The following is a letter called Advocacy News put out by CSOMA, the California State Oriental Medical Association, for acupuncturists. It seems Leland Yee is constantly bringing senseless, useless, acupuncture-related legislation up every year. This actually got signed into law!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Legislative Update: Governor Signs
SB 628 (Yee)
Last
week, Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 628 (Yee), a bill
regulating doctoral titles used by California licensed acupuncturists. CSOMA has
received a number of inquiries regarding this new law. This email addresses some
of the major questions we have received.
In this update…
- What does SB 628 do?
- Why was SB 628 enacted?
- Did CSOMA take a position on SB 628?
- Does this law impact my ability to use the title ‘doctor’ if its use isn’t connected with my practice?
- What licenses entitle me to use the title of ‘doctor’?
- What degrees entitle me to use the title of ‘doctor’?
- Do doctoral degrees earned abroad entitle me to use the title ‘doctor’?
- What is the proper way to use post-nominal letters?
What does SB 628 do?
Very
little. SB 628 introduces nothing new. It simply takes decades-old
California Acupuncture Board (CAB) regulation (16 CCR 1399.456: Use of the Title “Doctor”) and places this
language—word for word—into statute. When it goes into effect on January 1,
2013, the new law will change nothing except that it will take away the CAB’s
power to make changes to regulations governing doctoral titling. Any future
changes in this area will require approval by the California legislature rather
than the CAB.
Both
the existing regulation and the new law prohibit
acupuncturists from using the title ‘doctor’ or the abbreviation ‘Dr.’ in
connection with an acupuncture practice unless s/he holds a doctoral title by
license (e.g., MD) or unless s/he possesses an earned doctorate from an
‘accredited, approved, or authorized educational institution’ in acupuncture,
oriental medicine, a biological science, or a field related to the practice of
acupuncture. Both go on to prohibit the use of the title ‘doctor’ without
further indicating the license or degree that authorizes its use.
Why was SB 628 enacted?
The
purpose of moving CAB regulation into statute is unclear. This change does
nothing more than eliminate the California Acupuncture Board’s authority to
regulate in this area.
The
bill’s author (Senator Leland Yee) asserts that this legislation will help
improve the quality of acupuncture in California. The few supporters of the bill
have claimed that the bill would raise the status of acupuncture in California
and encourage advanced studies in the field.
Given
that existing regulation is identical to the language
of this bill and given that existing regulation has been in effect for more
than 20 years, CSOMA did not and does not see meaningful or substantial positive
impacts from this new law. Likewise, we do not anticipate substantial negative
impacts.
Did CSOMA take a position on SB 628?
CSOMA
took a ‘neutral’ position with respect to SB 628. Given negligible
change to the status quo introduced by SB 628, we elected to focus
our advocacy resources on higher priorities, including the successful defeat of
SB 1488
(Yee), a bill that would have established a ‘California Traditional Chinese
Medicine Traumatology Council’ without establishing adequate training standards.
Does this law impact my ability to use the title ‘doctor’ if its use isn’t connected with my practice?
No. SB 628
only restricts how a California licensed acupuncturist may use the title of
‘doctor’ in connection with the practice of acupuncture. It does not not impact
how doctoral titles are used by licensed acupuncturists when this use is not
connected with acupuncture practice in California.
What licenses entitle me to use the title of ‘doctor’?
Both current regulation and SB 628 are silent with
respect to which other licenses would authorize the use of a doctoral title.
Acupuncturists licensed in other medical disciplines should check with the
relevant California licensing board(s) for information regarding authorization
to use doctoral titles under these licenses.
For
those California licensed acupuncturists who hold a doctoral title by license
issued in another state (e.g., Doctor of Oriental Medicine in New Mexico, Doctor
of Acupuncture in Rhode Island, medical doctor in any other state), we urge
extreme caution. While SB 628 does not explicitly state that licenses
authorizing the use of the title ‘doctor’ must be issued by California, it is
reasonable to conclude that this is implied by the law.
What degrees entitle me to use the title of ‘doctor’?
