To support the new entry-level Oriental Medical Doctor (OMD) degree by NOMAA while at the same time supporting the 'grandfathering' for all the 'elders' of the profession by adoption of state titles to incorporate this realistic transition;

To work toward eliminating discriminatory reimbursement practices in all areas of reimbursement, and at the same time, towards the inclusion of acupuncture and oriental medical benefits in healthcare plans by the best educated and clinically trained AP/OM licensed practitioners;

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Improving the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII)
and Standards for Health-Related Data

Draft Resolution
September 3, 2003

WHEREAS, the American people are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, through the exercise of the individual freedom in a manner that does not infringe on the freedoms of others, and these rights are applicable to their pursuit of wellness and healthcare;

WHEREAS, the federal government has committed to supporting these freedoms through the application of information and communications technologies to the health industry that have supported greater consumer choice and wealth-generating efficiencies in other industries;

WHEREAS, a cost-effective national health information infrastructure, free of special interest influence and control, is needed to:
1) compile, analyze and disseminate health-advancing information from all health industry stakeholders, including public and private, community, minority and ethnic, and faith-based organizations,

2) provide impartial information on best practices to health, healthcare, and health policy decision makers, and

3) help the greatest number of people exercise their individual freedoms and get the right care in the right place at the right time, at the lowest possible cost;

WHEREAS, the federal government is supporting a public-private collaboration to develop impartial standards for health-related data to:
1) support an optimal information architecture,
2) align financial and other incentives of consumers, caregivers and organizations (e.g., through tax-benefits for achievement of targeted health improvements),
3) enhance health surveillance to support homeland security,
4) support research and population health,
5) enhance safety and quality, and
6) help protect privacy and confidentiality;

WHEREAS, the building blocks of an effective health information infrastructure are currently incomplete and flawed, and compromise the nation's ability to:
1) identify public health risks (such as bioterrorism and viral epidemics),
2) avoid individual health risks (such as medical errors and adverse reactions),
3) reverse disparities in health based on income, race and ethnicity,
4) make comparisons of economic and health outcomes of conventional, complementary and alternative approaches to care, to identify the best practices available,
5) improve healthcare accessibility, quality and cost-management, and
6) support better health policy decisions;

WHEREAS, the federal government committed to specific improvement in the health information infrastructure for administrative simplification, including standardization of transactions and code sets under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA);

WHEREAS, complete, accurate and precise clinical and administrative codes are essential to:
1) support healthcare research, management, and commerce;
2) help those who finance, administer, and deliver care make better decisions; and
3) give consumers reliable information on the cost and benefits of care and greater freedom to secure the care they prefer;

WHEREAS, the HIPAA code sets are oriented toward conventional physician-directed and dentist-directed disease-based models of care, and the HIPAA code set evaluation and naming process is dominated by conventional allopathic practitioners who could benefit financially from the restriction of standards for health-related data to allopathic approaches to care;

WHEREAS, new codes are needed to reflect alternative medicine, nursing and other forms of integrative healthcare (such as the approaches to wellness and healing taken on behalf of impoverished, minority and ethnic populations).

WHEREAS, older code sets are designed, developed and overseen in a manner that facilitates special interest control over the financing, administration and delivery of care by practitioners in healthcare professions other than their own;

WHEREAS, complete, accurate and precise codes will help health, healthcare and health policy decision makers to:
1) more easily identify the least costly and most beneficial interventions,
2) support the exercise of individual freedoms in relation to wellness and healthcare, and
3) get the greatest number of people the right care in the right place at the right time, at the lowest possible cost;

WHEREAS, incomplete and flawed standards within the national health information infrastructure result in systemic inefficiencies and dependencies that block access to quality care, raise the cost of care, and lead American workers to choose employment on the basis of health coverage rather than their potential to contribute productively to the economy, to the detriment of national socioeconomic development;

BE IT RESOLVED, that we urge the federal government to pass regulations or law to ensure the nation's clinical and administrative codes are developed and managed in an open and impartial manner that
1) precludes special interests from withholding or assigning codes in a manner that restricts competition or limits consumer choice;
2) supports scientific assessments of the relative economic and health outcomes of integrative healthcare, as well as complementary and alternative approaches to physician-directed, dentist-directed and other disease-based models of care; and
3) supports the collection, analysis, and dissemination of health-related data, information and knowledge on all facets of wellness and healthcare to support wellness and improve individual and public health, business, and industry efficiencies, and socioeconomic development;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge
1) federal and state governments to explore immediate remedies to national health information infrastructure challenges that compromise the rights of Americans, in order to empower them to control their healthcare expenditures and choose the care that is best for them;

2) federal and state governments to initiate a criminal investigation into the business practices of organizations whose members are enriched by disease, to explore and counter the possibility of systemic and institutionalized perpetuation of disease, restraint of trade, anti-trust and/or racketeering practices (e.g., control of data collection, coverage and reimbursement, pricing, licensing, scope of practice and case management); and
3) the state attorney generals and U.S. employers to jointly explore the potential for a lawsuit against the federal government for having supported any statutory monopolies by the conventional allopathic profession that limits competition in healthcare to:
" the financial detriment of the states and U.S. employers and
" the detriment of the health and rights of the American people.