NCCAM Fails to Comply with Congressional Mandate

In May the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) was found to be out of compliance with a congressional mandate requiring at least half its advisory council members be licensed complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners and three be consumer representatives. The issue was discovered by Pamela Snider, ND, co-founder and member of both the Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) and Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC). 

IHPC and ACCAHC alerted NCCAM of the problem and received assurances it would be corrected, but as of Aug. 20, there have been no visible efforts to fix the issue. Moreover, NCCAM released names of six new members in June, none of them CAM-licensed or consumer representatives.

Currently, just 27 percent (4/15) of the council is licensed in a CAM discipline—chiropractic, acupuncture, Oriental medicine, naturopathic medicine and massage therapy—while there are no consumer representatives. The ACCAHC and IHPC sent NCCAM the resumes of 20 individuals they recommend to fill the positions, but NCCAM’s only response was a note indicating intention to use them for “future slates.”

“We’re waiting less and less patiently to hear back from NCCAM,” says Janet Kahn, IHPC’s executive director and a member of NCCAM’s first advisory council.  “This is important because NCCAM needs people with real expertise in CAM on the council.”

Additionally, the NCCAM council has just one CAM-licensed member who will remain in office beyond January 2008. Three departing members’ terms expired in June, but they were issued 180-day extensions.

Kahn said updates will soon be posted on IHPC’s Web site, www.ihpc.info.

—Chris Towery, MASSAGE Magazine associate editor