Acupuncture In California: Licensing, Training, Standards, Safety
The practice and scope of Licensed Acupuncturists (L.Ac.s) in California is defined by the Acupuncture Licensure Act of the Business and Professions Code . Acupuncture is established as a “primary health care profession, ” and is defined as “the stimulation of…points on or near the surface of the body by insertion of needles to prevent or modify the perception of pain or to normalize physiological functions, including pain control, for the treatment of certain diseases or dysfunctions of the body and includes the techniques of electro-acupuncture, cupping, and moxibustion. ” Subsequent legal opinions from the Dept. of Consumer Affairs have clarified that the Act authorizes L.Ac.s to “diagnose a patient’s condition” and “to order blood and laboratory tests…and x-rays.”

The California Labor Code includes acupuncturists in the definition of “physician.” Licensed Acupuncturists may serve as Primary and Secondary Treating Physicians in the Workers Compensation system .

The Act designates the California Acupuncture Board (CAB) under the Department of Consumer Affairs to regulate the L.Ac. profession. CAB regulations require that applicants to the California Acupuncture Licensing Exam demonstrate completion of a training program approved by the CAB.

Training programs must include a minimum of basic sciences and clinical medicine (558 hours), acupuncture diagnosis and therapy (660 hours), traditional oriental herbology (300 hours) and clinical observation and supervised practice (800 hours), and passage of a national examination in Clean Needle Technique (OSHA Universal Precautions, etc.) .
L.Ac.s are required to complete 30 units of Continuing Education every 2 years.

Standards of Practice addressing conditions of office, treatment procedures, record keeping, advertising, unprofessional conduct, etc. are also defined and regulated by the CAB . Conformance with existing standards for the prevention of infectious disease transmission (OSHA Blood-borne Pathogens standards) and bio-hazardous waste disposal is required.

Acupuncture is a very safe medical modality when practiced by properly trained practitioners using modern anti-septic techniques. The employment of clean needle technique , universal precautions, and pre-sterilized, single-use disposable needles has virtually eliminated the risk of infectious disease transmission through acupuncture, and other adverse events are rare:
“Numerous retrospective clinical reports and at least five published systematic reviews of adverse events associated with acupuncture show that, in rare circumstances, acupuncture can produce the complications associated with any type of needle use…Prospective systematic surveillances of acupuncture adverse events…indicate that even routine irritating reactions from needles are rare…One study followed more than 55,000 treatments at an acupuncture training facility in Japan found 11 adverse effects associated with acupuncture treatment….The combined data from prospective and retrospective data indicate that ‘acupuncture is a very safe intervention in the hands of a competent practitioner’ ”.

The NIH report (1997) summarizes: “One of the advantages of acupuncture is that the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs or other accepted medical procedures used for the same conditions.”

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