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Maryland Acupuncture Society News |
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The Jeffrey Yuen Seminar on Addictions: Treating the Spiritual, Emotional and Physical Roots was held at the Sheraton Columbia April 4-5, 2009. The brochure may be downloaded by clicking here. Or the information in the brochure may be viewed on our website page. To hear the first 45 minutes of the seminar from Sunday, click here to download an mp3 (podcast) file. This is a large file, 16 megabytes, and may take a long time to download if you have a slow internet connection. This entire seminar was recorded and a recording can be ordered in the MAS internet store. The Jeffrey Yuen Addictions seminar CD contains some very handy features. 1. Each track has a distinctive title that shows up on your CD player. Even the questions are labeled. We are trying to get the titles in the main iTunes data base as well, so they will show up on your iPod. If someone knows how to do that, we would welcome your help! All track titles are also offered in an Excel file on-line. There are 13-23 tracks on each of the 10 CDs , logically divided |
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MAS started a group on the Facebook Website in March 2009. All MAS members are eligible to join. The group allows group discussions, and questions to be asked of MAS board members and other members, and photographs or other information to be left on the group. Click to go to the group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131147570105 |
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The MAS Annual Membership Meeting was held Sunday, April 5 during the Jeffrey Yuen Seminar lunch break. Tricia Kramer was re-elected as treasurer, Kathy Crosland was re-elected as member at large/membership chair, and Ta-Ya Lee was re-elected for a third term as vice president of external affairs. Board members gave reports, and Ta-Ya Lee gave a report on a recent study she made on insurance reimbursement. |
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The MAS membership renewal campaign for 2008 ran from October 2008 to January, 2009. The table below shows the number of members whose memberships expired at the end of October, 2008. After the initial emailed request, we had 14 members immediately renew, and 13 more before the Hicks seminar early registration deadline. By the time that the letter asking members to renew was being prepared for mailing, we had 13 more renew. On October 30, a letter was sent out to 67 members whose memberships had expired in the last two years. By the time this letter was ready, 44 more members had sent in their renewals! By the end of the weekend portion of the Angela and John Hicks seminar, 67 more members had renewed. A final notice was sent January 28, 2009 to members who had not renewed, and the final tally was 85 who did not renew by the deadline, 20% of the membership which is not as good as the year before, but these were challenging times!
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MAS sponsored another member benefit seminar on Saturday, January 31 from 8am to 5pm. The American Acupuncture Council Network presented a seminar entitled: How to Maximize Insurance Reimbursement for your Patient and for the Acupuncturists. The normal fee for the seminar was $179 at the door. MAS members who preregistered could take the course for $75. Click here to download the flyer. MAS was not handling registration for this. |
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As of July 2008 there were 818 active licensed acupuncturists in Maryland based on information from the State Board of Acupuncture web site. 6 months before there were 820 active acupuncturists so there has been a slight decline in the number of active acupuncturists in Maryland. Since December 2007, 59 new licenses have been granted by the state, but 61 acupuncturists have not renewed their licenses, or gone inactive. As of July 2008, 155 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. 297 members of MAS are licensed acupuncturists, so that is over 36% of Maryland licensed acupuncturists. 1557 Licenses have been granted since the board came into existence in 1984. The attrition rate since 1984 now averages 48% over the 24 years that acupuncturists have been licensed, up from 45% last December and 41% in July 2006. |
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MAS brought one of the masters of the acupuncture style known as Toyohari to Maryland on The seminar was conducted by Junko Ida, and assisted by several other experienced Toyohari practitioners. The seminar offered lots of hands on practice, alternating supervised practice with lecture. Toyohari offers non-inserted needling techniques, as well as pulse and palpation diagnosis, and the attendees were able to practice all of these under the watchful eye of the teacher and assistants. an agenda for the seminar may be found here. Thanks to Zoë Brenner, Martin Feldman, Beth Creeger, Anne Garnett, and Carol Kari who assisted Junko Ida with the teaching. And thanks to Margie Siauw, the new continuing education chair, who made the arrangements for the speaker and the venue and made sure the seminar operated smoothly. |
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The MAS president, Steven Solomon, gave the report on State of Maryland llegislative activities as Alice Neely Mutch, the MAS contracted legislative consultant, was not able to attend. One event that occurred this past year was an attempt by the State Board of Acupuncture to put through a "clean-up" bill that would have made small changes to the acupuncture law. This attempt was not successful and MAS supported the withdrawal of the bill because some legislators expressed interest in making substantive statutory changes to the scope of practice and putting limits on what "acts" could be performed by acupuncturists. A discussion was held on the practice of herbology within the scope of acupuncture. A motion was passed to establish a committee to educate legislators and lobbyists on herbology. There were changes in the board Officers. Della Aubrey Miller, who has served as treasurer since 2001, has resigned, and Tricia Kramer (who has served as member-at-large) was appointed to her place. The Secretary, John Howard, was re-elected. Steven Solomon was re-elected to his third term as President. Several new members have joined the board. Margie Siauw was elected as Vice President of Internal Affairs and Kathy Crosland was appointed as Member-at-large. The members voted to change the bylaws to make a new board position, the Vice President of Public Affairs, and Della Aubrey Miller was elected to this position. The newest Student Liaison was introduced to the members. Belynda White is replacing Nancee Baysinger who has graduated from Tai Sophia Institute. |
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Click here for a copy of the seminar brochure or click here to see the same information on a web page. |
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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 |
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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.
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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. |
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The seminar was co-coordinated by Maureen Nelis and Margie Siauw. This will be Maureen's last seminar as coordinator. |
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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. |
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For more information visit the SAR website at: www.acupunctureresearch.org. |
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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 Della Aubrey-Miller as Treasurer, Ta-Ya Lee as Vice President of External Affairs, And Tricia Kramer as Member-At-Large. |
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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%. |
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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! |
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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. |
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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%) |
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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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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![]() 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. |
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| 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. |
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![]() 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. |
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229 people attended the seminar. Of these 14 attended Saturday only, and 13 attended Sunday only. 7 new members joined MAS at the seminar! |
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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. |
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Later that year (August) , the board found and appointed an acting president, Steven Solomon. |
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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.
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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! |
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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.
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For MAS news from 2002 and 2001, click here. |