AMI will utilize its own criteria to certify AACP members, and to determine whether individual practitioners meet those qualifications.
"This relationship paces our association as the driving force behind the creation of the first natural health care delivery system," asserted Dr. Reiner Kremer, AACP's Chairman of the Board.
AMI expects the credentialing process for Academy members to be in place within 12 to 16 weeks.
The AACP and AMI view the credentialing program as an important step in the recognition and promotion of chiropractic as a form of primary care. They feel that successfully credentialed practitioners will distinguish themselves as the "elite of the chiropractic profession."
Other practitioners such as doctors of osteopathy, they note, were once viewed with skepticism, but have gained public acceptance and a substantial increase in practice rights in the past few decades. With the establishment of uniform national standards, AMI and AACP hope to accomplish the same benefits for doctors of chiropractic.
"This program will lead the evolving paradigm shift to wellness that is inevitable based on consumer demand," added Dr. Kremer. A wellness-based system of care, he believes, would enable medicine "to be delivered as it was meant to be practiced in the context of being safe, balanced and open to all options, including the use of drugs when therapeutically indicated."
"The public has been searching for better health care options for better health care options for years, and AMI offers a medically and financially sound way to bring our members the best medicine and care of both worlds," added James Zechman, AMI's CEO.
* In the December 1, 1999 issue of Dynamic Chiropractic, our main front-page story was "DCs as Primary Physicians with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois." We reported how Alternative Medicine, Inc. (AMI) had contracted with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois, the state's largest managed care plan, to give its more than 700,000 enrolled members the option of having one of AMI's chiropractors as their primary care physician.
James Zechman, CEO and chairman of AMI was our "Person of the Year" in 1999 (Jan. 1, 2000 issue).
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