by Dr. Ray Foxworth, FICC, MCS-P
In the early years of my life, my mom worked as a CA for a local chiropractor. With the doctor’s encouragement, she went on to apply for and be accepted into Chiropractic College. She worked as a vet tech by day and attended chiropractic school at night with me in tow. Can you imagine bringing your 8-year-old to class every night? There is no doubt her determination lead her to become a chiropractor despite being a single mom with three kids.
After graduation, she opened her practice in a small town in a state where chiropractic was not licensed yet, and there was NO insurance coverage for chiropractic. She used garbage cans as her “developing tanks” for her x-rays. She later met and married another chiropractor who turned out to be my “dad,” and they went on to a successful career over many years. While my mother was clearly an inspiration, I was also amazed at my dad’s desire to learn. In fact, when I graduated in 1985 and sat for the National Boards, he was right beside me taking and passing the Boards despite not being in chiropractic college for many, many years.
As a second-generation chiropractor, I did not originally plan to follow in my parent’s footsteps. Attending a state chiropractic convention in 1980 with my parents, I heard my now long-time friend Dr. Sig Miller speak, and it changed the course of my life. I packed up my young family, headed to Cleveland Chiropractic College, and never looked back. I had no idea that, over the next 30 years, I would be appointed by two governors to serve 12 years as the first chiropractor on the Mississippi State Board of Health, two of those as chairman. I would have never imagined having the opportunity to start the first chiropractic program at our VA hospital and going on to be the founder and president of ChiroHealthUSA. It is important for me to give back to a profession that has meant so much to me and my family, not only as tribute to my parents, but as an opportunity for chiropractic students to follow in their footsteps.
During The National Convention in Orlando last month, ChiroHealthUSA announced the creation of The Foxworth Family Chiropractic Scholarship, in honor of my parents, Drs. Betty Pace Mathews and Charles Vernon Mathews. ChiroHealthUSA will award $10,000 to one chiropractic student each year and $10,000 to the winning student’s chiropractic college.
Students may begin submitting applications on September 15, 2015. The deadline for submission will be February 28, 2016. Winner notifications will go out on or before June 1, 2016 and be announced during The National Convention in Orlando in August of 2016. Learn more at www.chusascholar.com.
Today, as students and future chiropractors, you should know that we all belong to chiropractic, and we all need to help, invest, and support the advancement of our profession. You are the future, and I am happy to say that our future looks bright.
Dr. Ray Foxworth is the founder and President of ChiroHealthUSA. Since its inception in 2007, ChiroHealthUSA has donated over $750,000 to help support state associations, COCSA, F4CP and the CCGPP.
Why is the Discount Challenge prize amount $11,181? Because that is the average “per-occurrence” fine for Medicare inducements. That’s not $11,181 per patient, that’s not per provider, that’s PER VISIT. Stinks, doesn’t it? To us, the prize amount is worth the investment if we can help our profession better understand proper discounting.