Revised Final Draft For Statute Clarification January 14, 2009 Dear member and colleague: The final bill draft is now available for viewing (see below). From the beginning of this bill drafting process we have understood that it may take a couple of legislative sessions and a couple of bills to clarify our statute and update our scope of practice. As we approach the final stages of creating our first bill it has become apparent that, indeed, it will be best to break up our initiative into two phases. Phase 1: Running a bill this legislative session that modifies our title to reflect the nature of the system of medicine that we practice and that makes some other key changes; and Phase 2: A scope expansion bill most likely to be introduced in 2010, the next legislative session. In the final days of revisions to the bill draft the board of directors has come to the conclusion, upon advice from our attorney, that it will be simpler to update our scope if we first run a separate bill that clarifies our current title in statute and creates a more solid foundation from which to expand our scope. Throughout this process we have been faced with misunderstandings from members of other health professions and legislators about what exactly it is that we “do” in the practice of our medicine. So instead of trying to clarify and expand at the same time, we have chosen to “fix the applecart before adding more apples.” We understand that such a change of direction may be a disappointment to some members who are eager to see fast and sweeping change, but we encourage everyone to be patient with this process. The board feels it is more important that it be done right than done quickly. We believe we have put together a bill that not only lays out the basic framework upon which we will make our scope of practice changes, but that has a good chance of passing this legislative session and this is exciting!! Our final draft accomplishes the following achievements: 1. It creates an appropriate "umbrella" title for our profession, the implications of which are much more than just a name change. It also paves the way for justifying to legislators, agencies, the public, and colleagues in other health professions, the addition of modalities to our scope of practice in a future bill. There are many folks who don’t understand that we already practice a system of medicine and do more than treat pain with needles. 2. Much consideration has gone into what the best title would be, and from feedback from the profession the term "Oriental Medicine Practitioner" or OMP became the preferred term. We had to choose between the feelings of the profession and the apparent misunderstanding from some legislators that the term “Oriental” is derogatory when used in this manner. We met with Senator Paul Shin, the sponsor of the bill that by law prohibits the use of the term “Oriental” in legislation when used in reference to a person, and got the green light to use it in this context since we are referring to a system of medicine. Only if the bill faces threat of being killed because of the use of the term "Oriental" will we reconsider using the term "Asian medicine." 3. This bill drops the ad hoc advisory committee, and replaces it with the “Oriental Medicine Advisory committee” that will meet at least one time per year and will deal with such issues as reviewing the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) as it relates to the practice of Oriental medicine. This assures a great deal more and direct professional involvement with the Department of Health (DOH) on an ongoing basis and allows the department to become more familiar with our profession. What we have learned from our meetings with the DOH is that some of the additions to our current scope of practice that our profession has asked for, may be achieved through definition in the WAC (the definitions as provided by the DOH that clarify the terms in statute). Also, our bill draft includes defining the public member and professional members on the committee to eliminate having conflicts of interest by participants on the committee. 4. Our bill protects our use of the terms "acupuncture" and "Oriental medicine,” allowing us to continue using the term "acupuncturist" by reference and in our advertising. The board feels this is important from the standpoint of name recognition. 5. It includes provisions allowing people to practice in Washington State from other states during a state of emergency. 6. It eliminates the emergency referral and transfer card. Last but not least, by implementing a two phase approach we will have more time to continue working with the profession to further develop scope expansion langauge for phase 2, the introduction of second bill. We feel that there is more work to do with colleagues, other professions, and additional stakeholders of interest, before the public hearing process begins in the Sunrise Review process (http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/sunrise/process_2005.htm), which a scope of practice expansion bill will surely trigger. Throughout the past months we have gathered vital input from you - our member and colleague. The information and ideas you have provided will be the basis for our work on updating our WAC with the DOH and for our future expansion of scope of practice bill. Please take a look at the bill and let us know what you think. We have appreciated all your input so far!! Send comments to: mail@waoma.org On behalf of the WAOMA board of directors, Sincerely, George Whiteside, MS, L.Ac. WAOMA President mail@waoma.org Download the final bill draft All content Copyright © 2007 - 2012 WEAMA. All rights reserved.