For over 20 years, NHFC and NHFA have worked to educate the public about, and pass, “Safe Harbor” laws to protect the use of complementary and alternative health care therapies by practitioners such as herbalists, homeopaths, traditional naturopaths and energy workers, who are not medical doctors, nurses, or other state licensed professionals. Safe harbor laws exempt these practitioners from criminal charges of practicing without a medical license as long as they avoid a list of prohibited acts such as puncturing the skin or giving out prescription medications, and as long as they provide disclosure to clients as to the services to be provided. 

But what about licensed medical professionals? When can they use alternative healing methods? For state licensed practitioners, many laws and regulations come into play when a practitioner goes outside of the accepted and prevailing standard of care. They can face disciplinary action by state medical and other licensing boards, civil actions for damages, and even criminal liability.

NHFA has developed a model legislative solution. NHFA’s model Expanded Practice Act, when passed, would expand the options for licensed practitioners and protect these professionals.

“Standard of care” used to limit options

In most states, licensed health professionals can face discipline for negligence when they work outside of the acceptable standards of care that apply to their field. Typical definitions include the “failure to use that degree of skill and learning ordinarily used under the same or similar circumstances by the members of defendant’s profession.” This type of definition can be used to preclude many possible treatments, from using ivermectin for COVID-19 when most doctors believe it does not work, to recommending homeopathy, herbs, or other natural remedies that are not within the mainstream standards of care.

Many states trying to make room for alternative medicine

Since 1998, many states have tried to give licensed health professionals more leeway in the use of alternative methods, but ongoing attacks on doctors who stray from mainstream standards of care, even under these laws, show that more protection is needed. In New York, physicians are allowed to use “whatever medical care, conventional or non-conventional, which effectively treats human disease, pain, injury, deformity, or physical condition.” However, doctors who stray from the standard of care are still vulnerable, and stronger protection is needed. In 2023, Utah passed legislation explicitly allowing deviation from “norms and established practices” when the treatment “has a reasonable potential to be of benefit to the patient” and other conditions are met.

Model Expanded Health Care Practice Act

NHFA’s Model Expanded Health Care Practice Act has three key principles: the treatment cannot pose a greater risk of harm when compared to a conventional treatment; the services must be provided with reasonable skill and safety; and patients are to receive expanded disclosures as to the approach being used, the practitioner’s training, and informed consent. A written acknowledgement from the patient that they have received these disclosures is also required.

We are here to help!

If you are a licensed health care professional, or a concerned patient or member of the public, and you would like to see an Expanded Practice Act in your state, NHFA is here to help! To get started, reach out to our Staff Attorney Steven O’Connor at sao1965@hotmail.com or (415) 939-7927. Mr. O’Connor and our NHFA lobbying consultant Nate Gorman are available to help you create space in your state for medical professionals to use their expertise in expanded methods of care.

National Health Freedom Action helps state groups that want to pass laws that protect health freedom. NHFA’s team of attorneys and advocates work with citizen groups, small and large, to provide the training, support, and tools, to help them succeed in their wish to protect health freedom.

If you have a committed group of individuals wanting to change the laws in your state, please reach out to us via email at info.nhfa@nationalhealthfreedom.org to set up an exploratory conversation. We would be happy to help in any we can. That is why we are here!