As I get the opportunity to address you for the first time as President of the NCPA, I want to let you know how humbled I am to be entrusted with this important position and how excited I am to lead such a fantastic organization. Chiropractic in Nebraska is strong and healthy, and that is no accident. It results from the great leaders who came before and layed a strong foundation for us to build upon. Let us also not forget that one of the biggest reasons we are strong is our membership's quality and cohesiveness.  

Thank you to Dr. Murray for his tremendous leadership over the past two years. His dedication and initiatives set a high standard and made my transition into this role a smooth one. Building on his efforts, my primary focus for the next two years will be to continue enhancing communication within our membership. Our Board of Directors and staff are constantly working to make the lives of our members easier and better. We will continue our recent attempts to share that work with all of you and continue to work to open the lines of communication while ensuring we are listening to and addressing the membership's concerns. Please watch for opportunities to share your questions and concerns. I encourage you to interact with your board members, who are your representatives and are eager for your feedback. I also extend the opportunity for you to contact me personally at MedicareNebraska@ncpa.net any time if you have questions or concerns you don't feel are being addressed.

As stated earlier, chiropractic here in Nebraska is strong, a fact that becomes even more apparent when I have attended meetings in other states or visited with those from other states at national gatherings. I have heard the struggles of our profession nationally, and there are many. Fortunately, Nebraska has been insulated from issues many other states struggle with. We must avoid falling back on our successes, assuming our successes will continue, or taking what we have for granted. The work to maintain and enhance the strength of chiropractic in Nebraska is ongoing. Rest assured; I am committed to leading that effort over the next two years. 

While we will always have areas for improvement, we must be careful to avoid becoming so frustrated by what we want that we forget what we have. If we fail to stay united in moving our profession forward, we will almost certainly move backward. Our greatest strength is our cohesiveness, and we must not forget that. So, I encourage you to share your concerns, share in our successes, and continue to work together to improve our chiropractic environment in Nebraska. 

I look forward to working with all of you to make that happen over the next two years.

As the leaves turn and we enter the "Autumn of Opportunity," it is a perfect time to reflect on our recent achievements and provides an opportunity to look forward to the exciting prospects that lie ahead.

A Spectacular Convention

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended our annual convention in Kearney this past August. The speakers were top-notch, the facility was impeccable, and the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. For those who couldn't make it, we surveyed attendees to gather insights that will help shape our future events and initiatives. Soon, the survey will be sent to all members who were not in attendance. Your feedback is invaluable to us.

Regulatory Updates

The Nebraska Board of Chiropractic is updating regulations, including a proposed increase in online hours for license renewal—moving from the current six hours to twelve hours. These changes have not yet occurred, but we will notify you once they are in place. This proposal is a significant development that aligns well with our initiatives.

Expanding Our Online Continuing Education (CE) Library

The NCPA is actively working on creating an online CE library that will cover a wide range of topics. Our CE committee has already convened and is developing the initial programming choices, set to launch at the beginning of 2024. These changes will allow NCPA members to obtain their CE hours in a manner that works best for them. The best part? As an NCPA member, these courses will be available at no additional cost—they are included in your membership.

Legislative Watch

As we approach the legislative session beginning in January, our legislative committee will be vigilant in monitoring all bills that could impact chiropractic practice in Nebraska. Rest assured, we are committed to both protecting and advancing our profession.

Your Membership, Your Benefits 

Your NCPA membership is more than a subscription—it's a legacy in motion. The practice environment we have today was not only built by past leaders but continues to evolve through our collective efforts. With benefits like free CE courses and a voice in legislation, your membership is vital to ensure the future of chiropractic care in Nebraska.

As we navigate this “Autumn of Opportunity”, let's seize the moment to grow, learn, and shape a promising future for all NCPA members.

We have recently noticed that some doctors’ perspective on SecureCare is eroding. Twenty years ago, we had about 250 licensed doctors of Chiropractic in Nebraska. Today, there are over 800. The population of Nebraska has remained roughly the same over this period. Historically, Doctors in Nebraska were “organically grown”. Mostly the children of existing doctors who took on the family practice or started a new clinic with guidance from a senior family member. Today, we regularly credential doctors in their late 30’s, 40’s or even 50’s. These individuals, we suspect, are relocating to Nebraska due to the favorable practice environment here.

