AMA's Scope of Practice Partnership Targets 30 Legislative Efforts of DCs, NDs, LAcs and Certified Professional Midwives in 2009

Summary: The American Medical Association has been working in opposition to over 30 state legislative actions of naturopathic physicians, chiropractors, acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners and Certified Professional Midwives in 2009. The list of these actions, published here, is part of a broader list of 154 against all non-MD profession which the AMA as part of that guild's Scope of Practice Partnership campaign (AMA SOPP). The campaign, begun in 2006, is presented by the AMA as a public safety concern, though little evidence has materialized suggesting that this is other than an effort to keep other professions from entering the MDs turf. Here is the complete list of 30, and a link to the broader list of 154. 

A campaign against other disciplines

The American Medical Association's Scope of Practice Partnership (AMA SOPP) campaign, through which the AMA has been monitoring and typically fighting against scope expansions by non MDs since 2006 has its hands full. A chart from the AMA available here lists 154 separate legislative campaigns in various states in 2009 which it opposes. These are from professions ranging from psychologists, advance practice nurses and optometrists to naturopathic doctors and chiropractors and other nominally "CAM" disciplines. Below is the subset of actions related to complementary and alternative healthcare practices which made the AMA's watch list.

Of the 154 areas of concern to the AMA, 30 (19%) relate directly to the distinctly licensed, or would-be-licensed, complementary and alternative healthcare fields. Of these, 14 were legislative initiatives of naturopathic doctors, 8 of chiropractors, 6 those of certified professional midwives (homebirth-oriented direct-entry midwives) and 2 involving practitioners of acupuncture and Oriental medicine.

The mother of all coalitions: 35 organizations, led by nurses, and including DCs, NDs, LAcs and others

The AMA-SOPP campaign, initiated in 2006, stimulated the formation of the Coalition for Patients Rights, led by advanced practice nurses. (See initial Integrator article on the campaign,