change would change it to "failure to complete less than 20 hours" results in a fine of $2500. The existing rule states failure to complete 10 or more hours results in a $1000 fine. They are change that to read "failure to complete 21 or more hours" results in a fine of $5000. 5. 64B2-17.006 Retention of Chiropractic Records; Time Limitations This rule change adds the language that a Chiropractor who "places his licenses in a retired status" must retain records for 2 years. It also specifies that Chiropractors in active practice must retain patient records for four year. 6. 64B2-18.0075: Direct Supervision of Registered Chiropractic Assistants This rule change adds language the direct supervision of a registered chiropractic assistant can occur under the direction of a licensed certified chiropractic physician’s assistant. If you would like to make a comment on any of these proposed rule changes, here is how to do it. Go to the following Florida Rule Making webpage (cut and paste it into your browser): http://www.flrules.com/notice/result.asp?string=k&ruleno=&keyword=chiropractic&page=1 A list of the Proposed Board rules comes up. To make a comment, click on the rule number and a page comes up with more information. There is a button for "make your comment". If you've never made a comment before, you need to click on the button near the top of the page that says "subscribe". It only requires your name and email address to subscribe so it takes but a minute to subscribe so you can make comments. If you wish to view the exact text of the rule being modified, click on the html link next to "Notice Files" on the page. TAKE PART IN THE PROCESS SO YOUR OPINION IS HEARD! TOP Specialty Certification: Childhood Development Disorders In the past two decades, we have witnessed an explosion in the diagnosis of neurobehavioral disorders, including ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism. This four course series emphasizes hands on training in the use of specific assessment tools and treatment protocols. After completing these programs, you will feel confident to use these tools. None of the assessment or treatment protocols will involve the use of any specialized equipment of any kind. Many of the treatments and exercises can be either taught to patients for home use or can be done in the office under supervision. These courses will be taught by Robert Melillo, DC, DABCN, the author of the acclaimed textbook Neurobehavioral Disorders of Childhood - An Evolutionary perspective. Dr. Melillo has over two decades of clinical experience in the treatment of Childhood Disorders. Please Click here to view a brochure with more details and registration information. If the link does not work, please cut and paste the following into your browser and click go: http://www.chirowire.com/adhd.pdf 9/15 - 9/17/2006 ADHD I: 930 Milan, Italy 9/29 - 10/1/2006 Autism 980 San Francisco, CA 10/20 - 10/22/2006 Dyslexia 981 San Francisco, CA 10/27 - 10/29/2006 Autism 980 Minneapolis, MN 11/17 - 11/19/2006 ADHD II: 931 Milan, Italy 12/8 - 12/10/2006 Dyslexia 981 Minneapolis, MN TOP SUBSCRIBE NOW! SUBSCRIBE NOW! Sign up below for our FREE Chiropractic Headline Newsletter! Enter email address: Email address: Click here to view archive of prior issues HOME | SUBMIT NEWS | CONTACT US ©2003, ChiroWire.com All rights reserved.