Volume XX | Month Day 20XX
2018 Year In Review & 2019 Upcoming Events
Dear Connecticut Licensed Acupuncturists,

Happy New Year!

Our three new board members, Sarah Poulin DACM, LAc, Dipl.OM - secretary, Matthew Mannegia LAc, Dipl.Ac - Treasurer and Jody Eisemann, LAc, Dipl.Ac - VP as of last February, have brought great energy and momentum to continue the growth and support of our mission which is as stated on our website: “contributing to the evolution of the profession, supporting practitioners in clinical practice, promoting excellence in professional standards and ethics and educating the public on many benefits of Acupuncture and Eastern Medicine.”
 
Being a member of the CTSA means you are a member of the American Society of Acupuncturists ASA) with access to the ever increasing benefits being offered to its members. Please check out the the full ASA mission statement.

The growth and strength of the ASA, powered by the state associations and their members has been phenomenal and with the increasing role of the ASA nationally and internationally, the strength of our profession is rapidly growing state by state as well as nationally. There are 26 state association members so far. Please take a look at the dynamic 2018 ASA Year in review.

Here is a list of 2018 Board member activities:

  • March 2018 - Maggie Barili (CTSA President) and Regina Walsh LAc, Dipl.Ac, (past CTSA President) who are both the current CTSA Representatives for the ASA, attended the 3rd Annual congress of the ASA congress in Denver.

  • April 2018 Maggie Barili was invited to provide a presentation at the CT legislative building for the Committee on Children about Acupuncture as an alternative to Opioids, along with five other groups, including representatives for Chiropractic and Physical Therapists.

  • September 2018, board members Matt Maneggia (CTSA Treasurer) and Maggie Barili attended the two day Evidence Based Acupuncture first symposium in Providence, Rhode Island.

  • November 2018, Maggie Barili attended, along with ASA board members, the world gathering in Paris, France to celebrate World Acupuncture Day and the World Scientific and Cultural Dialogue on Acupuncture. This event was attended by more than 1300 people from dozens of countries, and was held at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters.

We, again, encourage Connecticut Acupuncturists to join the CTSA and be a part of the wonderful community of Acupuncturists in our state as well as taking advantage of the benefits of being a state and national association member. Among other advantages and benefits, the CTSA maintains a private google email group for its members where we can talk with each other about many subjects and easily stay up to date with all the acupuncture happenings, state wide and nationally.

We will send out occasional newsletters throughout the year to invite all CT acupuncturists to events, continuing education course offerings, and our annual meetings.

Please continue to scroll down for the year in review and all upcoming activities.

We wish you all warmth and great wishes for a magnificent new year from the board of the CTSA!

Maggie

Margaret (Maggie) Barili RN, LAc, Dipl.Ac - President
Jody Eisemann, LAc, Dipl.Ac - Vice President
Dr. Sarah Poulin, LAc, DACM, Dipl.OM - Secretary
Matthew Maneggia LAc, Dipl.OM - Treasurer
Joseph Pandolfo - Director
Christopher Chapleau LAc, Dipl.OM - Director, former secretary
Karen Borla LAc, M.Ac Dipl.OM - Past President

Website: www.CSAOM.org  (soon to be updated)
CTSA 2018 Accomplishments
Maggie Barili LAc, Tim Trahant LAc, Jody Eisemann LAc, Matt Maneggia LAc, Carlos Sepulveda LAc at the Acupuncture Advocacy Day at the CT Capital on April 11, 2018.
2018 Annual meeting:
Held Feb 25 at Wesleyan University with an afternoon 3 PDA continuing Ed course offered by Board Member Joseph Pandolfo: Qi Gong: Hua Tuo’s Five Animal Exercises.

Name change and new logo:
We have officially changed our name from the Connecticut Society of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CSAOM) to the Connecticut Society of Acupuncturists (CTSA)
In April, the board finally implemented our name change in order to take out the word Oriental according to the bill implemented and signed in 2016 by President Obama. We decided to follow the lead of the American Society of Acupuncturists along with a few other states associations in choosing our name. With that we signed on with a very reasonably priced online logo design company called 99designs. CTSA members ultimately voted from several choices put forth by the board. Hence our new logo heading this newsletter!

Acupuncture advocacy day at the capitol:
On April 11, 2018, several CTSA members attended, including three board members to set up a mini clinic and information tables in the capitol building lobby. It was a nicely received event and we were able offer mini treatments and talk with several legislators and their staff about Acupuncture and what is happening with our profession in this state.

October meet and greet:
In October we reached out to CT Licensed acupuncturists to hold an informational meet and greet in Fairfield for CT acupuncturists in the Fairfeld county area, we picked up a few new members who we warmly welcome. We have plans to have more of those in various regions of CT in 2019.

Updated bylaws to expand associate member definition:
We have recently clarified and expanded our associate member definition in our bylaws to include: (Note that Associate members do not have voting rights)
  1. Educational Institution: Any member that is an institution engaged in AOM medical education.
  2. Merchant: Any member that is a firm or corporation engaged in selling products or services to members of CTSA.
  3. Allied Health Professionals: Any member who is licensed by the State of Connecticut as a health care provider, other than a Licensed Acupuncturist, and whose licensing scope of practice includes acupuncture

Collaboration with CT Social Services to include Acupuncture coverage by Medicaid:
Dr. Zavoski, the director of CT Social Services asked to consult with CTSA board members to assist them in creating a proposal for coverage inclusion in Medicaid/Husky. They are making an effort to create a fee schedule that will be feasible for CT Licensed Acupuncturists and at the same time will be acceptable to the state legislators making the budget decisions. This is still a developing situation.

