SB 1255 Summary

• Modifies the acupuncture board composition effective January 2022, reducing acupuncturist members from four to three with one year (instead of three years) of practice experience required, and adding one member certified in auricular acupuncture.

• Reduces consumer board members from three to two and requires two additional consumer members for appointments made on or after January 18, 2022, while reducing health professional members from two to one.

• Expands the definition of "acupuncture" to remove the requirement that needles reach "a distant site" and clarifies the use of adjunctive therapies.

• Adds "trauma" as a treatable condition under the acupuncture detoxification specialist certification program and requires auricular acupuncturists to obtain signed informed consent from patients before treatment.

• Changes continuing education renewal requirement from submission with application to submission upon board request, and updates terminology throughout for clarity and modernization.