The 2009 Legislative Session is up and running. Our bill, described in more detail below, will again aim to expand the scope of practice for Naturopathic doctors in Alaska to allow them to practice as they were trained. On the Senate side, our sponsor is once again Bettye Davis, D-Anchorage, a vigilant supporter of health care rights for all. She especially champions the poor, mentally ill, homeless and other under-served members of the population. She "gets" that our bill, SB 70, would instantly provide Alaska with 40 mature, well-trained doctors who practice safe medicine, spend plenty of time with patients, and are working "in the trenches" to reverse the disease-based model of healthcare. Please contact Senator_Bettye_Davis@legis.state.ak.us to thank her for her support, and encourage your patients to do so also.
On the House side, the AKANP is drumming up support for an idea floated by Representative Wes Keller, R-Anchorage, who has been supportive of us in the past. Rep. Keller suggested that a parallel version of the Senate bill be adopted by the HSS (Health and Social Services) committee. This means no single sponsor's name would be on the bill on the House side, but the bill would likely start very positively on the House side since HSS would be the first committee assignment. Members of House HSS who support our bill are Rep Sharon Cissna, D-Anchorage and Rep Paul Seaton, R-Homer. Members who have not yet committed include Rep Bob Herron, D-Bethel (Representative_Bob_Herron@legis.state.ak.us), John Coghill (Representative_John_Coghill@legis.state.ak.us) and Lindsay Holmes (Lindsay_Holmes@legis.state.ak.us) . Please contact these representatives to express your support. Please consider directing your patients who are interested in helping to expand our scope of practice to visit this website.
Talking points in offering support for this bill:
1) There is a critical shortage of primary care doctors in the U.S. Last winter the AARP magazine produced a special magazine on the health care crisis in Alaska (Winter 2008). The last sentence in the first paragraph of the cover story is "Alaska needs 200 more doctors ASAP." Expanding licensure for NDs would provide for 20% of that need immediately. And it would deliver seasoned physicians.
2) Many MDs express distress at the overwhelming amount of paperwork now involved in their jobs, and most would not recommend healthcare as a profession to college graduates. The Alaska State Medical Association (ASMA) recently published a telling survey of these, and similar, findings. Bringing more mid-level, primary care docs into Alaska will relieve MDs of the burden of crushing numbers of patients with chronic illness. Most new MDs are going into specialty fields, and this is where they can excel with their main tools, drugs and interventions.
3) The legislators primarily want assurances about our training and competency as physicians. Medical doctors presenting testimony will typically focus on what they perceive as our lack of training. It is critically important to educate our patients, and the legislators, and our medical colleagues, whenever possible, about the extent of our training: 4 years of undergraduate school, at least 4 years of a federally accredited naturopathic medical school which includes at least 2 years of clinic shifts. Many of us have also undergone post-graduate preceptorships in established clinics, community health settings, or hospitals. Emphasize our readiness for the priviledges of prescription writing and minor surgery.
The full text of the bill can be read at http://www.legis.state.ak.us/PDF/26/Bills/SB0070A.PDF
SB 70 would
1) allow for the establishment of a 5-person Alaska Naturopathic Medical Board, consisting of 3 NDs, 1 pharmacist and 1 member of the public who may be an MD;
2) allow NDs to become Medicaid providers (including Denali Kid Care);
3) require NDs to obtain and document 35 hours of continuing medical education every 2 years, 15 of which hours must be in pharmacology;
4) allow NDs to prescribe, dispense, and recommend in practice any such prescriptions deemed appropriate for use by a naturopath by the AK Nat Med Board. Vaccinations, hormones and IV nutrition are also specifically listed as part of the new ND armamentarium;
5) require NDs who opt to prescribe legend or controlled substances to obtain a federal DEA number. DEA registration may be researched at
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugreg/index.html
6) license us to perform school and workplace physicals, and
7) license us to perform minor surgery.
Should we get through the Legislature, our success will depend on having Governor Sarah Palin sign our bills into law. It is certainly not too soon to let Governor Palin know that there are well trained primary health care providers that live here in Alaska that could provide integrative health care to Alaskans if our licensing law was updated to reflect modern naturopathic education
Ninety days is not much time and the clock is ticking. Get involved today.