To
authorize the use of the title ‘doctor,’ both current regulation and SB 628 state that degrees
must be:
- An ‘earned doctoral degree;’
- From an ‘accredited, approved, or authorized educational institution;’
- In acupuncture, oriental medicine, a biological science, or is otherwise related to the authorized practice of an acupuncturist.
To meet
criteria #2 above, an educational institution must either be:
- Accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education; or
- Approved or authorized to operate by California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE).
All
DAOM post-graduate degree programs are accredited by Accreditation Commission
for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM), a United States Department of
Education recognized accrediting agency. Therefore, all of these degrees
qualify.
CSOMA
believes that the second standard (approval by BPPE) is inadequate. It is our
view that all education in the field should be held to the significantly more
rigorous United States Department of Education standards. This may be an issue
for our field to address in the future. However, given the longstanding nature
of existing regulation, CSOMA did not raise objections to SB
628.
Do doctoral degrees earned abroad entitle me to use the title ‘doctor’?
Both current regulation and SB 628 restrict the use of
the title ‘doctor’ to those who have an ‘earned doctoral degree’ from an
‘accredited, approved, or authorized educational institution.’ Neither the
United States Department of Education nor the California Bureau of Private
Postsecondary Education (BPPE) regulate international educational institutions.
Therefore, California licensed acupuncturists who have earned doctoral degrees
abroad may not use this as the basis for using the title ‘doctor’ or the
abbreviation ‘Dr.’ in conjunction with the practice of acupuncture.
It
would appear that individuals with internationally earned doctorates in the
field may still list these doctoral credentials after their name (e.g., Jane
Doe, LAc, PhD) as long as these credentials are not false, misleading, or
deceptive.
What is the proper way to use post-nominal letters?
This
isn’t directly related to SB 628, but we’ve
occasionally received questions regarding the proper use of post-nominal letters
(i.e., letters placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual
holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, or honor). So we’ll
take the opportunity to provide some guidance on this front.
Here
are some guidelines generally used in the United States:
- Post-nominal letters are typically
listed in the following order:
- Academic Degrees—listed lowest to highest (e.g., MBA, DAOM);
- Honorary degrees;
- Professional licenses (e.g, LAc)—listed from highest to lowest importance (as you determine) or alphabetically;
- Professional certifications;
- Professional associations and affiliations.
- List only the highest degree earned in a particular discipline (e.g., ‘Jane Doe, DAOM, LAc’; not ‘Jane Doe, MSTCM, DAOM, LAc’).
- If a doctoral post-nominal is used (e.g., DAOM), don’t use ‘Dr.’ prior to your name; this is redundant. It’s ‘Jane Doe, DAOM, LAc,’ not ‘Dr. Jane Doe, DAOM, LAc.’
- Generally, no more than three post-nominals are listed unless you have a compelling reason to list more.
Additionally, current regulation, SB 628, and California
Attorney General Opinion No. 87–103 all clearly indicate that a California
licensed acupuncturist may not use the title ‘doctor’ or the abbreviation ‘Dr.’
without also indicating the type of license or degree that authorizes this use.
For example, ‘Dr. Jane Doe’ and ‘Dr. Jane Doe, LAc’ are not permissible as they
do not also indicate the doctoral license or degree. ‘Dr. Jane Doe, DAOM, LAc’
or ‘Dr. Jane Doe, MD, LAc’ are permitted (assuming, of course, that you hold a
DAOM degree or MD license respectively); however, as we noted above, the prefix
of ‘Dr.’ is not typically used concurrently with doctoral post-nominal letters
(e.g., DAOM or MD).
California
Attorney General Opinion No. 87–103 makes clear that using the initials
‘OMD’ or the title ‘Oriental Medical Doctor’ without further information that
removes the implication that the individual is a physician or surgeon. For
example, ‘Jane Doe, OMD’ is not permissible; ‘Jane Doe, OMD, LAc’ is permissible
assuming that the OMD degree was granted by an accredited or approved
institution as explained above.
Finally, all of the restrictions on
the use of doctoral titles apply equally to written and spoken communications in
connection with the practice of acupuncture. The law does not make a distintion
between the two.
Comments & Feedback
As
always, we welcome and appreciate feedback. You may send comments to info@csomaonline.org or contact CSOMA toll-free at 800.477
