| The CAOMA Board of Directors held its quartely board meeting at the office of Gallati and Blek LLP in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 5 to discuss legislative and regulatory issues facing the profession. At the special invitation of CAOMA president Michelle Lau, California Acupuncture Board's Executive Officer, Marilyn Nielsen, and Assemblymember Leland Yee (from San Francisco and sponsor of five bills affecting the Licensed Acupuncturist profession in California), both attended the meeting to discuss current issues. |
| California Acupuncture Board |
| Ms. Nielsen reported that the Acupuncture Board is in the process of taking further actions on issues identified by the Legislative Joint Committee, as follows: |
| 1) Primary Care and Diagnostic Authority |
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The CAB has been attempting to work with the staff of the Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection to better define acupuncturists role as a primary health care profession and as diagnosticians. So far, they have not come to an agreement on those issues. |
| 2) Single-use disposable needles |
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The CAB is submitting emergency regulatory amendments to the Office of Administrative Law to amend CCR Sections 1399.450, 1399.451, and 1399.454 requiring only single-use disposable needles. |
| 3) Continuing Education |
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The CAB will be submitting regulatory amendments to the Office of Administrative Law to amend CCR Sections 1399.480, .481, .483, .484, .485, .486, .487, .488, and .489.1 relating to the continuing education program. |
| 4) Acupuncturist Assistants |
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The Board assigned the issue of the use of acupuncture assistants to Board's Enforcement Committee to review and define possible use of assistants. |
| 5) Other Health Care Professions with Overlapping Jurisdiction |
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Draft letters are being finalized to be sent to the boards of other professions with overlapping jurisdictions (i.e., physicians, osteopaths, dentists, and podiatrists), addressing CAB's concerns, recommendations, and commitments to work with the other boards to evaluate their training programs in order to improve consumer protection. |
| CAOMA shared its concerns with Ms. Neilsen, who assured us that the CAB is aware of our concerns and involvement in these issues as they relate to the Little Hoover Commission Report, the Joint Committee Backgrounder and issues reports, and current legislation being carried on our behalf by Assemblyman Leland Yee. |
| Ms. Nielsen said that only the single-use disposable needle regulation is being submitted as an emergency package, and that the profession should have time to make public comments on all of the other proposals. |
| After Ms. Nielsen left, CAOMA Board members further discussed the issues, making plans to stay involved in the process with the Joint Committee, and then proceeded to discuss legislative activities. |
| Legislation |
| A short while later, Assemblyman Leland Yee, and his staff member, Renee Pittin, joined us to discuss his legislation. Assemblyman Yee introduced himself, stating that, while being of Chinese decent, he really knew little about acupuncture, but came to understand and support it because his mother did, referring to a Chinese tradition of following one's parents wishes. Dr. Yee (he earned his PhD in psychology) began supporting acupuncture as a Supervisor for the City and County of San Francisco. Upon being elected to the State Legislature, he was initially hesitant to take on a primary role in promoting acupuncture, since Assemblywoman Judy Chu was already doing an outstanding job of this. Leland's expertise is in psychology, and his legislation reflects this, taking on mental health and children's issues, such as mental health regulation, violent video game marketing directed at children, children employed as interpreters, juvenile prostitution, etc. |
| However, CAOMA president, Michelle Lau lobbied Dr. Yee to help protect acupuncturists from proposed restrictions made by the Little Hoover Commission, the Joint Committee, and the California Medical Association that would be harmful to the profession. Dr. Yee agrees with our desire to promote acupuncture, increase educational standards, protect acupuncturists, protect consumers, and to modernize the profession. Therefore, he agreed to carry five bills for us this year. |
| AB 1113 - diagnosis |
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Dr. Yee stated that he intends for this bill to codify existing practice - not to take anything away, and not to add anything new to existing legal opinions about acupuncturist's scope of practice. |
| AB 1114 - Increasing Continuing Education Hours |
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Dr. Yee intends for this bill to help modernize acupuncturists, including education about current health and safety issues facing all health care practititioners. |
| AB 1115 - Acupuncturist Assistants |
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Dr. Yee intends for this bill to protect the title "acupuncturist assistant" to be used only by clerical and administrative staffers. |
| AB 1116 - Post-Graduate Residency Training |
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Dr. Yee intends for this bill to direct the Acupuncture Board to establish post-graduate residency requirements for licensure. While this bill is not meant to be part of a doctorate program, it could become a precurser to such an eventual program. |
| AB 1117 - Replace "oriental" with "asian" |
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Dr. Yee intends for this bill to make California law more politically correct by eliminating references to the term "oriental," which he and other consider derogatory. |
| Dr. Yee and Dr. Pittin (she also holds a PhD degree) has offered amendments on most of the bills that were agreable with CAOMA. Dr.. Yee requested letters of support as soon as possible, because the CMA has already sent opposition letters to members of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee. |
| Moments after Dr. Yee departed. CAOMA board members held a lively discussion about the bills, especially on AB 1113 and AB 1117. AB 1113 is legaly complicated, in spite of adding only a few words to the law. AB 1117 is controversial, since so many organizations, titles, and degrees include "oriental medicine" in their names, while many Asian-Americans not familiar with oriental medicine find it has negative connotations. Since CAOMA had initiated all five bills, and since Dr. Yee wanted to "go to bat" for us, the consensus of the CAOMA Board members was that our best position would be to offer full and immediate support and sponsorship for all five bills, and to produce letters of support ASAP. |
| Those letters will be posted soon. |
| Go to the California Legislation Pages |