ACUPUNCTURE

Summary
Hawai‘i’s
acupuncture license requirements are slightly lower than the national median.
It ranks in the top quintile in educational hours required, but in the bottom
quintile in examination and continuing education.
Requirement
|
Hawai‘i
|
Category Rank
|
National Median
|
OVERALL
RANK (quintile)
|
4
|
|
|
Education
|
2175
hours (1515 didactic and 660 clinical)
|
1
|
1725
hours (1065 didactic and 660 clinical)
|
Examination
|
2 parts
of the NCCAOM examination
|
5
|
4 parts
of the NCCAOM examination
|
Fees
|
$405
|
3
|
$405
|
Continuing
Education
|
None
|
5
|
12 hours
per year; twelve states, including Hawai‘i, do not require continuing
education.
|
Reciprocity
or Endorsement
|
Yes
|
5
|
Yes
|
Notes on acupuncture
ranking:
1 = most difficult, most requirements, highest fees.
5 = least difficult, fewest requirements, lowest fees.
Licensing: Eleven
states do not issue a separate acupuncture license. Some of those states define
acupuncture as part of the practice of medicine or chiropractic and may require
additional education, examination, or registration. We did not include the eleven
states in this study.
Education: Rank is based on the minimum
hours required by a state. Some states that require National Certification
Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) certification (which
requires completion of an accredited program) or completion of an Accreditation
Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM) accredited program may
not specify the minimum number of hours or may specify fewer hours than
required for ACAOM accreditation. We set the hours in those states at the ACAOM
minimum of 1725 hours. The ACAOM currently requires 1905 hours for students
entering a program after July 2004, however, students graduating in 2005 and
2006 fall under the lower requirement.
Examination: Rank is based on the number of parts of the
NCCAOM examination required and whether the state has its own examination. The
NCCAOM examination is required by all states, except California, and is in six parts. States
require passing from two to six parts of the examination. For purposes of this
study, the California
state examination is considered to be equivalent to two parts of the NCCAOM
examination.
Source: NCCAOM State Licensure Information (www.nccaom.org/StateData.htm).
Fees: Rank is based on the cost of an initial license, an
annualized renewal fee, and the application or registration fee for the
supervising physician. This reflects the cost of obtaining and renewing a license.
Continuing education: This is expressed as hours per year. Hawai‘i is one of twelve states that do not
require continuing education.
Reciprocity: Hawai‘i
is one of twenty-two states that provide some form of reciprocity or
endorsement.