An important element of SecureCare’s success has always been the unwavering support of doctors. As the population of providers in Nebraska continues to grow, we sense that the historical understanding and support of our mission needs to be reinforced. With so many new providers without historical context it’s easy to see why there is a growing lack of clarity around SecureCare.

Below are some key elements of SecureCare’s value that positively impact doctors:

Reimbursement – Consistent track record of industry leading rates.

The new event space at the Younes Conference Center in Kearney made for an enjoyable atmosphere for all who attended. From the delicious food quality to the attentive staff, the venue is unparalleled! The session speakers offered a broad spectrum of topics, with applicable, ready to implement in practice lessons.

For special events, Thursday kicked off the convention with board meetings followed by the Brook Bowhay Memorial Golf Event held at Awarii Dunes Golf Course, which is a beautiful and challenging course south of Kearney. A Night of Magic with the Amazing Arthur and Friends was a blast for all ages on Friday evening. To finish out the weekend, Saturday's A Rockin' Social Evening featured the Omaha band, Happy Endings, who performed an upbeat collection of popular hits while members danced the night away.

During the annual membership meeting, Dr. Ronald Evans from Omaha, who recently passed was remembered in a moment of silence. Dr. Tim Luse was presented his Lifetime Member Award, and Dr. Robert Krugman was also honored but did not attend. Dr. Christopher Murray was recognized as the 2023 Chiropractor of the Year, due to his passion for the chiropractic profession and his commitment during his tenure as board president.

Overall, this was one of the best conventions to date based on the feedback both onsite and in the post-survey responses. We look forward to visiting Kearney again!

I wish I could start these reports by sharing how much money the Nebraska Chiropractors are donating to our PACs so that we can really go and move the dial with protecting our practice rights and expanding what we can do in our great state!

But unfortunately, we actually have less doctors donating than we did this time last year. In fact, we only have about 40 Chiropractors giving money monthly donations, yet we have around 800 Chiropractors in the state.

That tells me that our PAC team, and NCPA leaders need to do a better job explaining the importance of the PAC and why giving even $10 a month is worth every cent to you and your practice.

Personally, I never donated to the PAC before heading up the PAC committee three years ago. Mainly because I had no idea why it mattered or where the money went and how it was dispersed and so on. Once I was on the committee, my eyes were opened to truly how important a strong PAC is and how small we are versus the dentists, MDs, etc.

I think because our practice environment in Nebraska is so good compared to most other states, it's easy to take that for granted, but that can disappear faster than you'd imagine. Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, it takes money to get a seat at the table. 

If you have any questions at all about the PAC - how the money is used, why we need to use money to get some influence with our state legislators, how to be involved yourself, or any other questions, please don't hesitate to reach me at drwhite@sarpychiro.com, so I can answer those questions for you.

If you decide that donating to the PAC isn't for you then that's absolutely your right, but please first reach out to me or another PAC member to ask them some questions about how the PAC works so that you understand it, and then if you still decide not to donate then at the very least you'll understand what we are trying to achieve for all of the chiropractors in Nebraska now and in the future.

Currently, there is no big Medicare news, no big crisis, and no call to action, but this is a great opportunity to bring you all up-to-date on a few issues.

1) We continue our work to pass the Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act of 2023. This is the bill that would allow chiropractors to bill all services within our scope of practice to Medicare and be reimbursed. I continue to feel this is the most important issue facing chiropractic today. This pivotal bill would fix much of what is wrong with our Medicare coverage, it also may create positive change in commercial insurance as well. I am excited to say that all three of our Nebraska congressional delegation have signed on as cosponsors of this important bill. If you see Congressmen Bacon, Flood or Smith please thank them for their support of our profession. We continue to work to get Senators Fischer and Ricketts onboard on the Senate version and both have shown genuine interest in supporting this bill.

2) If you get an audit called a ZPIC, please reach out to me. These audits would typically come from a company named CoventBridge. The latest rounds of audits from them have been aggressive and I would prefer to get you help early rather than later in the process.

