Your Source for News & Information

MEMBERSHIP

We have a number of important issues that we are working on and to succeed in our efforts some of these require us to pay for professional help (see below). If you are not in good standing, please consider renewing your membership to support our efforts on behalf of the Acupuncture profession in MA. You can update your membership here. 

Thank you!
Hudson Doyle, AOMSM president

Update on Acupuncture Insurance Bill from the AOMSM Insurance Task Force
 

The Acupuncture Insurance Bill, MA H3519, is currently under review by the House Committee on Joint Financial Services. A Senate bill will also be filed soon. In January, if there is a positive review of the bill, it will move out of committee to a vote in the House of Representatives. 

We have had great response from you and we thank you!
We need your help to move the bill out of committee.

Please help us with our new more targeted strategy:
See if you know and/or search for acupuncturists in the districts of the members of House Joint Financial Services Committee and ask that these acupuncturist/supporters to call their representative in support of H3519. Calls from constituent voters are doubly valuable.

You can easily find acupuncturists by going to http://www.nccaom.org/find-an-acupuncture-practitioner-directory and matching acupuncturists with the co-chairs and committee members districts listed here:
http://aomsm.org/Instructions_to_contact_your_legislator

We are pleased to announce that we will be hiring a lobbyist within the next month to help us connect with crucial people in the legislature, in the media, as well as in the medical and insurance sectors. Not only will this help with our legislative goals, we hope this will generally increase awareness of acupuncture in MA.
We will be paying for this lobbyist with donations we have received from generous AOMSM members. If you would like to support these efforts, please contribute to our Legislative Fund

Screening of "9000 Needles" in support of HR 3519

December 4th, 2-4pm 

12 Clark Street
Easthampton, MA 01027
Sponsord by the AOMSM

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE UPDATE 

Do you know who is protecting your scope of practice from being incrementally chipped away at by other professions? Who is guaranteeing that the dollars spent on your education will continue to have value?

There is no state organization other than the AOMSM currently doing this for our profession. The Committee on Acupuncture regulates acupuncture and acupuncturists, i.e. it grants licenses, hears grievances against acupuncturists and has control over malpractice of acupuncture by acupuncturists in the Commonwealth. It has no authority to control any other professions or in any way advocate for our profession. The Board of the AOMSM has charged its Legislative Committee with being on top of legislative issues that will affect the practice of acupuncture in the Commonwealth.

Currently the committee is continuing to work on preventing Physical Therapists and Chiropractors from adding "dry needling" to their scopes of practice. This is an uphill battle for acupuncturists nationally as 25 states have allowed PTs this increase in scope and only 6 states have managed to defeat it. The companies that provide CEU "dry needling" education for PTs are lobbying heavily with their corporate dollars in states like MA where no decision has  been made. There are PTs in MA currently practicing IMT (Intramuscular Manual Therapy, otherwise known as dry needling) and bundling it with other procedures that are being covered by health insurance and therefore getting health insurance reimbursement for what we do daily with no coverage. We have our work cut out for us.

What is the status in MA? The Board of Allied Health Professionals, which determines the PT scope of practice, has been reviewing the issue for several months and its attorney is in the process of writing a position paper. The AOMSM Legislative Committee supplied them with a stack of research and position papers from  the NCCAOM, AAAOM, CCAOM, NESA and COA, all supporting the AOMSM position that "dry needling" is indeed acupuncture and is therefore prohibited for PTS in Mass General Law. We continue to send a "watchdog" to their monthly meetings if their agenda suggests  "dry needling" will be a topic. At this time we have not seen or  heard anything about the status of this position paper.

This past month the  Chiropractors also added "dry needling" to their monthly agenda,  so a watchdog was sent to that meeting and the discussion was tabled until further research could be done on the topic.

Last week Steve Cina set up a googlegroup for states battling this issue so that key people in each state can share ideas, resources, and experiences. So far the email  interchange has been constant.

We are also in discussion  with several law firms on how best to promote our position here in MA. The legislative committee believes that an attorney will be helpful at this pointto help research and advise us on the most efficacious strategy. A major concern of ever attorney we've consulted is our profession's lack of organization and support compared to the strength of our adversaries.

So what can you do to help  protect your profession? The typical answer: get involved, stay informed. Visit our website www.aomsm.org regularly for updates. "Like" our facebook page, "Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Society of Massachusetts" to stay in the social network loop. Donate your time, your talents and your dollars. Organizing,  hiring an attorney, contacting the media all take money. So make sure you rejoin the AOMSM and renew your membershiop on time so we don't have to   spend precious time reminding you. And if each of us would educate a fellow  practitioner and recruit one new member we could double our numbers overnight. The larger our organization and the noisier we can be on these important issues the more legislative clout we will have. Then consider donating to the legislative action fund on our website and ask your fellow  practitioners to   donate as well. You could also run for a position on the AOMSM board - did you know that you could receive a $75 credit towards your one year AOMSM membership?

Also the AOMSM's Legislative  Committee is recruiting new members to help stay informed and respond to        legislative and regulatory developments that could impact the practice of acupuncture in the Commonwealth.  Everyoneis welcome to join us to work on protecting our profession.

In particular, we are looking for a couple of acupuncturists in the Boston area to join the committee.  The current        committee is comprised of people who live on the Cape, Martha's Vineyard and Western  Massachusetts with only two members from greater Boston area.  We need people who live within driving distance of downtown Boston for the chiropractor and PT monthly meetings (first and last Thursdays of the month, respectively) or Wakefield        (Committee on Acupuncture quarterly meetings, on Thursdays)        

If this type of watchdog activity interests you or if you have any questions, please contact Kristin Whitfield at kvwhitfield@gmail.com.This is crucial work and we could use your help!!

NATIONAL EFFORTS

Support the AAAOM in adding acupuncture as a national Essential Health Benefit
http://aaaom.rallycongress.com/5247/acupuncture-as-an-essential-health-benefit/