AOMSM Legislative Summit Was a Grand Success!  

On Sunday, October 31st, the New England School of Acupuncture hosted the AOMSM Legislative Summit. The two-fold purpose of the Summit was (1) to create broad support for a legislative strategy for increasing access to acupuncture by expanding insurance coverage for acupuncture and (2) to identify members of AOMSM to lead the effort.

Twenty-eight people attended, many of whom were NESA alumni. The day was filled with dynamic discussion about state legislation mandating health insurance coverage for acupuncture, health insurance parity and equality, and worker's compensation. A SWOT analysis was performed by the three groups of participants to identify both the internal strengths and weaknesses, and the external opportunities and threats of these topics, and many innovative ideas were shared by all.
 
There was broad agreement among the Summit participants to support advancing one bill, the current legislation (H4111), with language to include parity. An executive committee consisting of nine Summit participants was created (1) to work on the language of the bill, (2) to research supporting the bill, (3) to involve younger practitioners and students in the process, (4) to create relationships with our allies such as MDs, medical acupuncturists, and hospitals, and (5) to garner grassroots support among patients and friends.

If you would like more information about the legislative efforts of AOMSM to include the Summit Report, please visit: http://aomsm.org/AOMSM_Insurance_Summit. We highly recommend that you participate in the ongoing AOMSM forums at http://aomsm.org/Forums. You can also get involved by directly contacting legislative co-chairs Elaine Walsh (ewacupuncture@earthlink.net) and Naomi Alson (naomifalson@yahoo.com). If you are not already a member of AOMSM, please join today and be part of the cutting edge development of the future of our profession!

Changing the AOMSM Bylaws--

We Need Your Vote

Over the past year, we have revised and updated the bylaws that govern the AOMSM.  In order to ratify the changes we have made, a majority of members must vote to approve the proposed changes.  Please review the summary of changes and simply vote here.  Voting ends December 1. The entirety of the bylaws with the proposed changes underlined is provided here.