BILL NUMBER: SB 1446	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Negrete McLeod

                        FEBRUARY 24, 2012

   An act to amend Section 3640 of the Business and Professions Code,
relating to healing arts.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1446, as introduced, Negrete McLeod. Naturopathic doctors.
   Existing law, the Naturopathic Doctors Act, provides for the
licensure and regulation of naturopathic doctors by the Naturopathic
Medicine Committee in the Osteopathic Medical Board of California.
Existing law authorizes a naturopathic doctor to perform various
tasks, including ordering and performing physical and laboratory
examinations for diagnostic purposes. Existing law specifies that
this authority does not exempt a naturopathic doctor from meeting
applicable licensure requirements for the performance of clinical
laboratory tests.
   This bill would add a technical cross-reference in that provision
to the provisions of existing law relating to clinical laboratory
technology.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 3640 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   3640.  (a) A naturopathic doctor may order and perform physical
and laboratory examinations for diagnostic purposes, including, but
not limited to, phlebotomy, clinical laboratory tests, speculum
examinations, orificial examinations, and physiological function
tests.
   (b) A naturopathic doctor may order diagnostic imaging studies,
including X-ray, ultrasound, mammogram, bone densitometry, and
others, consistent with naturopathic training as determined by the
committee, but shall refer the studies to an appropriately licensed
health care professional to conduct the study and interpret the
results.
   (c) A naturopathic doctor may dispense, administer, order, and
prescribe or perform the following:
   (1) Food, extracts of food, nutraceuticals, vitamins, amino acids,
minerals, enzymes, botanicals and their extracts, botanical
medicines, homeopathic medicines, all dietary supplements and
nonprescription drugs as defined by the federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act, consistent with the routes of administration identified
in subdivision (d).
   (2) Hot or cold hydrotherapy; naturopathic physical medicine
inclusive of the manual use of massage, stretching, resistance, or
joint play examination but exclusive of small amplitude movement at
or beyond the end range of normal joint motion; electromagnetic
energy; colon hydrotherapy; and therapeutic exercise.
   (3) Devices, including, but not limited to, therapeutic devices,
barrier contraception, and durable medical equipment.
   (4) Health education and health counseling.
   (5) Repair and care incidental to superficial lacerations and
abrasions, except suturing.
   (6) Removal of foreign bodies located in the superficial tissues.
   (d) A naturopathic doctor may utilize routes of administration
that include oral, nasal, auricular, ocular, rectal, vaginal,
transdermal, intradermal, subcutaneous, intravenous, and
intramuscular.
   (e) The committee may establish regulations regarding ocular or
intravenous routes of administration that are consistent with the
education and training of a naturopathic doctor.
   (f) Nothing in this section shall exempt a naturopathic doctor
from meeting applicable licensure requirements for the performance of
clinical laboratory tests  , including   the
requirements imposed under Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 1200)
 .
   (g) The authority to use all routes for furnishing prescription
drugs as described in Section 3640.5 shall be consistent with the
oversight and supervision requirements of Section 2836.1.