Legal Fund: Keep Acupuncture Safe

On December 11th, 2015 the Iowa Physical Therapy Board decided that “dry-needling,” an acupuncture needling technique, was within the scope of practice of Physical Therapists. We cannot let this stand, and have decided we need a Judicial Review of their decision. We are asking for your help because we need to raise funds for legal expenses that will be incurred while we seek to protect Acupuncture from practitioners and Regulatory Boards that feel they can use this healing art without proper education and safeguards.  

Up to this point Acupuncturists in the State of Iowa have been defending the medicine using the voice of the public, evidence gathered themselves, and their own funds.  They were counting on the Physical Therapy Board to make the ethical, legal, and safe choice regarding PTs using this invasive needle therapy.  Instead, the Board ruled against the safety of Iowans. 

 This Go-Fund-Me fundraiser will be used for legal expenses to help the Iowa Association of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture maintain Acupuncture laws and safety in the State of Iowa.

Every practitioner that inserts an acupuncture needle into the human body should be held to the same standards of training. Dry needling is acupuncture, and as such Physical Therapists and others should be held to the same standards as Acupuncturists in the State of Iowa if they want to utilize acupuncture needle therapies.

In the State of Iowa, Licensed Acupuncturists have the following minimum requirements:

-One must graduate from an accredited college  with 2000+ hours of training in Acupuncture (at least 500 of those must be in a supervised clinical setting),

-One must take and pass the National Exams set by the National Certification Commission for  Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine,

-One must become nationally certified by National  Certification  Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and maintain this certification throughout their career with continuing education and certificate renewal every 4 years,

-One must submit for an Acupuncture License  from the Iowa Board of Medicine and maintain  it for the life of their career with continuing education and license renewal every 2 years.

Physical Therapists and other professions are not required to have this level of training nor are they supervised in their practice of this advanced acupuncture procedure, and they are fighting to keep it that way.  In fact, at the meeting with the Physical Therapy Board, they decided all the Physical Therapy practitioner has to do is be “competent” in order to needle.  There is also no way for the public to research and find out if their PT actually is “competent” to do the needling; the Physical Therapy Board itself has no way of knowing.  As Acupuncturists we know exactly how many people are using needles and our licensees are searchable online through the Iowa Medical Board . 

Physical Therapists argue that because they don’t know Chinese Medical Therory, the procedure they are performing is not acupuncture.  The truth of the matter is, they insert an acupuncture needle (purchased through Acupuncture supply companies) into the body to release tension in trigger points.  In Chinese medicine these “trigger points” are called Ashi points and have been used for thousands of years (about 3000 years) to release muscle tension and gain balance to the body.  The difference is the adverse, or negative effects, of dry needling are much higher than that of highly trained acupuncturists doing the same technique.  Physical therapists often have to have the patient sit with ice packs and take pain medication afterwards, whereas adverse effects with a Licensed Acupuncturist are rare.

Physical Therapists take a weekend course (often a mere 24 hours) in dry needling.  They have very few hours of actual hands-on training and receive no supervision once the class is over. The PT Board argued that since there haven’t been adverse effects reported to the Iowa Board regarding this matter, Iowa’s physical therapists are “competent” at this technique, even though they have no idea how many therapists are practicing dry-needling in Iowa.  The PT Board ignored the nationwide injury reports from PT’s performing this technique and also ignored the statements made by the physical therapists in the room that patients are instructed in how to deal with soreness, bruising, etc after a session of dry needling.  When patients are told adverse side effects are “normal,” then why would they report the practitioner?  We cannot sit back and wait until people begin reporting punctured lungs or organs to stop this.

Please join us in maintaining Acupuncture as the safe and effective medicine it is, for the sake of all Iowans.  Join us in standing up against the Iowa Board of Physical Therapists and the American Physical Therapy Association and show them you want them to remain experts and practice within the scope of Physical Therapy. Please make your contribution today; every dollar counts!  We are protecting our rights as Acupuncturists, but more than that, we are doing our best to protect all Iowans, as they will be the ones winning in the end.  They will be the ones to know that when they go in for an acupuncture treatment, their practitioner is highly trained to provide them with healing, not harm.

Thank you for your support!