DC FAQs By WSCA Staff WSCA dues are going up?!?! How
much? When? Is there any way to avoid the increase?
The WSCA bylaws require our board to review membership dues on an annual basis. For some time, the board has avoided increases in consideration of world events, rapidly increasing prices, rising licensing fees, and stagnant wages in general. However, the association is not immune to those conditions either, and since we haven’t raised our dues in six years, it is time for an update.
So how much? About 5%. The increase will apply to standard WSCA members—that’s all DC members who are not retired, semi-retired, out of state, students, or premium members.
When? October 1, 2025.
Can I avoid the increase? YES! Simply follow the directions shown on the next page.
The sad truth is, it was the ages of those who were interested. Most of the people who indicated interest were nearing retirement age. Not a single interested respondent was under the age of 50. But why does that matter? Well, a viable group plan requires enough “lower cost” participants to offset the “higher cost” participants. Regardless of demographics, our proposed group was about as big as the smallest group our brokers worked with. And due to the ages within the proposed group, all participants would be considered “higher cost.” It wasn’t that we couldn’t put together a group plan—we absolutely could. It was that we couldn’t do it in such a way that it was economically worthwhile. If everyone in the group can get cheaper insurance rates elsewhere, who would keep our plan? Likely no one.
Our brokers told us that while our number of participants was workable, more would be better. And then they told us that at least half of them needed to be under the age of 50—and preferably under 40. Without that, there just wasn’t any incentive to proceed.
What ever happened to the
group health plan the WSCA was working on for members?
That doesn’t mean we’re not still looking though. We are working with ChiroCongress and some of its partners to see what solutions we can provide you. It’s just an ongoing process. In the interim, we have a partnership with One Point of Care (OPOC), which can be reached at 800-724-8802. OPOC is unlike other brokerage firms, in that they do all their underwriting manually. Whereas other brokers will just take your information, upload it into their system and quote you whatever premium their algorithm spits out, OPOC is different. Yes, the process takes a little longer than elsewhere, but the savings are worth the wait. On average, by exploring every option available to those in your clinic, OPOC can save you 15- 20% on your monthly premiums. Visit our Affinity Programs page at
https://chirohealth.org/affinity-programs/ for more information.
Each issue of Plexus features several frequently asked questions about chiropractic in Washington. If you have any questions you’d like to see shared in the magazine, please submit them to:
Several years ago, the WSCA conducted a survey to gauge the membership’s interest in an association health plan. We had a pretty decent response—the number of interested individuals alone made it worth exploring. We worked with several brokers and after reviewing the demographic details of the interested members, our brokers all said it wouldn’t work for us. Why? If we had enough participants, what was holding us back?
22 www .ch ir oh ealth.or g Washington State Chiropractic Association
c/o Shaka Forest, Membership Director 1120 Pacific Ave., Ste. 206 Tacoma, WA 98402
wsca@chirohealth.org
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