Maryland Acupuncture Society News

MAS hosted a CEU seminar by Alex Tiberi Seminar March 15 & 16, 2008. He presented one day of: Yang Sheng (Longevity and Health) & Spirituality in Chinese Medicine and another day of: Breast and Prostate Health. A recording was made of the seminar. The seminar was attended by 97 people.

Click here for a copy of the seminar brochure or click here to see the same information on a web page.

During 2007 the Maryland State Board of Acupuncture established a new computer system to keep track of licenses. All records were thoroughly crossed checked with the paper files. The State Board also added to there website the ability to check an acupuncture license. This is done by going to http://dhmh.state.md.us/bacc/, and clicking on the link for License Verification. The board can be reached for corrections at: (410) 764-4766, or email dobbinsc@dhmh.state.md.us

The MAS membership campaign was held from October 1, 2007 through Jan 31, 2008. Only 17% did not renew! This is the best renewal campaign since detailed records have been kept. A mailing was sent on November 19th, 2007 to all new acupuncturists who have been licensed in the last two years, inviting them to join the MAS.

As of December 2007 there were 820 active licensed acupuncturists in Maryland based on information from the State Board of Acupuncture web site. In July 2006 there were 829 active acupuncturists so there has been a slight decline in the number of active acupuncturists in Maryland. Since July 2006, 92 new licenses have been granted by the state, but 101 acupuncturists have not renewed their licenses, or gone inactive.

As of December 2007, 139 acupuncturist's licenses are in an "Inactive" state. This means they can return to active practice if they pay the current license fee and show their continuing education is up to date. The board now limits acupuncturists to being inactive for a maximum of 6 years. But it is an easy option to allow an acupuncturist to take time off for whatever reason as going inactive only requires a one time fee of $100. Between July 2006 and December 2007, 24 of the 101 licenses that did not stay active were licenses that were made inactive.

299 members of MAS are licensed acupuncturists, so that is over 36% of Maryland licensed acupuncturists.

1509 Licenses have been granted since the board came into existence in 1984. That means 689 did not renew or became inactive (45%). This attrition rate is higher than the old rate of about 41% that existed in July 2006.

MAS gave another successful benefit seminar on Ethics on January 13, which was taught by Jack Daniel. 77 Acupuncturists attended the seminar on Sunday Morning at the Sheraton. Jack M. Daniel M.Ac.(UK), L.Ac., Dipl. Ac.,(NCCAOM), is Founder of The Whole Circle. He has practiced and taught Acupuncture in the United States and England since 1973 and professionally teaches ethics for acupuncturists.

The seminar was co-coordinated by Maureen Nelis and Margie Siauw. This will be Maureen's last seminar as coordinator.

At the end of November 2008, Maureen Nelis retired as continuing education chair and vice-president of internal-affairs. Maureen served MAS since 2002 when she began coordinating seminars for MAS as a committee volunteer. For the last 5 years she has been an essential part of the MAS team putting on the continuing education seminars, keeping the seminars running smoothly and coordinating check-in volunteers. The board selected Margie Siauw, former MAS student liason, to serve the rest of Maureen's term through April 2008.

On Saturday and Sunday, November 17-18, 2007 Jeffrey Yuen presented a seminar on: Bi Obstruction Syndrome - The Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Aspects of Pain. 256 attendees registered for the seminar, which made this the largest MAS seminar ever held. The seminar was held at the Sheraton in Columbia. Click here for more detailed information.

This time there was a special bonus seminar: "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Insurance Reimbursement* *but didn't know who to ask" presented by June Morfe.

The seminar was recorded (both parts) and the recording is for sale in the MAS website store. The only glitch in the program was that the airline cancelled Jeffrey Yuen's incoming flight. However, the MAS staff smoothly dealt with the problem, moved the lunch break to 10am, Jeffrey arrived on the next plane, and spoke from 11:30 to 5pm.

For the first time, MAS started using auxiliary projector screens and a special camera that allowed everyone in the room to clearly see Jeffrey Yuen's interesting hand written notes and diagrams as he drew them and see his face clearly as he spoke. There had been complaints in the past due to the large attendance for this speaker that attendees could not see clearly.

MAS was a major local co-sponsor of the 2007 Annual Conference of the Society for Acupuncture Research. The theme of this conference was The Status and Future of Acupuncture Research: 10 Years Post - NIH Consensus Conference. This conference was held locally at the University of Maryland in Baltimore (November 8-11, 2007) and was an excellent opportunity for MAS members and all acupuncturists to hear about the current state of research in acupuncture.

For more information visit the SAR website at: www.acupunctureresearch.org.

