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HerbalEGram: Volume 6, Number 6, June 2009
Unlicensed Health Care Practice Act Passes in New Mexico
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Passed by the New Mexico State Legislature on March 21 and signed by the governor on April 7th, the Unlicensed Health Care Practice Act protects unlicensed practitioners who practice complementary and alternative medicine, such as aromatherapy, folk healing, homeopathy, mind-body healing, holistic kinesiology, herbalism, and other various healing traditions.1
According to the new law, a health care practitioner may practice in New Mexico without a license under the provison that they do not do the following: perform surgery or set fractures on an individual, administer x-ray radiation, prescribe “dangerous drugs,” directly manipulate joints or the spine, physically invade the body in ways excluding topical treatments absorbed through the skin, recommend the discontinuation of treatment from a licensed professional, make a specific medical diagnosis, have sexual contact with current patients, falsely advertise, illegally use controlled substances, refer to one’s self as a licensed professional, engage in kickback referrals, or perform massage therapy without being a licensed massage therapist.
Though this is a particularly long list of the things an unlicensed healthcare practitioner cannot do, this new law allows a practitioner to practice without retribution, given they are not a former licensed individual with a suspended license, convicted of a felony—especially ones related to healthcare—of which a sentence has not be satisfied, or an individual who has been declared mentally unfit by law. Also an unlicensed practitioner must provide patients with a document that contains several pieces of relevant information required by this law, including a statement explaining that they are not licensed in the state of New Mexico.
Richard McDonald, owner of Desert Bloom Herbs, helped draft the Senate Memorial 20 bill 3 years ago from which this New Mexico bill was derived. “Thankfully, the bill was passed in the last 15 minutes of the 2009 New Mexico Legislative Session... a real nail-biter!” said McDonald (e-mail, June 1, 2009). “Very little of the original language contained in SM-20 remains in the current version. Mainly, just a list of various traditional titles of different cultural/traditional healers. The preamble was also removed, which would have given more of a historical ‘mindset’ of why the bill was constructed the way it was. This is unfortunate, because it would have let future politicians and the public remember what specific events led to the need for such legislation in the first place. At least, we now have a ‘safe harbor’ (in the offices of our practices), and also may still find a way to compete effectively within the herb market at large.”
According to the National Health Freedom Coalition, other states to pass similar legislation of what they refer to as “health freedom protection” include Louisiana, Rhode Island, California, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Idaho.2 The New Mexico law will take effect on July 1, 2009.
More information including the full text of the new law is available here.
—Kelly Saxton Lindner
References
1. Unlicensed Health Care Practice Act. HB 0664, 49th Leg, Regular session (NM 2009).
2. National Health Freedom Coalition Information page. National Health Freedom Coalition Website. Available at http://www.nationalhealthfreedom.org/info_center.html. Accessed May 22, 2009.
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