Sports physicals by chiropractors is about parents’ choice, says Chiropractic Association executive

WIAA currently does not allow chiropractors to do physical but a bill could change that.

A Wisconsin Assembly committee has moved a bill forcing the WIAA to accept physicals done by chiropractors into the full assembly.

Several medical organizations have testified against the bill. The one for it? The Wisconsin Chiropractic Association. 

Executive Director John Murray says it’s about personal freedom.

“Parents want to have choices in terms of what kind of health care professionals they go to,” he said, adding that the WIAA used to accept physicals done by chiropractors.

After failing to convince the WIAA to allow chiropractors to do physicals once again, the association lobbied for it in Madison.

Murray says the argument that chiropractors aren’t trained enough doesn’t fly and that chiropractors are adequately trained in other parts of the body to perform exams to keep the student-athlete safe. That’s a notion hospitals and other medical groups dispute.

“(Chiropractors get) 4,500 hours total training,” he said. “They are physician-level providers. 

“The focus of chiropractic training tends to be more muscular-skeletal but they do receive training on cardio-vascular.”

Murray does not believe this is a partisan issue and said they have strong support in the legislature to get the bill passed.

“That committee vote was deceiving, making it look like it was a partisan issue,” he said. “But that’s not what we’re hearing. We think we have strong support in both parties.”