Yee Bills Pass California Senate

Today, the California State Senate voted to approve Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Leeland Yee's acupuncture-related bills. These bill include:

• AB 1113, a bill that would authorize Licensed Acupuncturists to "diagnose within their scope of practice;"
• AB 1114, a bill that would increase the biannual continuing eduction requirements from 30 to 50 hours;
• AB 1115, a bill that would specify that "acupuncture assistants" are not permitted to provide acupuncture services to patients; and
• AB 1117, a bill that would change the word "Oriental" to "Asian" in all parts of the Acupuncture Act.

All four bills will now await approval or veto by Governor Schwarzenegger.

AIMS has been supportive of all four bills, but we continue to have significant concerns about the vague language contained in AB 1113. AIMS is concerned that this bill may expose the profession to an unfavorable reinterpretion of its scope of practice.

Earlier this year, another Yee bill AB 1116 was defeated. This bill would have established a mandatory postgraduate internship for all prospective licensees. While AIMS supports the concept of a postgraduate residency, we believed that this bill was an "idea before its time." Consequently, AIMS opposed the bill.

Provided by California State Oriental Medical Association on 8/25/2005