Washington, DC (June 3, 2009) - The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians applauds the passage of Senate Bill 327 in the Oregon House, which expands prescribing authority for Naturopathic Doctors (ND) and will make Oregon’s naturopathic scope of practice one of the broadest in the nation. The bill ensures that Oregonians can use a range of health care options and receive the right care at the right time.

"Oregon is leading the nation in protecting patient’s rights to access care from a broad spectrum of healthcare professionals,” said Karen Howard, Executive Director of the AANP. “The more than three million licensed healthcare professionals who are not Doctors of Medicine or Osteopathy (MDs or DOs), including Naturopathic Doctors, are well-prepared to provide a diverse array of safe, effective and cost effective services to meet the growing needs of the American healthcare system.” Naturopathic Doctors have the education, training, and skills to act as primary care physicians. Their prescribing authority under Oregon state law was limited, however by 1950s statutes that stipulated that NDs could only prescribe “naturally-derived” substances.

The new law, which the Governor signed, would allow the licensing board for naturopathic physicians to add synthetic drugs to the formulary and to authorize prescribing based on public need and evidence-based clinical reasoning rather than a drug’s composition. While most pharmaceutical substances are “naturally-derived” and the current naturopathic formulary is already quite extensive, some commonly used primary care drugs are excluded, such as hydrochlorothiazide, a synthetic medication widely used to treat high blood pressure.

“There is a divisive movement to restrict the valuable services provided by some healthcare professionals, which will limit patient access to safe, high quality and cost effective healthcare,” continued Howard. “With growing demands on the American healthcare system – including healthcare provider shortages, spiraling costs and more than 45 million uninsured Americans – now is the time for all healthcare professions to work together, not against one another, to advance the health and well-being of patients. We are delighted that Oregon is leading the way towards an inclusive model that is the key to fixing our broken health care system.”

The bill is slated to go into effect in January 2010 to allow the Formulary Council time to review appropriate additional medications to add to the naturopathic formulary.