United States
In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration changed the status of acupuncture needles from Class III to Class II medical devices, meaning that needles are regarded as safe and effective when used appropriately by licensed practitioners.
As of 2004, nearly 50% of Americans who were enrolled in employer health insurance plans were covered for acupuncture treatments.
Acupuncturists in the United States are required to attend a three or four-year graduate level, accredited program to be licensed. While some schools are regionally accredited, most professional training programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM). Twenty-three states require certification, by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM). A variety of titles are granted:
- Licensed acupuncturist (L. Ac), in most states
- Acupuncture physician, used in Florida
- Doctor of oriental medicine (DOM), used in New Mexico
- Doctor of acupuncture (DAC) in Rhode Island
- Diplomate of acupuncture (Dipl. Ac), a NCCAOM board certification in acupuncture
- Diplomate of oriental medicine (Dipl. OM), a NCCAOM certification which includes acupuncture and Chinese herbology
- Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Acupuncture (DABMA), a certification provided by the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture for physicians trained in medical acupuncture
- Doctor of acupuncture and oriental medicine (DAOM), a degree offered by the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and Bastyr University as a ACAOM-sponsored terminal degree in the field
Acupuncturists are usually required to obtain continuing education credit to retain their licenses. In most states this is handled by the NCCAOM, which awards PDA points towards re-licensure for approved courses and requires Diplomates (licensed acupuncturists with NCCAOM certification) are required to obtain 60 PDA points every four years to re-certify.
California and Florida each have their own unique requirements and regulatory agencies. The State of California Acupuncture Board(SCAB) governs the re-licensure of all California licensed acupuncturists and requires fifty continuing education units (CEU’s) every two years. The Florida Board of Acupuncture governs all licensed acupuncturists in Florida and requires acupuncturists to complete 30 continuing education credit hours (CE’s) every two years.
Read more about this topic: Regulation Of Acupuncture
Famous quotes related to united states:
“You may consider me presumptuous, gentlemen, but I claim to be a citizen of the United States, with all the qualifications of a voter. I can read the Constitution, I am possessed of two hundred and fifty dollars, and the last time I looked in the old family Bible I found I was over twenty-one years of age.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1816–1902)
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941Ma date that will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“What chiefly distinguishes the daily press of the United States from the press of all other countries is not its lack of truthfulness or even its lack of dignity and honor, for these deficiencies are common to the newspapers everywhere, but its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues into a few elemental fears, its incessant reduction of all reflection to mere emotion. It is, in the true sense, never well-informed.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“It was evident that, both on account of the feudal system and the aristocratic government, a private man was not worth so much in Canada as in the United States; and, if your wealth in any measure consists in manliness, in originality and independence, you had better stay here. How could a peaceable, freethinking man live neighbor to the Forty-ninth Regiment? A New-Englander would naturally be a bad citizen, probably a rebel, there,—certainly if he were already a rebel at home.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)