WHO WE ARE:
The New York Natural and Complementary Practices
Project (NYNCPP) is a coalition of New York State
consumers seeking to broaden the
public's access to complementary and natural practices in
New York.
DEFINITIONS:
Natural and complementary practices are defined in
A4404/S3334 as "care and services that have not been
proven to be deleterious" and that exclude medical
practices that require licensing. They are "non-medical in nature"
(See Legislative Intent of A4404/S3334 under Our Bill).
Natural and
complementary practices are arts, trades and education
that may be utilized to enhance one's well being or
quality of life. These practices have been in use for
decades to centuries and include, but are not limited
to, polarity, reflexology, homeopathy, and traditional
and indigenous practices. Most of these practices are
provided in private specialty practices by professionals
who are not licensed in the state of NY.
THE PROBLEM:
The problem is that New York State does not recognize
unlicensed professions and will, even in the absence of
a claim of fraud, misconduct, harm, or the threat of harm, use the full force of the
state's police power to suppress these practices.
The Evolution of the Problem:
Medical licensing laws in the United States exist
because conventional medical care utilizes
high risk therapies such as surgery, radiation, and
pharmacology.
In New York, the definition of medicine has evolved
to:
"diagnosing, treating, operating, or prescribing for
any human disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical
condition" [emphasis added]
It is from this very broad language that the problem
arises. Under this definition, even yoga might be viewed
as the practice of medicine. To put it another way, our
current laws do not distinguish between invasive, high risk practices
and non-invasive practices that hold no demonstrable
risk of harm to the user, regardless of the expertise
of the user or provider.
Additionally, the massage regulations in NY have
evolved to where a practitioner of acupressure,
relfexology, polarity, and other non-massage health
therapies may be charged with practicing massage without
a license.
Until 1994, NY physicians were technically barred by
their standards of practice from utilizing complementary
practices. Because of this, and because many of the
paradigms of natural care differ from those of
conventional medicine and massage, the natural and
complementary professions evolved as unlicensed
professions in NY.
In 1994 the New York State legislature enacted
language intended to loosen the restrictions on the use
of some alternative practices by MD's and DO's. The jury
is still out on whether it is having the desired effect,
but it did little to broaden the public's access to low
cost natural and preventive disciplines. This is because
physicians generally do not have the time to develop
expertise in natural modalities. Further, the physicians
cannot hire natural and complementary specialists to work
in their offices because of the practitioners'
unlicensed status. In New York that employment may be viewed as
aiding and abetting a felony.
Police Action:
New York State has begun investigations or issued cease and
desist orders to many practitioners
including homeopaths, midwives, and
non-massage body workers, even in the absence of a claim
of irresponsible conduct or of the practice or
practitioners posing a risk to the public. These actions
were taken ONLY because these unlicensed professions
exist.
The Effects of the Problem:
The threat of state action has had an enormous chilling
effect on the growth and protection of consumer choice
in New York - at a time when more people than ever are seeking
preventive and natural, non-toxic, non-invasive care.
These state policies curtail consumer freedoms by
putting all natural practitioners, as well as those
doctors and institutions that would hire them, at risk
of closure or prosecution.
There are now hundreds of natural providers
practicing in New York with thousands of clients. The studies
of use of complementary care by the National Institutes
for Health and Harvard infer that thousands of otherwise
law abiding citizens are being pushed outside of the law
by outdated public policy when consumers choose an
unlicensed practitioner in New York. .
THE SOLUTION:
NYNCPP is asking our leaders in Albany to create
public policy that is consistent with 21st century
knowledge about maintaining our health and well being, and that is
consistent with the high standards of choice and
diversity that one expects to find in New York.
Since 1999, legislators in Minnesota, Rhode Island,
and California have passed consumer legislation that
assures broad public access to unlicensed natural
modalities. Appropriate protection for the public is
provided through these states' existing civil and
criminal statutes and case law, which also exist in New
York. Importantly, this legislation creates no new state
boards or bureaucracies and therefore little expense to
the state, to the practitioners, or to the consumer.
NYNCPP would like to see the same progress in New York.
WE BELIEVE:
NYNCPP supporters believe that New Yorkers and those
that travel to New York for services:
- are fully capable of making informed
decisions about who will care for us
- have been making these decisions everyday for 20
years, irrespective of the technicalities of licensing
law
- should be able to find information about and
practitioners of natural and complementary care as
readily as we find information about conventional medical
care and massage
- have a right to be secure in the knowledge
that our chosen providers will be free from unreasonable
investigation, prosecution, or closure by the state of
NY
- believe that the state of NY should refrain from
interfering in individuals' natural care decisions unless
there arises from the act of deciding or the act of
practice a demonstrable risk of harm
- believe that this 20 year history and
today's consumer climate demand a change in public policy
with respect to the public's access to information
about natural and complementary care and to natural
providers in New York.
NYNCPP continues to educate the public about the
impact of NYS licensing laws on access to low
cost natural and complementary choices and to work with
our state leaders to change the current NYS regulation
of natural arts and trades and the impact of regulation on
our choices of care.