3) I would also strongly encourage that if you are audited, and asked to return money, you exercise whatever appeal rights that you have. I know it may seem easier to just pay what they want to make the problem go away, however, in reality paying them will typically not make the problem go away. By paying, you are agreeing that you were wrong and that will typically lead them to continue to dig once you have essentially “pleaded guilty”. Your notes may not have as many issues as it first seems and sometimes auditors may misunderstand notes, so often such, issues can be resolved in an appeal. You are afforded appeal rights for a reason; I highly suggest you take advantage of them and use your opportunity to attempt to explain your notes and have a second set of eyes review them.

As Dr. Conway said at our recent convention, things have progressed significantly for chiropractic with regards to Medicare. Notes have improved and scrutiny has decreased. I believe that our Nebraska chiropractors are, for the most part, doing a good job with their Medicare notes. I encourage you all to continue to work hard to follow the rules and improve your notes.

Feel free to reach out to me at MedicareNebraska@ncpa.net if you need help or have questions.

Change is coming to Medicaid. Effective January 1, 2024, we will have a new carrier! While United Healthcare and Nebraska Total Care will continue to serve our Nebraska Medicaid population through the Heritage Health program; a new player, Molina Healthcare, will be replacing Healthy Blue. 

SecureCare has worked hard since the announcement of Molina to build a relationship and it appears that effort has been successful. Based on discussions, we are very hopeful that the switch to Molina will bring an end to many of the challenges that chiropractic offices were having with Healthy Blue. At the same time, we want to assure you all that the challenges with Healthy Blue were not limited to chiropractic. The state received feedback from across the healthcare system that there were substantial issues with Healthy Blue during their time in Nebraska. 

We are hopeful this will be a positive change and will build substantially on the Medicaid environment in Nebraska that is among the best in the nation. Another state has recently reached out to us for information regarding our Medicaid as we have assisted several other states working toward improved benefits in the past. 

In light of our Medicare program being a model for the nation and to maintain our benefit levels, please remain diligent to avoid any abuse of the great environment we have in Nebraska. This not only helps the entire membership as a whole, but the chiropractic profession as we continue to show how chiropractic is beneficial to other state Medicaid programs.

Our last Board of Chiropractic (BOC) meeting was held on June 7, 2023, at the Nebraska State Office Building.

Board Membership: The current board members are:

Scott Misek, DC – Board Chairman

Heather Henrichs, DC – Vice Chair

Brian Stevens, DC – Secretary

David Henske – Public Member

Executive Orders update: Executive Order No. 22-08 which addressed a time-limited provisional license expired on June 30, 2023.

Regulations update: The Board of Chiropractic continues to draft changes to its current professional regulations. A special continuing education sub-committee was appointed to review and draft language regarding unprofessional conduct.  

NBCE Update: NBCE has almost completely transitioned to the new model of the Part IV examination. Additionally, they are investigating a new update in an effort to make the test more adaptive. Nebraska requires successful completion of Part IV or the SPEC exam as proof of competency.

FCLB Update: Dr. Henrichs and I attended the FCLB Annual Educational Congress in West Palm Beach, FL, in April. During the Annual Congress, Dr. Henrichs was elected as the new District 1 Director. We are planning to attend the District 1 meeting in Keystone, SD, in October. 

Next Meeting: The next quarterly BOC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 1, 2023, at 9:00am, at the Nebraska State Office Building. As always, the public is always invited to attend the meetings.

The most recent meeting of the Board of Health (BOH) was held on September 18, 2023, in Lincoln at the Nebraska State Office Building.

Updates were provided by Dr. Tim Tesmer, DHHS Chief Medical Officer, and a number of DHHS department heads.

Recently, there has been discussion and interest in tweaking the Credentialing Review program (commonly known as the ‘407 process’) with a goal of improving the system. Credentialing Review (CR) is the procedure through which applicants can request updates/expansion to current scopes of practice or create new health profession licensure. CR is highly recommended prior to introduction of any related legislation in the unicameral, although a positive CR outcome is not required for bill introduction.

A sub-committee of the Credentialing Review Committee, of which I am a member, met on August 9 and September 5, to discuss potential changes in the Credentialing Review process. Initial discussion of this group indicated that regulatory change would be adequate to implement the desired changes in the process.

