Corporate Partners Policymaking


Play a Role in


Jeff Curwen, CAE


Your support can be direct or indirect, but the profession is best served when corporate


partners help keep chiropractors at the head of the class.


There are many elements to a successful legislative advocacy program, and many players have to do their part. While the WSCA is fortunate to have a full-time lobbyist on staff and a board member specifically dedicated to legislative matters, they can’t do all the work. Individual members of the association can be exceptionally influential in one-on-one meetings with lawmakers, and there are abundant opportunities throughout the year for chiropractors to step up during WSCA calls to action. But chiropractors aren’t the only members of this organization – we have a robust and diverse corporate partner base as well. Even with products and services that span multiple industries, the one thing they all have in common is that – in one way or another – the chiropractic profession is a crucial element of their business.


This integral relationship with chiropractic means that the better our DCs are doing, the better they do themselves. It also means that when it comes time to push for laws and policies that are favorable to the WSCA, its members, and chiropractic overall, it follows that these businesses should equally support those endeavors. In the legislative sphere, the name of the game is participation. If you want results, you have to do your part; and that applies to every segment of the membership. From students and new doctors to mid-career chiropractors and retirees, everyone with an interest in how public policy affects this profession; and yes, that includes corporate partners, too. Corporate partners play a role in policymaking that impacts your business and that of DCs.


With chiropractor members, participation is easy to define: show up on Legislative Day, meet with lawmakers in your district, and follow up on calls to action. But for corporate partners, what does participation mean? To answer that, we recently sat down with longtime Leadership Level corporate partner, Adler Giersch, and discussed the history


of how one corporate partner has consistently supported all facets of the chiropractic profession throughout the years.


Richard Adler, one of the founding attorneys of Adler Giersch, noted at the top of his interview that his firm was actually the first corporate partner and the first at the top level—a distinction they take pride in given the depth of their relationship with chiropractic. Originally, Adler Giersch was involved with all three of the WSCA’s predecessor organizations. They stayed on after our unification because their core values matched those of the association—that everyone should have access to the healthcare provider of their choice.


His own personal experiences with the effectiveness of chiropractic influenced the kind of support that his firm has provided the association. More than simply facilitating relationships between their clients and chiropractors, Adler Giersch has lobbied beside the WSCA on several pivotal issues. They supported the every category of provider law, preventing insurers from excluding chiropractors from their plans. They worked with the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to end the practice of MDs evaluating the reasonableness of chiropractic care. And in every major issue the WSCA has pursued through the legislature, Adler Giersch has been pushing for them, too.


Of course, Adler Giersch is not the only corporate partner to have supported the association in this arena or throughout our long history. They are, however, one of the first names that come to mind when our members think of advocacy. As Richard puts it, “Your support can be direct or indirect,” but the profession is best served when corporate partners help keep chiropractors at the head of the class. “DCs who know us, appreciate our advocacy, vigilance, and compassion,” he continues.


20 www .chirohealth.org


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