Building Bridges of Integration for Traditional Chinese Medicine – Transformation: Individuals in Balance; Families in Harmony is a landmark educational forum on traditional Chinese medicine for Eastern and Western health-care professionals interested in exploring this medical system’s growing role in integrative and complementary health care. October 18-21, 2007. Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles Hotel, Chantilly, Virginia. Visit www.tcmconference.org or call 1-888-TCM-6909. CMEs/CEUs pending. 20% discount off registration fee for Affiliate members.

The MAS Annual Membership Meeting was held Sunday, April 22, 2007 from 12-2 PM at the site of the Auriculotherapy seminar at the Sheraton Columbia. approximately 100 MAS Members were in attendance. At the meeting, members of the executive board presented reports of the boards activities this past year and future plans. Alice Neily, the MAS lobbyist, gave a presentation on activity in the Maryland legislature. MAS representatives used the past year to make themselves familiar and trusted to newly elected legislators.

Another exciting MAS benefit was announced at the meeting - Prior to the Fall MAS CEU seminar with Jeffrey Yuen on Saturday, November 17, June Morfe of Account Advantage, an insurance billing service, will give a presentation on maximizing patient reimbursements when they submit insurance claims. June recommends that all acupuncturists obtain an NPI number NOW. See our links page to obtain the number or click here, then click on National Provider Identifier.

The membership present re-elected MAS board members Steven Solomon as President, Della Aubrey-Miller as Treasurer, Ta-Ya Lee as Vice President of External Affairs, And Tricia Kramer as Member-At-Large.

MAS helped to sponsor the Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) organization in presenting a workshop on Maryland AWB Community-Style Acupuncture Leadership Training: How to do AWB Disaster and Trauma Work, July 13 - July 15, 2007, at the Sheraton Hotel - Columbia, Maryland. MAS members received a discount on the cost of the workshop. For more information, go to the AWB website (click on the following link). www.acuwithoutborders.org.

MAS held another successful seminar, this one by Terry Oleson on Auriculotherapy, on, April 21-22, 2007. Approximately 160 acupuncturists, physicians and other therapists enjoyed a lively presentation by Dr. Oleson who is the author of a landmark book in this field. Participants did hands-on work with finding ear points, and learned everything necessary to utilizing the information for diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of problems.

The one day seminar on Ethics for 4 hours (fulfilling the NCCAOM requirement for Ethics) and working with Insurance companies for the next 3 hours, a total of 7 CEUs, was held on January 21,2007. Debra Persinger led an interactive exploration of common ethical dilemmas that acupuncturists could face in their practices. Jama Allers gave a high powered presentation as an advocate for health care practitioners on how to negotiate contracts, file claims, have the right paperwork and, making appeals against health insurance companies. Even though a snowstorm was brewing outside the hotel, the approximately 70 attendees' attention was riveted by the speakers!

The most recent information from the Maryland State Board of Acupuncture shows that the number of licensed acupuncturists in Maryland is declining! As of January 2007 there are 772 active licensed acupuncturists in Maryland. This is a overall decrease of 57 licenses since July 2006. Between July and January, 32 new licenses were granted, but 89 licenses expired and were not renewed.

1555 Licenses have been granted since the board came into existence in 1984, and 783 (50%) did not renew or have became inactive (including those who move out of state). Note that in July 2006 the attrition rate was only 41%.

The MAS membership renewal campaign for 2007 ended at the end of January 2007! We sent out the official mailed notice on October 19, 2006. These results are similar to the year before - every year about 1/4 of the membership fails to renew, but we get new members to take their place!

The MAS CEU seminar featuring the return of Giovanni Maciocia was attended by 166 people. The seminar began with a detailed look at the Extraordinary Vessels and on the second day covered Advanced Tongue Diagnosis. Giovanni Maciocia's long-term clinical experience allowed him to give many valuable insights on these subjects. The seminar was held November 18-19, 2006, at the Sheraton in Columbia, Maryland.

On October 3, 2006 MAS sent out a survey to Maryland licensed acupuncturists who had never joined MAS (to ask them why they have never joined!) and acupuncturists who were members many years ago. Those who returned the surveys had a chance to win a free MAS CEU seminar!

Click here for details.

In the 10 month period between September 2005 and July 2006, the number of licensed acupuncturists went up by 22. There were 56 new licenses granted during that time, but 34 did not renew or became inactive. 1423 Licenses have been granted since the board came into existence in 1984, and 594 (41%) did not renew or have became inactive (including those who move out of state).

As of September 2005 there were 807 active acupuncturists licensed by the State of Maryland and 300 (37%) were members of MAS. By July 2006 the number of active acupuncturists had risen to 829 and 285 were members of MAS (34.3%)

The MAS held a special members-only seminar on Gua Sha and Cupping on July 16, 2006 from 9 am to 4 pm at the Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center. The seminar was taught by a team of instructors and volunteer assistants headed by Barbra Esher, and included hands on practice of  arts of cupping and gua sha. The seminar was attended by over 75 MAS members and was about one quarter students.

