BILL NUMBER: SB 1446INTRODUCED 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.