Licensed practitioners granted freedom to provide complementary and alternative therapies (enacted March, 2001):

Senate Bill 1324 passed both houses after a barnstorm session of committee hearings and votes. House bill 1077 by Rep. Connie Mack and Senate Bill1324 by Senator Durell Peaden, M.D. were introduced on 3/9/01. Senator Charlie Clary Co-Sponsored.  (Both Senators Peaden and Clary serve on the Senate Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care Committee, and Senator Clary chaired the Committee for the past two years).

Special thanks to Julie Hilton, a lawyer/mediator turned lobbyist in the crunch, and to Florida Citizens for Health. 

Senate Bill 1324 authorizes provision of and access to complementary or alternative health care treatments; requires patients to be provided with certain information regarding such treatments; revises Florida’s Patient's Bill of Rights & Responsibilities to include right to access any mode of treatment patient

The new law requires that practitioners offering alternative treatments disclose specific information to their patients before providing care:

“(3) COMMUNICATION OF TREATMENT ALTERNATIVES.--A health care practitioner who offers to provide a patient with a complementary or alternative health care treatment must inform the patient of the nature of the treatment and must explain the benefits and risks associated with the treatment to the extent necessary for the patient to make an informed and prudent decision regarding such treatment option. In compliance with this subsection: “
”(a) The health care practitioner must inform the patient of the practitioner's education, experience, and credentials in relation to the complementary or alternative health care treatment option.”
”(b) The health care practitioner may, in his or her discretion, communicate the information orally or in written form directly to the patient or to the patient's legal representative.”
”(c) The health care practitioner may, in his or her discretion and without restriction, recommend any mode of treatment that is, in his or her judgment, in the best interests of the patient, including complementary or alternative health care treatments, in accordance with the provisions of his or her license.”

To view the full text for the bill, see www.faim.org/news.htm#FL

Minnesota's bill was the result of the efforts of a health freedom movement galvanized in the mid-90s by high profile legal actions taken against several of the state's most prominent alternative health care practitioners.

The bill's enactment marks a step forward for protecting consumer access not only in Minnesota, but also throughout the land. The bill was long overdue. A consumer's freedom of access is dependent on the practitioner's freedom to practice, much as the public's freedom of access to information rests on the writer's freedom to write freely and without suppression by state laws or actions.

On May 11, 2000, Governor Jesse Ventura signed the Complementary and Alternative Health Care Freedom of Access bill into law. With that signing Minnesota protected freedom of access to health care as a basic freedom. It grants a right of practice for unlicensed complementary health care providers. The law requires complementary health care providers to present a patient bill of rights to their patients, as well as disclose in writing background information about their training and practice.  It also provides enforcement mechanisms to protect the public from fraud and harm. The new law went into effect July 1, 2001.

Special thanks to attorney Diane Miller and Advocate Jerry Johnson for their efforts in getting this bill written, negotiated and passed.

To read the complete text of the law, go to: http://www.minnesotanaturalhealth.org/bills/statute.htm

In early Spring, the Homeopathic Board proposed regulations that would have expanded the scope of "homeopathic" practices overseen by that Board to include a number of CAM therapies other than Hahnamanian homeopathy, such as EDTA Chelation, herbal, vitamin and nutritional treatments, along with 'trigger point,' 'thought field' and many other therapies.

Public debate resulted in the regular board appealing the homeopathic board's regulations to the legislature. On August 22, 2000 a legislative committee overturned the Homeopathic Board's regulations ruling that the regulations went beyond the scope of traditional homeopathy and exceeded the intention of law.

Meanwhile, the regular Board reviewed their regulations and replaced a provision prohibiting treatment "in a manner not recognized scientifically as being beneficial" with new provision permitting CAM under several conditions, among them:

• A licensee shall not practice medicine by utilizing any means or instrumentality that has a risk for a patient that is unreasonably greater than the means or instrumentality ordinarily utilized by physicians in good standing practicing in the same specialty or field or that is provided as a substitute for conventional treatment that has proven to be of substantial benefit to the patient.
• Prior to offering advice about the means or instrumentality of treatment, the licensee shall undertake an assessment of the patient. This assessment should include but not be limited to, conventional methods of diagnosis ordinarily utilized by physicians in good standing practicing in the same specialty or field, and may include non-conventional methods of diagnosis which shall be documented in the patient’s chart.
• Documentation as to whether such conventional treatment options ordinarily utilized by physicians in good standing practicing in the same specialty or field have been discussed with the patient and shall include referral input, if necessary.

To view the complete text for the regulations, see www.faim.org/states.htm#NV.

Ohio

The Ohio health freedom The new law reads as follows:

Louisiana

South Dakota