Israel

Go directly to legislation of specific CAM therapies in Israel:
Acupuncture – Anthroposophic medicine – Ayurveda – Chiropractic – Herbal medicine/Phytotherapy – Homeopathy – Massage – Naprapathy – Naturopathy – Neural therapy – Osteopathy – Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) – Other treatments

Israel is connected to the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) Third Country Agreement: Israel (EC) – the Science and Technology Agreement 2007, and as such included in the CAMbrella survey of CAM legislation in Europe. Israel is neither a member of the Council of Europe nor listed as a candidate or potential candidate country to the European Union (11).

The legal and regulatory status of CAM and CAM practices

There is no regulation of CAM in Israel at the moment (2010)(163). The Israeli parliament “Knesset” in February 2010 ordered a paper (document only in Hebrew) on future discussion of the subject of CAM regulation (164). In 1988 a committee appointed by the Minister of Health examined the subject of natural medicine. “The committee recommended that only those therapies proven to be efficient by scientific standards should be authorized (Eilon Committee, 1988)”. In the year 2002 no legislation had yet been passed (165).

According to WHO Israel was in 2005 in the process of developing a national policy, laws and regulations, a national programme and a national office for TM/CAM (28). On 30 July, 2008, the Israeli Parliament “Knesset” passed the law regulating the practice of medical professions (166). The Ministry of Health licenses professionals working in the legally recognized medical professions.

The professionals are legally required to obtain a license to practise or obtain a status recognition from the Ministry of Health. For most professions, the applicants are required to pass government licensing examinations (167). Listed regulated professions of interest are chiropractic and physiotherapy.

CAM is offered in most of the “Not-for-profit public health maintenance organizations” (HMOs) clinics. Practitioners are mostly physicians, apart from those providing reflexology and shiatsu treatment (165). Among other educational institutions, The Medicine College and the Complementary Medicine College had already in 2002 introduced CAM studies (165).

The governmental supervision of CAM Practices

There is no regulation of CAM supervision in Israel. Several governmental committees have been working on a framework, but none have been approved (163).

The reimbursement status of CAM practices and medicinal products

The Compulsory Health Insurance Law was passed in 1995, with discussions on how to include CAM treatments in the insurance scheme (165). In 2002 the law only referred to acupuncture. The Health Insurance Law, clause 8 recognized the use of acupuncture in pain relief clinics for treatments of patients with tumors (165).

“Not-for-profit public health maintenance organizations” (HMOs) are clinics funded by the Israeli health funds (165). If CAM/acupuncture treatment is provided in a public HMO or hospital clinic the patient pays a low co-payment as a member of that HMO. If the treatment is provided by a private practitioner reimbursement may be covered if the patient has a private health insurance (163).