The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) recently announced that it has developed a template letter for members of the public who oppose the Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) policy change affecting the types of providers allowed to perform annual medical examinations for its youth and adult members.

For more than a year, the BSA has not allowed chiropractic physicians to perform annual evaluations. Medical doctors, doctors of osteopathic medicine, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants are all eligible to perform these exams. The template letter is available online.

ACA has sent two letters to BSA headquarters supporting the fact that DCs are qualified to perform annual physicals, voicing its concerns about the policy change and requesting that the previous policy be restored to recognize the state-authorized ability of doctors of chiropractic (DC) to provide annual exams to BSA.

The group’s decision was not supported by any evidence; in fact, chiropractic physicians performed these evaluations for BSA for more than 22 years prior to the change last year. Furthermore, many DCs are involved with BSA as volunteers, leaders or parents.

While ACA is doing its part to rescind this policy, support from the public is crucial. The new template letter is designed to be completed by individuals within the scouting community, such as parents of scouts, troop leaders, troop committee members or council leaders. ACA encourages members of the chiropractic community to inform others about the online template.

DCs and others within the chiropractic community are encouraged to contact BSA to voice their concern as well. A template letter for DCs, as well as BSA’s phone number and talking points, are available online.

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