Naturopathic Licensing

Naturopathic Medicine is currently licensed or regulated in 26 U.S. jurisdictions, and we want Michigan to be the next! Explore below how you can help Michiganders everywhere access safe, preventative and integrative health options.

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Why License Naturopathic Doctors?

Highly Trained Professionals

NDs are highly trained general practitioners who are experts in integrative and complementary medicine, including clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, and physical medicine. NDs focus on disease prevention but can also treat acute and chronic conditions.

Regionally Accredited Education

Naturopathic Doctors graduate from 4-year residential graduate level medical programs. ND programs are offered in regionally accredited colleges and universities, recognized by the same accrediting agencies as MD and DO programs.

Working Together

NDs work along side MDs and DOs in private practices as well as at Beaumont Hospital, where patient visits to staff NDs grew by over 12% in just 4 years. NDs are also trained to make appropriate referrals to specialists when indicated.

The Benefits of Naturopathic Licensing

  • Licensure would allow Naturopathic Doctors to practice under the full scope of naturopathic medicine for which they were trained.
  • Local communities would enjoy an increase in safe and natural healthcare options, allowing access to highly individualized naturopathic medical care.
  • Naturopathic Doctors would help ease a stressed and overburdened medical system by filling the much-needed role for primary care medicine in the State of Michigan.
  • Patients would not have to travel outside Michigan to see licensed Naturopathic Doctors.
  • Licensure helps create jobs by encouraging more Naturopathic Doctors to move to Michigan communities, including rural areas without availability of health care.
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States Licensed with Accredited Doctors of Naturopathic Medicine:

Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Hawaii
Kansas
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Montana
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin (2022)

United States Territories:

District of Columbia
Puerto Rico
U.S. Virgin Islands

Naturopathic Licensing Status in Michigan

In December, State Representative Jamie Thompson introduced HB5446 to License ND’s in MI. As an overview, HB5446
 

  • Offers title transparency and ensures truth in advertising by setting educational standards for ND’s (aka NMDs). 

  • Defines the scope of practice for ND’s in MI. 

  • Creates a Naturopathic Board of Medicine, which allows for enhanced safety standards for naturopathic medicine in the state.

  • Does not prevent the practice of natural modalities for other trained practitioners. 

One of biggest concerns with our current unregulated status, is that we are unable to practice to our full scope of practice, which often delays and impacts care for our patients and clients. 

So,  we are asking all of our community to support HB5446 in one or both of the following ways: 

  1. Write a letter of support to the House Health Policy Committee. How do you do that?  Well here is your step-by step process: 

    1. We have a draft letter that you can cut and paste or modify as you see fit for your personal experiences. Please use this as the text for your email body. If you prefer a word doc, then click here. Letter sample can also be found at the bottom of this page.

    2. On this document, you will find the list of all of the emails for the Health Policy Committee members.  Please cut and paste this into the “to” section of your email. 

    3. Make sure to edit the end of the email to reflect your name and contact info. 

    4. Then send!

  2. Donate to our fundraising efforts, which helps us fund our lobbying efforts;

    1. https://michnd.org/donate/

Looking Ahead:

Once our bill moves out of the Health Policy Committee, we’ll kick off Phase 2: a coordinated campaign—powered by the American Association of Naturopathic Physician’s Congress Web platform—where you can send targeted letters of support directly to your state representatives. This next phase will amplify our collective voice at a pivotal moment for healthcare choice in Michigan.

We thank you for any and all support in this Legislative effort and are hopeful moving forward! Every bit of support goes a long way.

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WRITE A LETTER

How You Can Help

Help us raise the funds we need for lobbying to pass our legislation.

MAND is seeking corporate sponsors to raise money for lobbying purposes.

Do you have access to additional resources that would further our cause?

Join our membership as a full, supporting, student, or associate member.

Tell everyone you know – family, friends, colleagues – and get them involved in this important cause.

Contact your representatives and discuss the importance of licensure of Naturopathic Medicine for the benefit of your family and community. Mention Bill HB5446 and your support.

Write to Your Legislators

Write your legislators:

  1. Please send this email to the following email addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

  2. Copy and paste the following language or as shown below into your email body. Make sure to edit your name and contact at the end, and consider modifying to suit your own personal experiences.

  3. Send your email!

Dear Chairman Vanderwall and members of the House Health Policy Committee

I am writing to urge your immediate support for House Bill 5446, sponsored by your committee colleague, Jamie Thompson, which would provide for the licensure of Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) in Michigan.

Michigan residents deserve access to safe, evidence-based integrative healthcare. Currently, our state lacks a regulatory framework for naturopathic medicine, creating a “wild west” environment that is confusing for patients and potentially dangerous. While I have been fortunate enough to find a highly qualified ND who graduated from an accredited four-year medical school, many Michiganders cannot distinguish between trained experts and those with online “certificates.” 

Licensure under HB 5446 would solve three critical problems:

  • Patient Safety & Transparency: It establishes rigorous educational standards and “truth in advertising,” ensuring patients know exactly who is treating them.

  • Expanded Access: My current ND is licensed in another state but cannot practice to their full scope of training here. This creates unnecessary delays in my care and prevents my ND from fully collaborating with my primary care physician.

  • Fill a Gap in Michigan’s Healthcare: Michigan consistently ranks among the lowest in the nation for health outcomes. Our current system is reactionary, but Naturopathic Doctors prioritize the very thing we are missing: comprehensive prevention, lifestyle interventions, and natural modalities. Licensing NDs fills a vital void in our healthcare model, providing the expert preventive care necessary to finally reverse our state’s declining health trends.

I prioritize my health, and although it took a lot of my own effort to find the right Naturopathic Doctor and I had to pay out-of-pocket, it was worth it!  It’s hard to imagine that Michigan residents who want integrative medical care options have to go through so much trouble in order to find a qualified practitioner when it is so much easier in other parts of the country.

Please vote YES House Bill 5446 to prioritize safe, evidence based natural therapies. 

Thank you for your time and your service to Michigan!

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

[Your Phone Number]