Acupuncture regulation - the Little Hoover Commission

[Guest guest]

Anyone interested in questions regarding the regulation of acupuncture/OM may

want to take a look at a milestone report recently issued by the Milton Marks

Little Hoover Commission (LHC) here in California. The LHC is a non-partisan

commission made up of one state senator and assemblyperson from each the

democrat and republican parties and 7-8 public members (most from high-level

business positions) appointed by the Governor and state legislature. Because of

the fighting that has taken place in the U.S. and especially California between

different acupuncture/OM groups as to what training acupuncturists should have,

the California legislature asked this highly respected Commission to look into

several issues regarding how many hours California Acupuncturists should have in

their training, what their scope of practice should be, if the state or national

testing agency should administer licensing exams, and some other issues. The LHC

was given a $250,000 budget and took more than a year to research this including

holding two public meetings and three advisory committee meetings in which

different experts were invited to take part and share their thoughts. The LHC

also contracted with some outside agencies to do research to help them gather

useful information. Their report can be found on their website at

http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhc.html. Click on the Regulation of Acupuncture: A

Complementary Therapy Framework link. - Matt Bauer