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Colorado Needs a Naturopathic Law:

Why does Colorado Need a Law?

What other states do to protect consumers

Great News! DORA recommends regulation

How to Support Licensing

 Does Colorado need a Naturopathic Law?

Our association strongly supports passage of a law to regulate the practice of naturopathic medicine in Colorado. There are three reasons:

First: Better Health Care

Naturopathic medicine has the capacity to improve health care in Colorado while lowering costs. Naturopathy's focus on prevention, lower technology, lower cost and safer therapies can help solve many of the problems modern health care faces.

[Licensing NDs Benefits Colorado]

Second: Legal Status

Naturopathic doctors who live in Colorado, although trained in programs recognized and accredited through the US Department of Education, have no legal status and, if practice as trained, risk being prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. Several naturopathic doctors in Colorado have received Cease and Desist orders from the medical board. Quality practitioners will remain in short supply until this risk is ameliorated.

[Risky Business for legitimate doctors]

Third: Public Safety

Without regulation there are persons who, even though they do not meet the educational or training requirements associated with this profession, nevertheless hold themselves out to the public as naturopathic doctors, open businesses and practice medicine. Having untrained persons pretending to be doctors, puts the public at risk. Lack of licensing creates a dangerous situation in which people are injured. (Danger to the public)

 

Naturopathic medicine is an emerging profession

Like other health care professions, it must set standards of education and training. The profession must hold practitioners accountable for their actions. There are ten times as many naturopathic doctors practicing in Colorado now compared to when our association first asked DORA for regulation.

We thought it was time to regulate 15 years ago. Colorado Law gives DORA specific requirements a profession must fulfill before the state regulates it. The most important requirement is to demonstrate the risk of harm to the public caused by not regulating. When the CANP first applied for licensure in 1992, DORA did not feel this risk was substantial and recommended against licensure. During the intervening years, Colorado has become a haven for those who take advantage of this unregulated status.

Groups have issued fake state licenses, diplomas from nonexistent naturopathic colleges and certificates from fake regulatory boards. When Brian O'Connell was arrested in March of 2003, the level of deception engaged in by these practitioners became obvious. Mr. O'Connell, who claimed to be a naturopathic medical doctor, practiced for several years in Wheatridge, Colorado. He was convicted in February 2006 on numerous charges including manslaughter and is currently in prison.

More information on Brian O'Connell (link) 

Fake credentials used by practitioners in Colorado (link)

 

The Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians believes in regulation rather than prosecution. If naturopathic regulatory laws were in place, people like Brian O'Connell would not be pretending to be doctors in Colorado. Waiting until people have been injured or killed and then prosecuting them is more costly than establishing standards for a profession and upholding them.

Regulation is cheaper than prosecution.

What do other states do to protect consumers?

Other states require naturopathic doctors to graduate from accredited schools, pass licensing examinations and create a regulatory board to supervise naturopathic doctors. 

A nationally standardized Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Exam (NPLEX) has been established which is used in the states that currently regulate NDs.

Currently, fourteen states license NDs: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. In addition, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and four Canadian provinces also license naturopathic doctors. In all of these jurisdictions, NDs practice as independent general practitioners with oversight from a state regulatory board. Licensed NDs are required to complete annual continuing education, practice responsibly and meet all of the individual state requirements in order to maintain their license. A licensed ND has unique expertise in natural medicine while also possessing the ability to diagnose and treat medical conditions, perform physical exams, and order laboratory testing. In many of the states that license naturopathic doctors, health care consumers may specifically choose NDs as their primary health care providers.

 

DORA reports recommend regulation

In their October 2005 Sunrise Review, the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) recommended that the Colorado legislature pass laws to regulate the profession. After careful study of the profession in Colorado DORA concludes that,

"current evidence supports regulation of naturopathic physicians in Colorado.”

The full text of the 2005 DORA Report may be downloaded in PDF format for free at:

http://www.dora.state.co.us/opr/archive/2005Naturopaths.pdf

 

In the January 2008 Sunrise Review, DORA once again recommends regulation of naturopathic doctors in Colorado:

"a licensing scheme, by any label, should be implemented, since it would offer the public the greatest level of regulatory protection."

The full text of the 2008 DORA Report may be downloaded in PDF format for free at: http://www.dora.state.co.us/opr/archive/2008NaturopathicPhysiciansSunrise.pdf

 

Support licensing in Colorado

Legislative Updates: Past and Current information on legislative activity (link)

Help us build our GRASSROOTS network to bring safe naturopathic medicine by trained practitioners to Colorado :

 

Join our email list at: http://capwiz.com/naturopathic/mlm/signup

*** NOTE: this link will take you to the AANP capwiz page, where you can sign up as a supporter of licensure in Colorado and several other states. After you enter your contact information, simply check the "Colorado" box. Thank you! ***

If you would like to do more, write to: DrRenaBloom@msn.com