FINAL BILL REPORT

                  HB 1627

                         C 178 L 96

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Modernizing osteopathic physician and surgeon terminology.

Sponsors:  Representatives Dyer, Backlund and Thibaudeau.

House Committee on Health Care

Senate Committee on Health & Long-Term Care

Background:  Osteopathic physicians and surgeons are licensed to practice osteopathic medicine and surgery in this state.  The tenets of osteopathic medicine and surgery emphasize the musculo-skeletal structure of the body, and include the use of medical treatment as well as osteopathic manipulative therapy.

Practitioners are referenced in the code as osteopathic physicians and surgeons, but some sections of the code retain their former designations as osteopaths.  Outdated references to the practice of osteopathic medicine and surgery as osteopathy also exist.

Summary:  The code is purged of obsolete references to osteopathic physicians and surgeons as osteopaths, as well as the practice of osteopathic medicine and surgery as osteopathy.

Votes on Final Passage:

House     94 0

Senate    47 0 (Senate amended)

House     90 0 (House concurred)

Effective:  July 1, 1996