The stated mission of the ACA is to improve the health of its members and communities with chiropractic.

In 1963, the NCA was reorganized, once again under the title of the American Chiropractic Association.

The House of Delegates (HOD), the deliberative body of the Association, is composed of 124 delegates representing all 50 states, the ACA Board of Governors, the ACA’s specialty councils, the Faculty American Chiropractic Association (FACA), the Student American Chiropractic Association (SACA) and ACA's state affiliates.

ACA formally recognizes 12 specialty areas[3] of chiropractic practice through its specialty councils: The official research journal of ACA is Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT), which is owned by the National University of Health Sciences and published by Elsevier.

Over its history, ACA and its predecessors were responsible for establishing some of the profession's most important foundational organizations in the areas of chiropractic research and education.