The MAS hosted a seminar by Alex Tiberi on Point Combinations for Common Difficult Problems April 8-9, 2006. Attendees were pleased with Alex Tiberi's exciting presentation style and the large quantities of practical, "no-nonsense" information that he gave out during the seminar on topics ranging from breathing and digestive disorders to cosmetic acupuncture. /p>

We had 156 attendees registered. The last time Alex Tiberi was here in 2003, we had a total attendance of 120!

The MAS Annual Membership Meeting was held Sunday, April 9, 2006 from 12-2 PM. Approximately 1/3 of the MAS membership was present for the meeting. Board members presented reports for the year, and the MAS lobbyist, Alice Neily gave a report. There was a long spirited discussion regarding the topic of acupuncturists and the insurance industry. Barbra Esher stepped down as vice president of internal affairs, and Maureen Nelis, chair of Continuing Education was elected in her place. Barbra will continue to serve MAS as the continuing education coordinator and bring exciting seminar speakers to future MAS CEU seminars! Nancee Baysinger replaced Margie Siauw as the Student Liaison. Attendees enjoyed a sumptuous buffet with vegetarian and seafood-tarian gourmet delights.

The MAS membership renewal campaign for the 2005-2006 year was in progress from October 2005 to January 2006. The table shows the final results of the campaign - better than last year, when 110 (27%) failed to renew.

The Jeffrey Yuen fall MAS CEU seminar, November 19 -20, 2005 - Manifestations of Shen. was a big success. It was the largest CEU seminar put on by MAS to-date with 245 registered, and thanks to the efforts of Maureen Nelis, Continuing Education chair, Barbra Esher, Continuing Education Coordinator, and a hardworking staff of 10 volunteers, everything went smoothly.

Jeffrey Yuen, as usual, was amazing in the amount of knowledge he displayed on the subject of the shen. A thorough background was given and many specific treatments were described to work with shen disturbances.

At the MAS board meeting on November 18, 2005, the associate membership was defined, and a previous membership category, the allopathic provider membership, was expanded and renamed to the allied health care provider membership.

The associate membership has no voting privileges, does not get seminar discounts, and is basically a newsletter subscription.

The allied health care provider membership is intended for any person who works in the health care field, ranging from MD’s to Shiatsu practitioners, nurses, massage therapists, and psychotherapists. There are no voting priviledges (voting is only allowed for licensed Maryland acupuncturists as defined in the MAS bylaws). The allied health care practitioner membership is $100 per year.

In April 2005, the Maryland Acupuncture Society opposed pending Maryland State legislation, HB 1305. House Bill 1305 mandated the inclusion of "alternative health care" into the Maryland State employees health benefit package with savings off the "hides" of acupuncturist providers going to a for-profit company out of Chicago.

Click here for a link to the Maryland State Government web page describing the bill.

Click here for a suggested letter to write to delegates.

Click here for delegates to whom letters should be written.

Click here for a letter written by our legislative consultant to the sponsor of the bill.

The MAS Seminar on Ethical Issues for Acupuncturists & A Pathway Through the CPT Code Jungle seminar was held on Saturday May 14, 2005 from 9 am to 4:30 pm in Laurel, Maryland. 80 acupuncturists attended the seminar. Some of the information from the seminar on CPT codes for acupuncture has been placed on our web site under the reports and documents section. Click Here to see the information.

In the six month period between September 14, 2004 and March 8, 2005, the number of licensed acupuncturists went up by 27. There were 43 new licenses granted during that time, but 16 did not renew or became inactive. 1332 Licenses have been granted since the board came into existence in 1984, and 548 (41%) did not renew or have became inactive.

The MAS annual meeting was held April 2, 2005, 12-2 PM at the Holiday Inn BWI, during the lunch break for the Kiiko Matsumoto seminar. There was a free buffet for all MAS members attending the meeting. John Howard was elected by the MAS membership present to fill the position of Secretary and Newsletter Editor to replace Ruby Bienert, who is retiring this year. Tricia Kramer was elected to the position of member at large and membership chair to replace Carolyn Shenmen who is leaving the area. Ta-Ya Lee was elected to the position of vice president of external affairs.

136 People attended the Kiiko Matsumoto/David Euler Seminar on April 2-3, 2005 The topics of the seminar were Auto-immune diseases and Pain Management. Actual volunteer patients from the audience were treated and observed with a video camera and projector allowing everyone in the room to see the needling close up. Kiiko Matsumoto demonstrated her technique of working with diagnostic palpated reflex zones found at the abdomen, neck, and back and using needling techniques to produce immediate changes in the reflex zones. David Euler was on hand to provide insight and commentary during the treatments, as well as providing a steady hand for the camera.

