HD19 - Feasibility and Appropriateness of Establishing a Board of Chiropractic in the Commonwealth of Virginia

  • Published: 1993
  • Author: Department of Health Professions
  • Enabling Authority: House Joint Resolution 26 (Regular Session, 1992)

Executive Summary:
House Joint Resolution Number 26 of the 1992 Session of the Virginia General Assembly requested the Board of Health Professions to study the feasibility and appropriateness of establishing a board of chiropractic in the Commonwealth. The Resolution stipulated that the Board should include an examination of other states' structures for the regulation of chiropractors and the possible improvements in effectiveness and efficiency of regulation that such a separate board could have.

Chiropractors are licensed in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. In all but four jurisdictions (District of Columbia, Kansas, Illinois, and Virginia) the profession is regulated by a board of chiropractic which is independent of the regulation of medical and osteopathic physicians.

In Virginia, chiropractors are licensed by the Board of Medicine, a body comprising eleven medical doctors (MDs), one osteopathic physician (DO), one podiatrist (DPM), one clinical psychologist, one chiropractor (DC), and two citizen members. In addition to regulating medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, chiropractic, and clinical psychology, the Board of Medicine also licenses or certifies physical therapists (PTs) and physical therapy assistants (PTAs), occupational therapists (OTs), respiratory therapists (RTs), certified radiologic technology practitioners (CRTPs), physician's assistants (PAs) and correctional health assistants, and (jointly with the Board of Nursing) nurse practitioners (NPs). The Board also certifies optometrists who are authorized to prescribe therapeutic drugs. No other state board of medicine in the United States is known to conduct a regulatory program of this breadth.

On June 30, 1992, the Virginia Board of Medicine licensed or certified 31,891 health care providers, including 818 doctors of chiropractic. Of these licensed chiropractors, 464 maintained residency in the Commonwealth.