Yale Smilow Cancer Center has reached out to the CTSA for collaboration:
Both Linda Penn (prior interim director) and now Dr. Gary Soffer, newly appointed Medical Director, of the Yale Smilow Integrative Cancer Center have reached out to us to not only consult regarding creating an Acupuncture position in their center, but also to collaborate with CT Acupuncturists for referral. We’ll have more on that news as it continues to develop.

Our Efforts Regarding the dry needling issue,
  • We have hired, as needed, (no retainer fee) Oregon attorney, Brent Foster, who is the foremost export legal council in supporting states in their legislative efforts regarding dry needling. He conducted deep research into CT laws, statutes, history of any actions and provided us with a clear road map of what options we CT Acupuncturist have regarding dry needling. In summary: although there are certain legal roads we could take, it would be extremely complex, time consuming, highly expensive and most likely unsuccessful. He has suggested our best bet is to build our ally relationships such as with MD’s and the AMA, Health care institutions in CT and the general public in the form of education.
 
  • With the help of Atty Foster we wrote a letter to the CT Attorney General asking for a review of the PT scope of practice and the legality of their practice of dry needling or acupuncture considering it is not in their scope of practice to no avail. 

  • Additionally, members brought to our attention a couple of organizations, both a PT group and a program called the Connecticut Acupuncture Certification Program who were both making false claims in their advertising regarding acupuncture. We created a complaint to both the DPH and the Dept of Education. Although, all we heard from both those departments was that they ‘received’ our complaint, there were some significant changes make on both of those companies’ websites a few months later.  The PT group, which had several PT’s listed as being Certified Acupuncture Practitioners removed those listings. They were left with one PT who did have dry needling certification. The Connecticut Acupuncture Certification Program added a large bold disclaimer on their home page that their training does not meet the requirements for CT Acupuncture licensing and made clear that there is a difference between their certification and the national certification for Acupuncture. We consider this to be a success.  

CTSA Upcoming Events and Continuing
Education Offerings:

2019 Annual Meeting and Afternoon Continuing Education Course Offering:

Sunday, Feb 24
Wesleyan University, Usdan 108, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, CT

Annual Meeting (morning) 10:30-12:30

Continuing Education Course (afternoon) 1:30-4:00
Bridging The Divide: Multi-Disciplinary Communication Strategies For Acupuncturists
Taught by Dr. Sarah Poulin, DACM, LAc, Dipl.OM 2.5 PDA's pending.
Food concession is available in the Usdan Building. 
The CTSA will provide some snacks and water

All Licensed Acupuncturists are invited. 
Acupuncture Advocacy Day at the CT Capitol Building
Wednesday April 10, 10:00 to 4:00
In the Causeway between the Legislative Office building and the Capitol

This is a terrific opportunity to meet with our legislators briefly, give mini treatments, to advocate for and teach about our profession.

All CT Acupuncturists are invited to join us to volunteer for this event.
Please email us if you can volunteer for this event.
Mori West Billing Continuing Education Course

March 30 and 31, Sat and Sun

Day one: Beginner Billing course
Day two: Exams and Bullet Proof Documentation
14 PDA’s approved
Wesleyan University
Judd 116
45 Wyllys Avenue
Middletown, CT. 06459

From Home page select Day 1, Day 2 or both days

June 1-3, 2019

Why come to the first ASA national meeting?

This meeting will be a space such has not been seen by our profession previously. This meeting will introduce the Licensed Acupuncturist profession to a phenomenal number of influential agencies, both from within the United States government, and representing critical non-governmental agencies, collaboration leaders, military, and peers. It will be a pre-eminent event for networking, a birth event for the student association, we hope a phenomenal vendor experience, a chance to meet with legislators as it should be done, and a place for advancing the conversation on where we are going as a profession.
If you are involved in any way with governance in the acupuncture profession, with academics in the profession, with testing, certification, politics, or if you just care about what’s happening with acupuncture in the U.S., then you should be at this event. 

The primary target audience for this meeting will be graduates of ACAOM accredited schools who are nationally certified by NCCAOM or California certified, as well as students in accredited programs pursuing this path. It will be of great interest as well to medical doctors interested in the development of acupuncture as a profession and as a practice, and any one interested on the progress of acupuncture in American medicine.

This event will be held at one of the most pre-eminent venues in Washington, D.C. – the Omni – but with rooms at an amazing price. The rooms are large, and quite a number would be suitable for sharing, thereby allowing for costs to be extremely affordable. The pricing for the meeting will increase incrementally over time, so EARLY REGISTRATION WILL SAVE! Early hotel booking will also assure an optimal space, as THERE IS A LIMITED ROOM BLOCK AVAILABLE.

Please join us as this inaugural event! Be a part of the excitement, as this will be an occasion to remember, and one that will influence the direction of practice nation-wide.


 
Memorial Sloan Kettering online course discount
for ASA members.


Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has given ASA members a 20% discount for their Fundamentals of Oncology Acupuncture Online Course.

The registration for this promotion is available for 2 months only: December 17, 2018 to February 17, 2019 with two months to complete from date of registration confirmation.


 
For many more National and International Events for Acupuncturists coming up in 2019, Please see the

For questions or inquiries please email us at:
or visit our website at