SB 107-NATUROPATHS    CHAIR ELLIS announced SB 107 to be up for consideration. He said the committee had proposed CSSB 107(L&C) 25-LS0702\E before it. 2:02:18 PM DANA OWEN, staff to Senator Ellis, explained that SB 107 proposes to establish a structure that would regulate an expanded scope of practice for naturopaths in the State of Alaska. MR. OWEN noted that the title of the CS had been changed to reflect some of the changes. The first major change was on page 3, line 12. He explained that structure of the previous bill had two bodies that would regulate the practice of naturopathy; one would be a formulary commission and the other an advisory committee. This CS proposes to combine those two bodies into one called the Alaska Naturopathic Council - a concern of the Division of Occupational Licensing. The membership would consist of three naturopaths - one from outside the third judicial district, one would be a pharmacist and one would be a public member who may be a physician. This council retains all the powers and duties ascribed to each of the bodies in the previous bill. He noted that regarding the public member, physicians did not want to be forced into participating in this process over a concern for liability. CHAIR ELLIS clarified that it was part of the CS, but it needed to be fully discussed. MR. OWEN said Section 8 of the original bill was deleted in the CS; it amended the duties of the State Medical Board to include appointing a member of the Formulary Council, which was dropped in the CS. Section 10 has transitional provisions that reflect the blending of the two bodies. 2:04:15 PM SENATOR BUNDE asked if the makeup of the council had changed other than the medical doctor. MR. OWEN replied the numbers are the same as had been proposed for the Formulary Council before; the advisory committee had three members, but that was expanded with the combining. SENATOR BUNDE observed that most other councils have more public participation. In this case there is only one public member. TOM OBERMEYER, Staff to Senator Davis, sponsor of SB 107 stepped in to explain that the CS follows the general direction of the original bill, but it has changed substantially. He said the Alaska State Medical Association rejected this bill because it includes minor surgery and pharmaceutical use. The current version essentially waters down the controls that had been implemented in the initial bill by creating just one board that is supposed to be supervising everything - discipline, continuing education, pharmacy and the selection of all legend drugs by a pharmacist that is presumably appointed who also responsible for the drugs to be used along with IVs. The concern is that this practice is being changed into what the Medical Association would call primary care physicians. Naturopaths are not allowed to use the title "physician," but the four institutions that license them give them certificates of naturopathic physicians. Their main concern is that the public cannot be adequately protected - since physicians don't want to have any part of it and there will not be enough oversight to control everything. He said the State Medical Association pointed out in a letter to rd this committee last year that the 23 legislature had appointed a task force that did not fulfill its obligation of reporting the comparison of the training of medical doctors - their continuing internships and extensive hospital practice while they are in medical school - to that of naturopaths. CHAIR ELLIS asked if he had any comments about Senator Bunde's concern regarding the amount of public participation on the new board. MR. OBERMEYER replied that Massachusetts had a task force in 2002 that recommended a nine-member board. It was to include only three or four naturopaths and the remainder would be from the other medical professions and maybe a public member or two. So, it was an expanded board compared to this one. He said this is essentially a self-regulated board and it was determined by Massachusetts that naturopaths could not and should not supervise themselves. He said that naturopathy is growing in this country and he thought the state could work with the version they have. CHAIR ELLIS summarized that the committee should consider having more than one public member. MR. OBERMEYER agreed. 2:12:28 PM CHAIR ELLIS asked for any other requests from the committee. SENATOR BUNDE said he wanted to hear from the Division of Occupational Licensing and that he was disappointed the report on training comparison didn't get back to them because he thought he heard some inaccuracies in the report last year and had asked for them to report back. 2:13:47 PM SENATOR STEVENS said he didn't remember discussions on prescriptions and he wanted to know more about the ability naturopaths were being given for prescribing drugs. CHAIR ELLIS announced that SB 107 and the CS would be held over for further hearings.