Palmer officials in Washington, D.C., from left: Dr. Robert Percuoco,
Dr. Dennis Marchiori, Dr. Kevin Cunningham and Board members
Dr. Ervin Malcheff (next to U.S. Representative Dave Loebsack—
D-IA), Ken Koupal, Dr. Charles Keller and Dr. Paul VanDuyne. |
For their November 2011 meeting, the Palmer Board of Trustees
and members of the administration met in Washington, D.C.
They set aside several days to visit legislators on Capitol Hill
representing Iowa, California and Florida, and discuss pending
legislation affecting chiropractic, along with topics of concern for
chiropractic educators. These meetings are already bearing fruit
in terms of follow-up meetings with the legislators to discuss
particular bills, as well as letters written on behalf of Palmer to
advance legislation favorable to chiropractic.
“The meetings in Washington clearly demonstrated how important
Palmer College is to the future of chiropractic,” says Chancellor
Dennis Marchiori, D.C., Ph.D. “We met with staff from the ACA,
ICA and ACC to ensure that our efforts coordinated with their
on-going political agendas. In meeting with our legislators, we
were told that Palmer is the first chiropractic college ever to
canvass Capitol Hill with a full board and administrators. There
was a real sense of purpose and feeling that we were changing
hearts and minds in favor of chiropractic. So now, in addition to
our local and state legislative visits, we plan to visit Washington
regularly to inform politicians of chiropractic and Palmer College.”
The Board members and administrators split into three groups for
meetings with legislators, including the campus presidents who
met with legislators representing their respective states to discuss
particular bills of interest in Iowa/Illinois, California and Florida.
The group also toured the National Naval Medical Center, led by
trustee William Morgan, D.C., who heads the chiropractic clinic at
this prestigious facility—also known as “the president’s hospital.”
“The purpose of these meetings was to build relationships and
make legislators aware of pending legislation that advances the
chiropractic profession and ask for their support,” says Palmer’s
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Robert Percuoco, D.C. “We
did our homework beforehand by working with the ACA, ICA
and ACC to learn about specific legislation. We also reviewed the
work of those legislators who had supported favorable legislation
and advanced our cause in Congress.”
A number of bills were discussed during the meetings, but major
items of interest included the following:
HR 664: A bill introduced by Representative Gene Green
(D-Texas) to include D.C.s in the U.S. Public Health Service
Commissioned Corps, which is comprised of approximately
6,000 well-trained, highly qualified public health professionals
dedicated to delivering the nation’s public health promotion and
disease prevention programs, and advancing public health science.
HR 409: Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL) has introduced this
bill to provide TRICARE beneficiaries in the Department of
Defense healthcare system with access to chiropractic care.
HR 531: Representative Bruce Braley (D-IA) has introduced this
bill to create a new national loan repayment program including
chiropractic college graduates who agree to practice in an area
designated as a “health profession shortage area” or an area
designated as having a shortage of “frontline care services.”
HR 2117 and S. 1297: These bills were introduced to repeal
an administrative interpretation of “State Authorization” and
the “Federal Definition of a Credit Hour,” which has been tied
directly to Title IV funding (student loans).
State Authorization requires any educational institution that does
business in a state, including offering instruction on the ground,
online, or through correspondence education, recruiting students
or advertising programs in that state, to be authorized by the
state to conduct their business. Authorization varies from state
to state and, in most cases, comes with a fee. The unintended
consequence of this legislation is for Palmer College to become
licensed in any state where the College has set up preceptorships
(47 states) and/or recruits prospective students (50 states),
which would involve considerable cost and staff time.
The unintended consequence of conforming to a Federal
Definition of a Credit Hour is for Palmer to restructure course
credit hours and billing practices per a federally defined credit
hour. Palmer presented a case to the legislators to support the
repeal bills.