Join me at the chiropractic event of the year in Texas. Chiro Texpo ’16, June 10-12 at the Arlington Convention Center, truly has something for everyone. Our theme is " Raise Your Game" – for you, your staff, your practice, the patients you care for and the chiropractic profession in Texas. Check out this YouTube video. I’m so excited about Chiro Texpo ’16 returning to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Plan to be there ... register online, or complete and return the registration form or call the TCA office at (512) 477-9292. Also, make your hotel reservations online at the Sheraton Arlington.

The Texas Chiropractic Association is hosting a number of one-day seminars at venues across Texas in 2016. Attending TCA education events provides your state association with the resources for legislative, legal and public relations initiatives to advance the profession we care about so much.

The Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners adopted amendments to Rule 73.4, and 75.1. Now licensees and facility owners "shall maintain a current electronic mail address with the board" and "shall notify the board, by electronic mail, of any change in the electronic mailing address within five (5) business days of the change."

The Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners proposes amending Rule 78.6, concerning Required Fees and Charges. The proposed amended rule is necessary in order to remove an obsolete reference and update the rule concerning application of monetary funds to outstanding balances.

State Medicaid agencies must revalidate the enrollment of all providers in state Medicaid programs. The original re-validation deadline was March 24, 2016, and was extended by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow states additional time to process provider applications. For Texas Medicaid, this means all providers, including ordering and referring providers, who have not met all PPACA revalidation requirements must do so through re-enrollment by September 24, 2016. To avoid disenrollment on September 25, 2016, and possible disruption in claims payment, providers should submit a re-enrollment application to the state or TMHP today.

KineticXer®, an ergonomically designed tool, is making its U.S., debut and Texas doctors have the opportunity to become the first certified KineticXer Practitioners at a two-day, 16-hour seminar with KineticXer founder David Lopez, DC, PT, on April 2-3 in Euless. At this hands-on seminar, you will learn the following techniques: neural release, vertebral meniscoid release, muscle activation and tissue regeneration.

The largest prescriber of clozapine to Medicaid recipients in the United States, a 72-year-old Illinois-based psychiatrist, has been sentenced to nine months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $600,000 and perform 120 hours of community service for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical industry kickbacks in exchange for prescribing and promoting antipsychotic medicines to thousands of indigent elderly patients in Chicago-area nursing homes and hospitals. Last year, the MD pleaded guilty to one count of violating the federal Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute.

The FDA has reached a settlement with the manufacturer of the prescription fish oil product Viscera. The settlement brings an end to the litigation and will permit the drug maker to promote off-label usage of Viscera as long as its statements are "truthful and non-misleading." Many observers see the start of a major shift away from strict FDA regulation of drugs.

By a vote of 94-1, the Senate passed a bill to fund treatment for opioid addiction for prisoners, increase opioid abuse prevention efforts, and expand the availability of the anti-overdose drug naloxone (Narcan). Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released its final guidance on opioid prescribing. The guidance, although voluntary, is perhaps the strongest federal statement on opioids to date. The ACA applauded the CDC for working to stem the nation's opioid overuse epidemic with its newly issued Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.

A lawsuit filed by a physician against the North Carolina Physicians Health Program (NCPHP) claims loss of significant and potential earnings as well as public humiliation, irreparable harm to his professional reputation, and severe emotional distress. In court documents, the doctor, who has never before been disciplined by any licensing entity in any state and has never been found liable for malpractice, said he was forced to inactivate his medical license after he was accused of mental impairment.

Individuals who have recently been in areas affected by the Zika virus outbreak, and their sexual partners, should not donate blood, the FDA has said.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina made news earlier this year when it decided to publish prices it pays to specific sites of care for specific procedures. While health plans have made this information available to premium payers, the general public had little access to such knowledge. The release of the price data has caused some pushback from providers in the state who don’t want the public to know.

A study indicates that visits to emergency departments (ED) as well as hospitalizations for arthritis and other rheumatic conditions have increased dramatically and accounted for more than 17% of all inpatient stays. Gout and other crystal arthropathies increased by 93% and hospitalizations by 76% from 2007 to 2012. Costs for these conditions escalated as well.

Organized medicine has made plans to "educate the general public and legislators" about the "differences between physician and non-physician providers. "They will advance their superiority over "non-physicians." Are you working with your peers to counter that message?

Organized medicine states that they will oppose inappropriate scope of practice expansion of non-physician providers. In their eyes any expansion of a non-physician provider is inappropriate.

Dr. Herman Leslie Rudeseal of Orange died March 19, 2016, in Hemphill at the Hemphill Care Center. He was a month shy of his 95th birthday.