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Home > News > Acupuncture Regulation in Kentucky

Kentucky urged to start regulating acupuncturists

By Christie Smythe
csmythe@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
September 12, 2005

Seema Mathew is a certified acupuncturist.

She received a master's degree from the nationally accredited Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, and she has had four years of training in both Western and Chinese medical practices and thousands of hours of clinical training.

She legally practices in Indiana and could be licensed to practice in 39 other states and Washington, D.C.

But not in Kentucky, where she lives.

Only a physician or osteopath can legally practice acupuncture in Kentucky.

Yet the Kentucky Medical Association acknowledges that non-physicians are practicing acupuncture in Kentucky and says it's time to regulate or license them.

"Currently, we are aware of acupuncturists operating in the state, and I think it's important that they be certified or licensed, and there be some standards established by the commonwealth to ensure public safety," KMA spokesman Marty White said.

A bill has been pre-filed for the next session of the General Assembly that would create a board to regulate and license acupuncturists, and would have the state adopt national certification standards as part of its requirements.

White said the KMA has not yet taken a position on the specific proposal but is giving it "triple consideration."

Passage would please Melissa Brennan, a 36-year-old woman in Dry Ridge, who became paralyzed from the waist down nine years ago after a car accident left her with a smashed vertebra.

Brennan copes with severe pain in her lower back -- where a metal plate holds her spine together -- and says the only respite she's found is acupuncture, which she has to drive 40 minutes to Cincinnati to get.

Her acupuncturist, Mimi Tagher, lives only 20 minutes from Brennan's house. And because every minute in the car is hard on Brennan's back, it angers her that Kentucky law doesn't let Tagher practice in the state.

"I don't have any options," Brennan said, adding that acupuncture provided by a doctor isn't covered by her insurance and is too expensive for her.

"I can't do anything in Kentucky. But here, Mimi has all of these diplomas and all of this education. She's amazing."

Studies show promise

Developed in ancient China, the practice of acupuncture presumes the existence of "qi" (pronounced "chi"), an energy force said to cause diseases when blocked. Proponents say the insertion of acupuncture needles at specific points cures ailments by allowing the free flow of "qi."

The National Institutes of Health issued a statement in 1997 stating that although there may be a "paucity" of scientific research on the effectiveness of acupuncture, case studies have indicated promise in treating nausea and many kinds of chronic pain, plus aiding in smoking cessation and stroke rehabilitation.

In 2002, a World Health Organization report found that acupuncture's value "in relieving pain and nausea … has been conclusively demonstrated and is now acknowledged worldwide."

Maryland, Nevada and Oregon were the first states to establish acupuncture as a licensed profession in 1973, according to the National Acupuncture Foundation. Most other states have since followed suit, with the most recent being Nebraska in 2001.

And the number of licensed acupuncturists throughout the country is growing, according to the National Acupuncture Foundation.

"There are many more doctors now who are happily referring (patients) to acupuncturists, who have them in their clinics and office complexes, because they know the benefits," said Tierney Tully, director of the foundation.

In Kentucky, the legislature created a task force in 1998 to study the use, benefits and risks of complementary and alternative medicine, including acupuncture, after a bill that would have made it a licensed profession was defeated.

In a January 2000 report, the task force recommended that acupuncture be licensed, pointing out the findings of the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health.

But the KMA and the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure questioned the availability of solid research on acupuncture. They also cited safety concerns, saying an acupuncturist might not be able to identify medical conditions that a physician could.

The medical licensure board, which oversees licensing for physicians and osteopaths, has yet to take a position on the latest legislative proposal, said its general counsel, Lloyd Vest.

But one area of past contention has been eliminated from the current bill -- a grandfather clause that would have allowed practicing acupuncturists to be exempt from licensing requirements.

Backers optimistic

And supporters are confident the bill's time has come.

"It's a well-regulated, well-established profession in the rest of the country," said Shelley Ochs, president of the Kentucky State Acupuncture Association.

"We've just got to prove our case," said state Rep. Denver Butler, D-Louisville, who is a sponsor of the bill. Butler said he became involved in the cause after talking with an acquaintance who was traveling out of the state to get acupuncture for arthritis in his knees.

Mathew said she believes Kentuckians are being robbed of a valuable service -- unless they're able to travel out of state, or can find one of a number of acupuncturists practicing under the radar.

Most of those "unlicensed practitioners" in Kentucky are nationally certified and well-trained, Ochs said. But some are not, and without state oversight, there's no way for patients to tell the difference, she said.

"We just feel like if it's going to be practiced, then it ought to be regulated," she said.

For more of the story :

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050912/NEWS01/509120343

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