LHC and strategy

[Guest guest]

We have some opportunity to influence the legislature in carrying out

the mandate of the LHC report, but we must act soon and concertedly

through our professional organizations. Here are 4 items that seem to

be of great concern to many on this list and in the field at large. I

have ranked them in what I consider the order of most importance as far

as devoting lobbying energy.

 

1. protecting access to our entire materia medica and the right to use

it on all our patients for all their complaints; the right to expand

our materia medica in the traditional fashion. Without this, nothing

else matters. This should be the number one priority of those who

place primary importance on herbal and internal medicine. to be

honest, the next three are of little personal or professional interest

to me. However I can certainly see the value to some sectors of

society if numbers 2 and 3 are implemented. I have always opposed

number 4 and will continue to do so.

 

2. The right to order laboratory and imaging tests. We should make

the case of why we need to do this for OTHER than diagnostic reasons.

This will also likely have to be an add-on certificate, but could be a

lesser degree than that for complete western dx. The lab tests could

be ordered for the purpose of monitoring, not diagnosing. I believe it

would serve a public safety need to allow this practice. It would

insure necessary referral if certain chronic conditions worsened while

under OM care.

 

3. the right to bill insurance through some sort of coding system.

since most of our patients with chronic illnesses have received a dx by

an MD (96% by one estimate), why couldn't we just request records and

use the existing medical dx on our billing. That would seem to be a

simple matter to get legal authority for. No referral, just prior or

concurrent diagnosis. the diagnosis would not mandate whether

acupuncture was continued or discontinued, but merely inform the

patient of all vital information. We do have an opportunity to lobby

to actually make medical dx ourselves, but we only have a small window

before opposing forces will ally against us. This will require some

sort of add-on certificate. I think it will be a wasted fight to try

and get the scope increased with current training hours. Opponents

will just point to the LHC report and say no such increase is justified

for public safety, so if this is to happen at all, it must be something

" extra " . As I said earlier, this " extra " certificate in western dx

might confer more legitimacy on us in this arena than anything we could

do ourselves as this certificate will be likely granted by a med

school.

 

4. The institution of an entry level doctorate degree. This seems

highly unlikely as a result of the overall tone of the LHC report. I

think it would be a colossal waste of energy to accord this item more

weight than the previous 3. In fact, it should be tabled as a lobbying

item at least until after the results of the visioning task force

future search meeting. This meeting will also result in a report that

may create a counterweight to that of the LHC on the issue of the entry

level DAOM. However, for those who have been in the field for many

years prior to current educational requirements, you can be pretty sure

there will be some very challenging hurdles to jump through in order to

have this title bestowed (in all likelihood, completion of all the

missing masters and DAOM coursework or challenge exams on this

material). Everyone must think carefully about how much more schooling

one should be required to do to just maintain the status quo of one's

own life and how the institution of an entry level DAOM may creates a

second class status for those who would remain merely an L.Ac. (despite

often having many more years of experience than most recently

matriculated " doctoral " students).

 

 

 

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