AB 1943

[Guest guest]

Hi all!

 

FYI Acupuncture Today features a lengthy article about AB 1943. It appears

that there are many more people supporting, then not *S* At any rate, ALL

you supporters need to continue to write letters of support, as the Bill

passes through all the hoops to get to its final destination!!!

 

Thank you to every one who is taking part of raising the standards of

Oriental Medicine!!!

 

In Health,

Teresa

[Guest guest]

I thought this was newsworthy, as it may impact our scope of practice in

CA. It is interesting that one key area where an amendment was made to

AB 1943 is in the area of CEU's. If I understand the last paragraph

below, if it passes, you will now need 45 hours per year until 2013.

This is because it was felt that if the profession needed to be upgraded

with more and better education for current students, than something had

to be done to bring existing practitioners up to speed. So now if one

supports this bill, you will be saddling yourself with 30 more hours of

CE each year. Clever strategy.

 

 

 

> " Benjamin E. Dierauf " <bdierauf

>

> Having been blocked by bureaucratic intervention to increase hours to

> 3200 through the regulatory process (AB), we decided this year to work

> through the legislative process. We found a remarkable Assemblywoman,

> Judy Chu (D - Monterey Park), who agreed to take on our issue. Her

> initial bill, AB 1943, included, besides the hours increase, a wish

> list of all the items we reasonably need to more strongly establish the

> OM profession in California (diagnosis, reserving DOM title, better

> state accreditation of OM schools, clarification of acupuncture as part

> of OM, clinical supervisors with 5+ years of experience, etc.).

>

> The schools responded by hiring an expensive lobbying firm and forming

> an unholy alliance with the California Medical Association, which has

> always been concerned about the growth of our profession and the

> political power that we've had to get into primary care, Workers' Comp,

> etc. In reviewing recent written statements from the CMA, we can see

> that their misperceptions and inaccurate lines of thought have been

> heavily influenced by the schools.

>

> The schools have also unduly influenced the legislative analysis of AB

> 1943. As it turns out, the principle consultant for the Assembly

> Business and Professions Committee, which worked on the legislative

> analysis of AB 1943, was also on the board of directors for one of the

> schools. As a result, the analysis quotes the schools arguments almost

> verbatim and gives short shrift to the pro AB 1943 arguments.

>

> Under heavy pressure from the CMA, we were forced to jettison our " wish

> list " in AB 1943, gutting the bill and leaving only the hours increase.

> Additionally, to address the heavy lobbying by the schools that the

> profession should have to go back to school if the hours were

> increased, we added the provision for an increase to 450 hours from the

> current 150 of CEUs for LAc's from 2003 to 2013 (moderator's note: I

> take this to mean that instead of 15 hours per year, the bill would

> raise that to 45 per year).

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always been violently opposed by mediocre minds " --

Albert Einstein