Also, a working group to study the Credentialing Review process was formed by the Nebraska Medical Association (NMA) and they met on August 23 at the NMA offices in Lincoln. I attended as a liaison between the BOH and the NMA. The group consisted primarily of government relations individuals representing a broad range of health professions, many of which had sought to expand their scopes of practice through the Credentialing Review process in recent years. Dr. Tim Tesmer, DHHS Chief Medical Officer, and Lindsy Braddock, Administrator for Professional Licensure, were present. Former Senator Don Wesley, the original author of LB407 in 1985, was also present. Consensus was that statutory change was necessary to implement the desired changes.

The final BOH meeting for this year is scheduled for Monday, November 13, 2023, in Lincoln at Bryan East Hospital, at which time, my second year as chair will be completed.



Should you have any comments or questions regarding the BOH, my email is dougvanderbroek@gmail.com.

Marketing chiropractic to a wider audience remains the top initiative to raise public awareness of the many benefits of chiropractic care. The programs and sponsorships we support are vetted on how great the impact will be for the cost and reach.

The NCPA has been featured many times this summer on social media with our partner organizations, such as our new monthly video Trivia Tuesday series with the Nebraska School Activities Association. We offer fun facts and tidbits about general health and nutrition topics.

Additionally, chiropractic was promoted through a combined radio and Google Ad campaign in July. The radio ads ran 833 times with over 278,500 impressions, and the Google Ad had almost 1,200 users clicking through to the NCPA website to learn more about the importance of spine health.

We have recently renewed our sponsorship of Chadron State College, bringing our college support back in the western part of the state. Our other college sponsorships include the University of Nebraska- Kearney and Husker Athletic Partners. These programs have large audiences at live events and over the radio, which provide great exposure for chiropractic.

Fall is usually one of our busier times with many outreach programs, activities and events to attend. Here are the most recent and upcoming happenings:

Legislation championed by the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) to increase Medicare coverage of chiropractic services is gaining traction in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. As of September 20, House bill H.R. 1610 has gained 114 cosponsors from 40 U.S. states and territories. Senate bill S. 799 has eight cosponsors. In order to further advocate for these bills and encourage other lawmakers to sign on, ACA will host Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill during the association’s annual ACA Engage conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C., January 24-27, 2024. Registration for Engage 2024 is open at acatoday.org/engage, and a full conference schedule is available.

The newly established ACA Health Policy Fellowship provides an opportunity for ACA members to develop an understanding of current issues related to health policy, while increasing ACA’s capacity to contribute to policymaking processes at the national level. The program develops future ACA health policy leaders who want to participate in the process of influencing and shaping coding policy in the United States.

ACA will also promote chiropractic care during National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM) in October. This annual observance helps to raise public awareness of the importance of musculoskeletal health and the benefits of chiropractic care and its natural, whole-person, patient-centered and drug-free approach to health and wellness.

The 2023 theme for NCHM is “Chiropractic: Relieve, Restore, Resume.” The campaign will bring awareness to the prevalence and impact of chronic pain and the importance of non-drug approaches such as chiropractic services for safe and effective pain management. During NCHM 2023, chiropractors will raise awareness of chronic pain and chiropractic’s evidence-based, patient-centered, non-drug approach, encouraging those who have been sidelined by musculoskeletal pain to consider chiropractic care as a way to relieve their pain, restore function, and resume the activities that matter most.

ACA’s NCHM toolkit provides a range of resources to assist doctors in promoting NCHM, including social media graphics and a sample press release. It is available at acatoday.org/NCHM. ACA will share information throughout the month on HandsDownBetter.org, ACA’s consumer resource for healthy living information, and on social media. @HandsDownBetter on Instagram is ACA’s newest social media account, designed to bring healthy living and wellness information to a broader audience. Follow along for healthy living tips, chiropractic facts and more information about NCHM 2023.

The following members have joined since Spring 2023:

Emmanuel Ajayi, Student

Emmett Black, Student

Kariden Briggs, Student

Christian Busby, Student

Kelly Conn, DC

Sarah Greenwald, Student

Chase Hall, Student

Miguel Hernandez, Student

Macy Hill, Student

Payton Rinkol, Student

Ryan Rose-Hancock, Student

Emma Schnakenberg, Student

Dylan Steffens, Student

Braydon Williams, Student

Rylan Willis, Student

SPRING 2024

March 7-10, 2024

Embassy Suites La Vista

La Vista, Nebraska