HR-5688 to restrain Scope of Practice, collect

[Guest guest]

For those of you who missed the Many paths/One Medicine conference at

PCOM NY this past week, we were warned by Marilyn Allen of the American

Acupuncture Council about HR-5688, which has been just published and is

being pushed through the House of Representatives.

 

As many of you may know, the AMA House of Delegates adopted a resolution

that called for the " Scope of Practice Partnership " to study the

qualifications, education and academic requirement of " limited

licensure " health care providers and " limited independent practitioners "

such as licensed acupuncturists, naturopaths, chiropractors and anyone

else besides MDs, DOs, and Dentists. Parallel bills are to be

introduced into the state legislatures. This was reviewed in the July

/Acupuncture Today/ issue.

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/archives2006/jul/07ama.html

 

The AMA has promoted HR-5688 which in the guise of " health care trust

and transparency " will " protect the public " with an eye towards limiting

our scopes of practice to small portions of what we know. It is like

battle the AMA waged against the chiropractors' all over again, but the

AMA is now more sophisticated about what they restrict so that a

restraint of trade charge cannot be made.

 

We can bet that MDs won't have restrictions on speaking about herbs or

nutrition, despite their lack of training. (Dr.) Bill Frist is pushing

this through- the bill name was just a placeholder until Friday, when

the text was finally publicized. Please write your representatives,

colleagues and professional lobbying groups to stop this bill, which

seems to be stampeded through. These groups have been set up by the

doctors to do the same:

 

 

<http://www.asahq.org/news/asanews062906.htm>

<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=46289 & nfid=crss

<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=46289 & nfid=crss>>

<http://news./s/usnw/20060629/pl_usnw/op_ed__making_the_health_care_sys\

tem_more_transparent318_xml>

 

 

 

The text of the bill is now available at:

<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.05688>:

 

I am told that the intent of the bill goes much farther than preventing

non MDs from calling themselves doctors or misrepresenting their

training. I was told that it in fact it is intended to restrict scopes

of practices to a fairly narrow area, based upon lowest common

denominator training.. The favorable articles (above) were apparently

planted before the text of the bill came out.

 

There should be an article in the next /Acupuncture Today/ on the bill,

but it has momentum given that no one is watching during the summer.

The current issue has an article on the AMA moves to thwart the

expansion of alternative health care which are the source of the bill

and which are expected to be introduced in state legislatures in a

parallel attempt. _<>

 

It looks to me like the most objectionable part is the instructions to

the FTC to investigate the other non-MD providers. (Do we really want

the Federal Trade Commission weighing in on the medical value of what we

do?)- it seems to be an opening salvo towards " proving that patients

suffer- much like anecdotes where patients taking drugs and herbs with

adverse reactions always gets blamed on the herbs:

 

 

As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, the

Federal Trade Commission shall conduct an investigation of health

care providers engaging in the conduct prohibited by section 3(a) to--

 

(1) identify specific acts and practices constituting a violation of

such section;

(2) determine the frequency of such acts and practices;

(3) identify instances of harm or injury resulting from such acts

and practices; and

(4) identify instances where any State public policy has permitted

such acts and practices.

 

The Federal Trade Commission shall report its findings to Congress

not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

 

 

The American Chiropractors Association has already started an opposition

campaign:

http://vocusgr.vocus.com/grconvert1/dotnet/WebPublish/Controller.aspx?SiteName=A\

MCHRO & Definition=ViewIssue & IssueID=4681

<http://vocusgr.vocus.com/grconvert1/dotnet/WebPublish/Controller.aspx?SiteName=\

AMCHRO & Definition=ViewIssue & IssueID=4681>

 

 

As has the American Optometric Association:

http://www.aoa.org/x5360.xml

 

I don't know if the Naturopaths have organized against it yet. If

anyone finds or knows how to set up a web site to contact Congressional

Representatives on this, please post the information.

 

 

Karen Vaughan, MSTOM

Licensed Acupuncturist, and Herbalist

253 Garfield Place

Brooklyn, NY 11215

 

(718) 622-6755

 

Co-Conspirator to Make the World A Better Place: Visit

http://www.heroicstories.com/ and join the conspiracy

See my Acupuncture and Herbalism website at: http://ksvaughan2.byregion.net/

And my website at Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2005

<http://www.avonwalk.org/site/TR?px=1248525 & s_tafId=1220 & pg=personal & fr_id=1131 & \

s_oo=0e7xbyMGyMGPLhYs3lnipg>//

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