Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act-Part 5

C.R.S. 6-1-724. Unlicensed alternative health care practitioners - deceptive trade practices

Prohibiting claims of being a physician or health care professional

The Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act, in addition to requiring practitioners to disclose to clients that they are not physicians, specifically states that complementary and alternative health care practitioners who are not licensed, certified, or registered by the state shall not hold themselves out as, state, indicate, advertise, or imply they are physicians, surgeons, or both, or that they are health care professionals, licensed, certified, or registered by the state.

For further clarification for the benefit of consumers, as well as practitioners, the Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act references the Colorado Medical Practice Act for defining guidelines. This law states that physicians and surgeons, using a title, word, or abbreviation indicates a license to practice medicine and the diagnosis or treatment of disease, injury, or defect of body or mind, and falls under the broader definition of "practice of medicine", which means holding out one's self to the public as being able to diagnose, treat, prescribe, palliate, or prevent any disease, aliment, pain, injury, deformity, or condition. This applies to health care professionals that are licensed, certified, or registered by the state, which is  the state's assurance to the public that certain criteria have been met, including education from accredited schools, training and residency requirements have been fulfilled, and licensing exams have been successfully completed.

Practitioners that have not met the criteria of appropriate education and training are unable to even apply to take an exam and, therefore cannot be licensed, certified, or registered by the state and no assurance can be given to the public about their safety and welfare when seeking health care from complementary and alternative health care practitioners. To protect the public, the state steps in by explicitly requiring practitioners to disclose their education and training, as well as disclose they are not physicians, prohibits them from holding themselves out as, stating, indicating, advertising, or implying they are physicians or health care professionals, and strictly limits and confines the scope of their practice. These steps are necessary to protect consumers from an industry in which it is customary to feign legitimacy by claiming degrees that turn out to be illegitimate, misrepresent facts, grossly overstate claims about knowledge, skills, and abilities to diagnose and treat, and invent fake diseases and fake cures.

The Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act defines complementary and alternative health care services as:

(A) HEALING PRACTICES USING FOOD; FOOD EXTRACTS; DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS, AS DEFINED IN THE FEDERAL "DIETARY SUPPLEMENT HEALTH AND EDUCATION ACT OF 1994", Pub.L. 103-417; NUTRIENTS; HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES AND PREPARATIONS; AND THE PHYSICAL FORCES OF HEAT, COLD, WATER, TOUCH, SOUND, AND LIGHT;

(B) STRESS REDUCTION HEALING PRACTICES; AND

(C) MIND-BODY AND ENERGETIC HEALING PRACTICES.

Now it is up to individual practitioners to know and respect the statutes and regulations of the jurisdiction and the laws and regulations of their practice.


The Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act can be read here