By Patrick O'Brien, General Counsel, American Med Spa Association (AmSpa)

The September bulletin from the Texas Medical Board (TMB) helps to clarify changes that were made to the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) rules. As background, last year the TMB reorganized and simplified the admin rules. We discussed the med spa delegation changes in this article. This reorganization also greatly simplified the rules that relate to complementary and alternative medicine. This change also added a requirement that physician and patient complete a specific informed consent form in order to receive these treatments.

Under the new rules, “alternative medicine” is defined to mean methods or treatments that are “not generally considered as conventional treatment or medicine.” These may or may not be FDA approved and the treatments can only be offered to patients if the therapeutic gain is not unreasonably outweighed by the risks. Complementary medicine is any mixture of alternative medicine and more traditionally accepted “conventional” medicine. The new rules require that the physician and patient must fully execute the TMB’s informed consent form prior to beginning complementary or alternative treatments. The form is available at the bottom of the Rule §171.2 webpage. This form cannot be changed except to add additional information as needed and must be kept in the patient’s record.

The TMB’s bulletin notes that they received concerns and feedback from physicians who worried that the new rule was more limiting than the old rule because it removed certain language. The old rule included provisions that stated that physicians “should be allowed a reasonable and responsible degree of latitude” in offering the treatments, and that “patients have a right to seek” these treatments. The physicians were concerned that this change meant that complementary and alternative treatments had lost availability or had reduced legitimacy. The TMB clarifies that the intent of the rule change was to make compliance easier and reduce redundant language. Many of the considerations in the old rule are still present in current rules and statutes. They further clarify that the existence of this rule means that complementary and alternative treatments remain authorized and available.

Physicians who provide alternative or complementary medicine will want to review their documentation and make sure that they are properly completing and executing the special informed consent form and maintaining appropriate patient records.

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