The MAS seminar by Giovanni Maciocia was held on October 23-24, 2004, 9am to 5pm. The subject of the seminar was: The Psyche: 5 Sprits (Saturday) and Gynecology (Sunday). The seminar was held at the Hilton Hotel in Columbia, Maryland.

229 people attended the seminar. Of these 14 attended Saturday only, and 13 attended Sunday only. 7 new members joined MAS at the seminar!

Between January 13, and September 14, 2004 the number of licensed acupuncturists went up by 11. There were 69 new licenses granted during that time, but 58 did not renew or became inactive. 1289 Licenses have been granted since the board came into existence in 1984, and 532 (41%) did not renew or became inactive over the 10 years, so 53 per year is the average number of acupuncturists who do not continue their licenses due to moving out of state or ceasing to practice acupuncture.

As of September 14, 2004 there were 757 acupuncturists licensed by the State of Maryland and 273 were members of MAS.

204 People Registered for the MAS CEU seminar with Jeffrey Yuen on Cancer Care and Chinese Medicine, April 3-4, 2004. Over 2 days they listened to an enormous amount of knowledge being presented about cancer care via acupuncture, herbology, diet, qi-gong, and attitude. A 10 CD recording was made of the seminar.

The MAS annual meeting was held April 3, 2004. All board members were re-elected unanimously, except the president, who is retiring. Steve Buckingham, the lobbyist who has served MAS for many years, is moving on and MAS will have a new lobbyist, Alice Neily.

Later that year (August) , the board found and appointed an acting president, Steven Solomon.

On September 23, 2003, MAS presented a free workshop to MAS members. The speaker was Hope Karan Gerecht, who taught the group on principles of Feng Shui for the offices of the attendees. With over 17 years of experience in the field, Hope gave a broad view of many systems of Feng Shui and many practical suggestions to improve the flows of energy or qi in building space. Over 50 members attended the workshop.

On Sept 5-8, 2003 MAS presented 4 days of CEU seminars. There were 143 registered participants. On Friday, Arya Neilsen described and demonstrated the fascinating Gua Sha technique, and in the afternoon, 94 attendees practiced the technique on each other under the supervision of Arya. The next day, Jake Fratkin lectured on Chinese Herbal Patent Formulas that can be used to treat acute conditions such as the common cold, menstrual cramps, sprains, and so forth. He was very specific in his information, giving recommendations to the 64 attendees on what he believed to be superior formulas when 4 or 5 were available from different sources. On Sunday, Daverick Leggett, affectionately dubbed the "food chart guy," spoke to 85 attendees on the chinese energetics of food, backed up by an array of actual foods on the table behind him ranging from black sesame seeds to a huge cabbage.

On Monday, 20 of these attendees gathered at the York Inn on York Road in Cockeysville, Maryland, with a large collection of foods and were broken into groups and assigned Chinese medicine patterns of imbalance and asked to create a recipe to treat this imbalance. The group then descended on the restaurant kitchen under the supervision of restaurateurs Steve and Pete Theodorophoulos and Daverick's guidance to simultaneously create over 10 delicious (and therapeutic) dishes which were then consumed by the group as a very special buffet lunch!

At the end of February 2003, the Senate Education, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee Killed Senate Bill SB117, which would have mandated passage of the NCCAOM exam in Acupuncture for licensure in the state of Maryland.

This means that the bill WILL NOT be sent to the Senate or the House of Delegates for a vote, and is officially a non-issue as of this time.

Many MAS members sent e-mails, and phone calls and letters to the Senate Committee voicing opposition to the bill. The majority of the committee members felt these messages had a powerful impact on the defeating of this bill.

Once again, the dedication and activism of MAS members for protecting the diversity of Acupuncture traditions in our state has won the day.

Follow up: at the annual meeting in April 2003, Steve Buckingham reported that the parts of the bill that addressed fixes to the current law (such as closing a loophole that allowed students to take the NCCAOM exam and be licensed before graduation) were done using the "sunset" review of the state acupuncture board. Thanks to Steve!

On Friday, January 10, 2003, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., the Maryland Acupuncture Board hosted a HIPAA Education and Awareness Session, free of charge, to assist Maryland acupuncture licensees understand the requirements of HIPPA’s new Privacy and Transaction regulations. Each participate was granted four (4) hours of continuing education for attendance.

WHAT IS HIPPAA? President Clinton enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) The U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) drafted regulations to guarantee patient's new rights and protections against the misuse or disclosure of their health records; released in December 2000, these regulations affect health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers. All medical records and other individually identifiable health information held or disclosed by a covered entity in any form, whether communicated electronically, on paper, or orally are covered under the final rule. The effective date for the Privacy Standards is February 26, 2003.

For MAS news from 2002 and 2001, click here.